Court Opinion

ID: 9688729
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:01:35.118527+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:41.511902
License: Public Domain

LAWSON, Justice
(dissenting in part).
This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of Jefferson County rendered in a condemnation proceeding instituted by Jefferson County in the probate court of that county to acquire land for state highway purposes. Tit. 23, § 25, Code of Alabama 1940, as amended.
The application for the order of condemnation was filed in the probate court on December 4, 1952, and included several tracts of land with which we are not here concerned. See § 8, Tit. 19, Code of Alabama, 1940. The property here involved, referred to in the application as “Tract No. 1” was needed in connection with 'the widening and improving of the old Birmingham-Montgomery Highway (U. S. Highway 31). Tract No. 1 was described in the application as “All of that part of Lots 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 of Block 17 of the South Birmingham Heights Land Company Subdivision, the map or plat of which is recorded in Map Book 7, page 41, in the office of the Judge of Probate of Jefferson County, lying westerly of the present right of way line of U. S. Highway No. 31 and containing 0.72 acres more or less.” At the time the application was filed in the probate court a brick front building used and operated as a night club called “Shades Mountain Country Club” was situated on “Tract No. 1.” Roy H. Adwell and the First 'National Bank of Birmingham were said in the application to claim or assert some title or interest in the property described above. It is without dispute that at the time the application was filed in the Probate Court, Adwell was the owner of the property, subject to a mortgage thereon held by the First National Bank of Birmingham.
In accordance with the provisions of § 4, Title 19, supra, the probate court upon the *549■filing of the application; made and entered ■an order appointing December 22, 1952, for the hearing of the application. On the appointed date the hearing was held, and an order made granting the application. § 7, Tit. 19, supra. In the same order the Judge of Probate appointed three com■missioners “to assess the damages and compensation to which the said owners of said land sought to be condemned are entitled.” The commissioners were ordered to report as to their findings within the time prescribed by law. §§ 11-16, Title 19, supra.
On December 24, 1952, before the commissioners had viewed the property here involved or had taken any steps towards ascertaining the damages and compensation to which the owner might be entitled, the night club situated on the property was partially destroyed by fire.
Thereafter, on January 19, 1953, the commissioners viewed the property and took testimony as to its value. Another such hearing appears to have been held on either February 2 or 3, 1953. The commissioners filed their report on February 3, 1953, wherein the damages and compensation due to the owners were fixed at $18,275. This figure admittedly was not based on a consideration of the value of “Tract 1” prior to December 24, 1952, the date of the fire.
On February 20, 1953, a decree was rendered in the probate court adjudging that the county having paid into court the full amount of the damages and compensation assessed by the commissioners, has an easement and right of way for public road and public highway purposes, etc., over and upon the property here involved. § 16, Title 19, supra.
On March 4, 1953, a written “Notice of Appeal” was filed in the probate court, which in pertinent part reads: “Comes Roy H. Adwell, respondent in the above entitled cause, and prays for and hereby takes an appeal to the circuit court of the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama, from the order of condemnation entered in said cause on the 3rd day of February, 1953, in so far as said order of condemnation relates to the land described as Tract 1,” etc. (Emphasis supplied.) Thereafter on March 20, 1953, the Judge of Probate transmitted to the clerk of the circuit' court of Jefferson County copies of the application for order of condemnation and other pertinent papers, all of which were forthwith received and marked filed in the office of the circuit clerk. On the same day, March 20, 1953, the circuit clerk executed a receipt reading: “Received Probate Court Check No. 1107, in the sum of Seventeen Thousand Five Hundred and no/100 ($17,500.00) Dollars covering above award.” Why the check was for $17,500 instead of $18,725, the amount fixed by the appraisers, does not appear, and we are not here concerned with that question.
On March 24, 1953, the State "of Alabama, on whose behalf Jefferson County instituted this proceeding, went into possession of Tract 1 and immediately began road construction. Apparently the State’s action followed the giving of bond by the condemnor as provided by § 18, Title 19, Code 1940.
