Case Name: Nick, Appellant, v. State Highway Commission, Respondent
Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Wisconsin
Decision Date: 1961-05-02
Citations: 13 Wis. 2d 511
Docket Number: 
Parties: Nick, Appellant, v. State Highway Commission, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: Wisconsin Reports Second
Volume: 13
Pages: 511–518a

Head Matter:
Nick, Appellant, v. State Highway Commission, Respondent.
April 5 —
May 2, 1961.
For the appellant there was a brief and oral argument by Elliot N. Walstead of Milwaukee.
For the respondent the cause was argued by A. J. Feifarek, assistant attorney general, with whom on the brief was John W. Reynolds, attorney general.
Motion for rehearing denied, without costs, on October 3, 1961.

Opinion:
Brown, J.
On and before August 20, 1951, one Reinders owned a tract of farmland in Waukesha county. It is 1,320 feet square and is bounded on the west by a highway called Calhoun road, and on the south by State Highway 30, generally called the Blue Mound road. There have never been driveways leading from this parcel into Highway 30 and there is no evidence that persons came, by vehicle or otherwise, directly from the Reinders' tract onto Highway 30.
On August 20, 1951, the State Highway Commission, pursuant to authority granted it by sec. 84.25, Stats., de- dared Highway 30 to be a controlled-access highway. This forbade direct access from Reinders' land to Highway 30. Instead, thereafter, traffic between Reinders' property and Highway 30 must go via Calhoun road and its intersection with Highway 30.
On December 30, 1955, Reinders sold part of his land to petitioner and her husband, now deceased, being a parcel of 330 feet frontage on Highway 30 and 250 feet in depth. This parcel is distant 990 feet east of Calhoun road. Reinders retained the intervening land. On April 15, 1960, petitioner applied to the commission for a driveway permit from her property to Highway 30, which permission was denied on April 19, 1960. She then filed with the circuit court for Waukesha county this petition for inverse condemnation against the commission and prayed the court to assign this matter to the county condemnation commissioners to appraise and determine the value and interest in land alleged to be taken and the damages sustained by the petitioner by reason of the action taken by the State Highway Commission.
The parties agreed to have the circuit court determine the issues upon briefs and upon the facts shown by the record. Upon receipt and consideration of the briefs the court concluded :
"6. It is the opinion of the court that, if the petition is granted, the entire purpose of the controlled-access law would be circumvented and become a nullity.
"7. The petition of the petitioner, Marie B. Nick, is denied."
The petitioner then appealed.
By sec. 84.25 (1), Stats., the legislature empowered the State Highway Commission to designate heavily traveled public highways as controlled-access highways in the interest of public safety, convenience, and the general welfare. Subject to judicial review, when the commission so acts in such interest its action is an employment of the police power of the state. Nevertheless, appellant contends this exercise entitles her to compensation.
An impairment of the use of property by the exercise of police power, where the property itself is not taken by the state, does not entitle the owner of such property to a right to compensation. The law on this subject remains as we stated it in State ex rel. Carter v. Harper (1923), 182 Wis. 148, 153, 196 N. W. 451, — a zoning case,
". . . incidental damage to property resulting from governmental activities, or laws passed in the promotion of the public welfare, is not considered a taking of the property for which compensation must be made."
The situation here bears a close analogy to the enactment and the effect of a zoning statute.
In Carazalla v. State (1955), 269 Wis. 593, 608b, 70 N. W. (2d) 208, 71 N. W. (2d) 276, — a controlled-access highway case — we approved the conclusion of text writers that if no land is taken for the converted highway but the abutting landowner's access to the highway is merely made more circuitous, no compensation should be paid, and our decision embodied that principle. As recently as March 3, 1961, the Carazalla Case has been cited to that point in the controlled-access case of Darnall v. State (S. D.), 108 N. W. (2d) 201, 206. The South Dakota supreme court there said:
"While they may adversely affect an established business, relocations of a highway, prohibitions against crossing it or against left and U turns, the designation of one-way streets and other similar restrictions and regulations have been upheld as proper exercises of the police power of the state and not of the power of eminent domain. As such they are not compensable."
Neither in 1951 nor thereafter, in establishing Highway 30 as a controlled-access highway, did the state, through its highway commission, take any portion of Reinders' land. No doubt the control of his access to Highway 30 impaired the value of his land, the impairment increasing as any part of the land lay distant from Calhoun road, but at the time of the commission's declaration Reinders still had access in every part of his land to Highway 30 via use of Calhoun road. His access to the highway is made more circuitous but no part of Reinders' land was taken. The diminution in its value due to the exercise by the state of its police power in making Highway 30 a controlled-access highway is not recoverable. Carazalla v. State, supra.
The situation regarding the question of damages was frozen when the commission declared Highway 30 a controlled-access highway. To the extent that Reinders' access to Highway 30 from any part of his land is controlled, his grantee takes subject to the existing control, exactly as a purchaser of real estate which has already been zoned for restricted use is limited by the zoning. Before the conveyance Reinders had no right to be compensated for the diminished value of his land. It must be apparent that no right of compensation was created by fractional changes of ownership when no such right pertained to ownership of the whole.
The parties submitted the issues to the trial court upon briefs and on a stipulation that the controlling facts were in the record. This stipulation does not touch the amount of damages, if petitioner is entitled to any damages, nor does it touch the suitability of access to Highway 30 by way of Calhoun road, nor whether the police power was properly exercised in declaring Highway 30 to be a controlled-access one. The time to review the commission's procedure and determination long since expired and those questions were not before the trial court nor before this court. The only question properly before the court is the question of whether Reinders' grantee, the petitioner, has a right to compensation for the restriction of direct access from her property to Highway 30. We hold that the loss in value of the land* whatever it may be, is not recoverable.
Therefore, we conclude that the trial court was correct in dismissing the petition to proceed with a determination of the amount of damages caused by the designation of .Highway 30 as a controlled-access highway.
By the Court. — Order affirmed.