Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/243/251.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 15:23:58+00:00

Document:
GRAYS HARBOR LOGGING CO. v. COATS-FORDNEY LOGGING CO.
Messrs. W. H. Abel and A. M. Abel for plaintiffs in error. [243 U.S. 251, 252] Messrs. William M. Smith, Alexander Britton, Evans Browne, and F. W. Clements for defendant in error.
Plaintiffs in error opposed the petition for condemnation upon the ground, among others, that the Act of 1913 was contrary to the Constitution of the United States, and that petitioner sought to take their property for a private use, and therefore without due process of law, in violation of that Constitution. After hearing testimony upon the question of necessity, the superior court entered an order of condemnation, and by the same order set the cause down for trial before a jury for the purpose of determining and assessing the damages and compensation. At this point, and before the cause could be brought to trial before a jury, plaintiffs in error applied for and obtained from the supreme court of the state a writ of certiorari for the purpose of reviewing the question of the constitutionality of the act and the right of petitioner to condemn their property for its right of way. The supreme court sustained the proceedings (82 Wash. 503, 144 Pac. 722), and entered a judgment affirming the judgment of the superior court, and remitting the cause to that court for further proceedings. A writ of error was then sued out from this court under 237, Judicial Code [36 Stat. at L. 1156, chap. 231, Comp. Stat. 1913, 1214]. [243 U.S. 251, 255] Defendant in error moves to dismiss the writ of error on the ground that the judgment of the state court is not final. To this plaintiffs in error respond by saying that, under the state practice, the judgment of the superior court establishing the right of petitioner to acquire the property or right of way sought is final; that while an appeal will not lie from such a judgment to the supreme court, this is because the statutory provision for an appeal in condemnation cases is limited to the question of the amount of damages, and a general statute providing for appeals has been held not applicable to eminent domain proceedings ( Western American Co. v. St. Ann Co. 22 Wash. 158, 60 Pac. 158), that because an appeal will not lie, the supreme court has held that a writ of certiorari or review will issue to bring before that court for determination the questions of use and necessity (Seattle & M. R. Co. v. Bellingham Bay & E. R. Co. 29 Wash. 491, 92 Am. St. Rep. 907, 69 Pac. 1107 ); and that by repeated decisions of that court it has been settled that after an order adjudging necessity has been made and a trial had to determine the amount of damages, an appeal taken therefrom raises no question as to the right to condemn, but is confined to the propriety and justness of the amount of damages (Fruitland Irrig. Co. v. Smith, 54 Wash. 185, 102 Pac. 1031; Calispel Diking Dist. v. McLeish, 63 Wash. 331, 115 Pac. 508; Seattle, P. A. & L. C. R. Co. v. Land, 81 Wash. 206, 209, 142 Pac. 680; State ex rel. Davis v. Superior Ct. 82 Wash. 31, 34, 143 Pac. 168). In this state of the local practice it is argued that the judgment that has been entered should be regarded as finally disposing of a distinct and definite branch of the case, and therefore subject to our review as a final judgment; leaving the ascertainment of the compensation and damages to be dealt with as a separate branch of the case. Wheeling & B. Bridge Co. v. Wheeling Bridge Co. 138 U.S. 287, 290 , 34 S. L. ed. 967, 968, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 301, is cited in support of this contention, and certainly seems to lend color to it. But, notwithstanding [243 U.S. 251, 256] the decision in that case, we cannot regard a condemnation proceeding taken under the authority of the Constitution of Washington and the Act of 1913 as severable into two distinct branches. The Constitution forbids that the property be taken without compensation first made or ascertained and paid into court for the owner, and, of course, in case of controversy, compensation cannot be made to the owner until the amount of it has been ascertained. It follows that the judgment entered by the superior court to the effect that petitioner was entitled to condemn and appropriate the land in question for its right of way must be construed as being subject to a condition that the proper compensation be first ascertained and paid.
As we read the decisions of the supreme court of the state, such judgments are not interpreted in any other sense; they are not described as final, nor as independent judgments. In two cases the term 'order' and even 'preliminary order' has been employed with respect to such judgments ( State ex rel. Pagett v. Superior Ct. 46 Wash. 35, 36, 89 Pac. 178; Seattle, P. A. & L. C. R. Co. v. Land, 81 Wash. 206, 209, 142 Pac. 680), and they are held reviewable by certiorari, and not by appeal, not because they are final, or are independent of the subsequent proceedings ascertaining the damages, but because in Washington proceedings by appeal are statutory, and no statute has been enacted giving an appeal from the order or judgment determining the questions of use and necessity; by reason of which, the writ of certiorari is employed as a means of exercising the constitutional power of review.
The judgment, therefore, seems to us to be interlocutory, and the case to be within the authority of Luxton v. North River Bridge Co. 147 U.S. 337, 341 , 37 S. L. ed. 194, 195, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 356; Southern R. Co. v. Postal Teleg. Cable Co. 179 U.S. 641, 643 , 45 S. L. ed. 355, 356, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 249, and United States v. Beatty, 232 U.S. 463, 466 , 58 S. L. ed. 686, 687, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 392.
When the litigation in the state courts is brought to a [243 U.S. 251, 257] conclusion, the case may be brought here upon the Federal questions already raised as well as any that may be raised hereafter; for although the state courts, in the proceedings still to be taken, presumably will feel themselves bound by the decision heretofore made by the supreme court ( 82 Wash. 503), as laying down the law of the case, this court will not be thus bound (United States v. Denver & R. G. R. Co. 191 U.S. 84, 93 , 48 S. L. ed. 106, 109, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 33; Messenger v. Anderson, 225 U.S. 436, 444 , 56 S. L. ed. 1152, 1156, 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 739; Coe v. Armour Fertilizer Works, 237 U.S. 413, 418 , 59 S. L. ed. 1027, 1029, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 625).
The judgment brought up by the present writ of error not being a final judgment, within the meaning of 237, Judicial Code, the writ must be dismissed.

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