Adwell did not make demahd "for -jury trial in the circuit court, but the condemnor, Jefferson County, did file' a. written demand for jury trial on August 31, 1953; which demand was on the same day; stricken on motion made by AdwelL
Thereafter, on October 15, 1953, Jefferson County filed a motion to dismiss Ad-well’s appeal, which motion was overruled on the day it was made.
After being continued from time to time by consent, the cause came on for hearing on August 19, 1954, before the Honorable J. Russell McElroy, the presiding judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, Jefferson County.
Before the taking of testimony was begun, the trial court announced that all of the parties agreed in open' court on the following matters, among others: (1) that the land involved was subject to the order of condemnation and was properly ordered condemned by the probate court; "(2) that the interests of Adwell and the First National Bank of Birmingham in the suit property were the same as on the day the application for condemnation was filed in the probate court, except as affected by the order of condemnation made and entered in the probate court; (3) that the only issue before the court was the proper amount *550of “just compensation to be paid the respondent for the land which has been condemned.”
During the course' of the trial in the circuit court motions made by Jefferson County, the condemnor, to dismiss or discontinue the condemnation proceedings were overruled.
On September 14, 1954, the trial court rendered a judgment in favor of Adwell in the sum of $50,620.03. It is from that judgment that this appeal was taken.
It is the position of Jefferson County, the appellant here, that the notice of appeal filed by Adwell in the probate court on March 4, 1953, was insufficient to confer jurisdiction on the circuit court in that the notice did not adequately describe the order or judgment sought to be appealed, and, hence, the circuit court erred in overruling the county’s motion to dismiss Ad-well’s appeal.
 The effect of our holding in Stanton v. Monroe County, 261 Ala. 61, 72 So.2d 854, is that in cases of this character the circuit court is without jurisdiction unless the appeal is from the order of condemnation. On March 4, 1953, the day on which the notice of appeal was filed, the order of condemnation entered on February 20 of that year was the only appealable order. The notice of appeal recites in effect that Adwell prays for and takes an appeal to the circuit court from the order of condemnation entered in the probate court on the 3rd day of February, 1953. As heretofore shown, the order of condemnation was not entered on that day and the use of the wrong date does make the notice of appeal somewhat uncertain and ambiguous. However, since the notice of appeal refers to the judgment of condemnation, the only appealable order, the opinion prevails that the County was not misled by the insertion of the incorrect date and that the trial court correctly refused to dismiss Adwell’s appeal to the circuit court. Title Guarantee & Trust Co. v. Lester, 216 Cal. 372, 14 P.2d 297; Bedke v. Bedke, 57 Idaho 443, 65 P.2d 1029; Nelson v. City of Osawatomie, 148 Kan. 118, 79 P.2d 857; In re Hore’s Estate, 220 Minn. 365, 19 N.W.2d 778, 160 A.L.R. 1064; Thiess v. Rapaport, 57 Nev. 434, 66 P.2d 1000, 69 P.2d 96.
The circuit court did not err in striking the County’s demand for a jury trial made on August 31, 1953. Jefferson County was served with notice of the appeal on the day that it was filed which, as shown above, was on March 4, 1953. The failure of the County to request jury trial within ten days from the date of service of notice of appeal constituted a waiver of right to trial by jury. § 264, Title 7, Code 1940; Moore v. City of Mobile, 248 Ala. 436, 28 So.2d 203. See Morgan County v. Griffith, 257 Ala. 401, 59 So.2d 804. We said nothing in the case of Alabama Power Co. v. Thompson, 250 Ala. 7, 32 So.2d 795, 9 A.L.R.2d 974, in conflict with the holding in the Moore case, supra. In the Thompson case, supra, the request for jury trial was timely made.
Appellant contends that it had the right to abandon the condemnation proceedings while the cause was pending in the circuit court on appeal from the probate court and insists that the circuit court erred to a reversal in overruling the county’s motion to dismiss or discontinue the proceedings. We have cases including Alabama Midland Ry. Co. v. Newton, 94 Ala. 443, 10 So. 89, the only authority cited by appellant in support of this insistence which holds, in effect, that by virtue of the provisions now codified as § 25, Title 19, Code 1940, an order of condemnation becomes ineffective and the rights of the parties thereunder are determined if the damages and compensation assessed are not paid by the condemnor within the time fixed by the statute. Mobile & Ohio R. Co. v. Hester, 122 Ala. 249, 25 So. 220; Stout v. Limestone County, 211 Ala. 227, 100 So. 352; Grief v. City of Plomewood, 257 Ala. 181, 58 So.2d 120; but those cases are not supportive of the assertion made by the appellant to the effect that a condemnor who obtains an order of condemnation in probate court which is appealed to the circuit court and who pays into court the amount of the assessment and makes bond as provided in § 18, Title 19, Code 1940, and thereupon takes actual possession of the property ordered condemned, can, as a matter of right, after the cause comes on for hearing in the circuit court, abandon the condemnation proceedings in toto and retain the possession and control of the condemned property.
*551In Mobile & Ohio R. Co. v. Hester, supra, the provisions of § 1722, Code of 1896, now contained in § 25, Title 19, Code of 1940, were summarized in connection with the holding that in a case of this kind there should not have been a moneyed judgment against the condemnor. In the Newton case [Alabama M. Ry. Co. v. Newton, 94 Ala. 443, 10 So. 89], decided in 1891, the order entered in the probate court was not appealed and the condemnor did not go into possession of the suit property. In the Stout case, it was said that under § 3883, Code of 1907, now § 25, Title 19, Code of 1940, the order of condemnation became ineffective if the condemnor did not pay the assessment within the prescribed time. No question as to the right of the condemnor to abandon the proceedings after going into possession was involved. In the Grief case, supra, there was no appeal from the order of condemnation and the award made in the probate court. The City of Homewood did not go into possession of the suit property. We merely observed that after the expiration of six months from the date of the order of condemnation, the condemnor not having paid the award, the landowner was entitled to institute an action of debt against the City of Homewood in the circuit court to recover for expenses incurred in connection with her defense of the suit in the probate court.
There is a comprehensive treatment of cases involving the general right of the condemning party to abandon the condemnation proceedings, time at which such right can be exercised and the effect of abandonment on the rights of parties, to be found in 121 A.L.R. beginning at page 12. An examination of the cases there annotated discloses that the courts of many of the states have declared that condemnation proceedings may be discontinued as of course, if application to do so is made at the proper time. The difficult question to answer is “Until what time ?” Generally speaking, the answer to this question is determined by the applicable statutory provisions of the particular states. We have no statutory provisions which regulate the stage at which the condemning party may dismiss or abandon condemnation proceedings except those now codified as § 25, Title 19, supra, which, as we have heretofore shown, relate to conditions after final judgment where there has been no payment of the award and no taking of possession.' The only Alabama cases included in the A.L.R. Annotation, supra, which are at all pertinent are based on the provisions now codified as § 25, Title 19, supra. The case of Macon and Stephens v. Owen, 1841, 3 Ala. 116, is cited in the Annotation in support of the statement: “And that an unreasonable delay in the prosecution of the proceedings gives rise to an effective abandonment. * * * ” That case involved an ad quod damnum proceeding by an individual to establish a mill.
As shown above, when the cause came on for trial in the circuit court the parties stipulated that the property in question was properly ordered condemned by the probate court and that the only issue for determination in the circuit court was the proper amount of compensation to be paid the landowner. But, when, during the course of the trial it was indicated by the trial court that the landowner’s contention as to the method of ascertaining the amount of compensation would be followed, the condemnor then sought to recede from its position that the property had been properly condemned in the probate court and to have the condemnation proceeding dismissed or discontinued from its inception, although the property involved had long since been put to the use of the public.
In overruling the motion to dismiss or discontinue the entire condemnation proceeding, the circuit court referred to the case of Baldwin v. Roman, 132 Ala. 323, 31 So. 596, and then stated that its action was based in part on “the fact that the County has appropriated and taken physical possession of and made a highway by and through the State Highway Department * * * that is to say that because of the fact the State Highway Department has already built the road which completely covers the land area of the Adwell property, the court is of the opinion that to permit a dismissal of this action at this stage would be an aversion by the County of the judicial processes or powers.” In Baldwin v. Roman, supra, it was observed that there is no absolute right on the part of the plaintiff to dismiss his suit or take a voluntary non-suit when the rights of the defendant have been so affected or deter*552mined “as that the dismissal would prejudice them.”
Prior to the effective date of the Constitution of 1901, the condemnor could not enter at all pending appeal from the probate court to the circuit court. Southern Railway Co. v. Birmingham, Selma & New Orleans Railway Co., 130 Ala. 660, 31 So. 509. This situation was remedied by provisions new to the Constitution of 1901 and included therein as a part of § 235, which provisions it has been said were made for the benefit of the condemnor in order to prevent undue delays attending condemnation proceedings. But such right of entry pending appeal to the circuit court is conditioned on the prepayment of the award made in the probate court and upon the filing of the prescribed bond. § 235, Constitution o.f 1901; § 18, Title 19, Code of 1940. See Opinion of Justices, 259 Ala. 524, 67 So.2d 417. Certain it is that such provisions were not intended to permit the condemnor to appropriate to his own use the. property involved pending an appeal to the circuit court and then while that appeal is pending dismiss the entire proceedings, thereby forcing the landowner to resort to some other proceeding for his compensation. The dismissal or discontinuance would no doubt entitle the condemnor to a return of the money paid into court for compensation and damages assessed in the probate court. As to whether such an order would invalidate the bond which was filed need not.be decided, for a suit on the bond should not be required of a landowner where land has been entered, occupied and appropriated for a public use under the circumstances here prevailing.
The’ landowner’s right to have just compensation as a condition precedent to the taking, injury or destruction of his property for. public use is expressly stated in § 235, supra, and reiterated in other parts of the, Constitution. Mobile County v. Rarnes-Creary. Supply Co., 225 Ala. 127, 142 So. 72. In § 23 of the Constitution of 1901 it is stated: “ * * * but private property shall not be taken for, or applied to public use, unless just compensation be first made therefor; * * As the amount is. of the essence of just compensation, the mode of ascertaining what shall be. deemed just is so far as it is controlled by the constitution, an essential part of the guaranteed right of payment. Southern Railway Co. v. Birmingham, Selma & New Orleans Railway Co., supra. Section 235, supra, assures to the landowner the right of appeal from what is termed the “preliminary assessment of damages” and further assures to him, if he so desires, that “the amount of damages in all cases of appeals shall * * * be determined by a jury according to law.”
The required bond cannot be substituted for prepayment. A necessity to sue for compensation cannot be imposed on the landowner in this manner as it would be to defeat the plainly given right of pre-, payment as to the so-called “preliminary assessment”, which was paid into the pro-, bate court, and it would require him to wait on future litigation to obtain the equivalent of property wrested from him. Southern Railway Co. v. Birmingham, Selma & New Orleans Railway Co., supra.
Under the provisions of § 17, Title 19, Code of 1940, appeals to the circuit court in cases of this character are triable de novo. We have said that in all such appeals the circuit court makes its own order of condemnation in accordance with the. provisions of § 21, Title 19, supra, and we have used rather broad language in several of our cases concerning the fact that the trial in the circuit court is de novo. But, irrespective of any such broad statements, the fact remains that the appeal to the circuit court does not completely vitiate the proceedings and order in the probate court for § 235 of the Constitution and § 18, Title 19, supra, operate to permit the condemnor to have the right of entry pending appeal and certainly to that extent the order of the probate court is not suspended pending appeal “provided the amount of damages assessed shall have been paid into court in money, and a bond shall have been given in not less than double the amount of the damages assessed, * * § 235, Constitution 1901.
We have said that a personal judgment cannot be rendered in a case of this kind but the money deposited in court by the condemnor in payment of the so-called “preliminary assessment” would undoubtedly be due the landowner where, as here, *553there has been an appropriation of the suit property pending the appeal, if the cause is permitted to proceed in the circuit court to a judgment of condemnation and the award there made is equal to the “preliminary assessment”, but if the proceeding is dismissed in its entirety, such money would be due the condemnor.
At the time the condemnor sought to abandon the proceeding, the easement in the suit property had not been fully acquired, but as shown above, the condemnor had taken complete possession of the property and had so used it that it was unsuitable for private use. The landowner had, at that time, at least a vested right to be compensated, and to have the amount of compensation determined in the condemnation proceeding then pending. § 235 Constitution of 1901.
Under the facts and circumstances in this case, it must be held that the trial court did not err in refusing to permit the condemnor to abandon the proceedings. Department of Highways and Public Works v. Gamble, 18 Tenn.App. 95, 73 S.W.2d 175; Keys v. Shirley, 153 Va. 461, 150 S.E. 401; Taylor v. Pike County, 273 Ky. 659, 117 S.W.2d 933. See Danforth v. United States, 308 U.S. 271, 60 S.Ct. 231, 84 L.Ed. 240; Owen v. United States, 5 Cir., 8 F.2d 992; United States v. Crary, D.C., 2 F.Supp. 870; Petroli v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 166 Md. 431, 171 A. 45.
The amount of the award made by the trial court was rested on the holding that the landowner’s compensation should be based on the value of the property as of December 4, 1952, the day on which the application for order of condemnation was filed in the probate court, which, as shown above, was before the building on the property was partially destroyed by fire. The county takes the position here, as it did in the trial court, that the value of Adwell’s property should be determined as of the day on which the county paid the award into the probate court, which was long after the fire.
There is no constitutional or statutory provision of this State which spells out the time as of which the valuation is to be determined and no Alabama casé has been cited which can be said to be directly and legally authoritative.
•Perhaps the leading Alabama casé on the general subject of the time as of which the valuation is to be determined in a condemnation case is Jones v. New Orleans & S. R. Co., 70 Ala. 227, decided in 1881. In 1870, the railroad, the appellee in that case, without resorting to condemnation proceedings, took and appropriated lands belonging to appellant Jones and placed thereon railroad facilities such as rails, ties, trestles and other structures. The owner, Jones, did not seek to enjoin such action ór to sue in trespass or in ejectment. Approximately ten years later, the railroad having continued in possession, instituted a statutory proceeding for condemnation: “to ascertain the compensation to be paid the appellant, for lands of which she was the owner, which had been taken and appropriated, in the construction of the road.” The single question for decision according to the opinion prepared for the court .by Chief Justice Brick ell was: “Whether the-appellant, was entitled to the value of the lands as of the day when the proceeding was instituted (■May 4, 1880,) enhanced by the value of the rails, ties, trestles, and other structures, placed thereon by the appellee.” In answering that question in the negative, the court through the learned Chief Justice said in part, as follows:
“The compensation is assessed, or ascertained, as of the time when the land is taken. Until the taking, whatever may be the other rights of the proprietor, the right to just compensation is not complete. What shall constitute the taking, may vary in different jurisdictions, and may depend, when proceedings for condemnation are resorted to, before an actual appropriation of the land, upon the state of the proceedings. Where, as in this case, such proceedings are not resorted to, the entry upon the lands, disturbing the possession of the proprietor, followed by the location of the road, and operations for its construction, is the time of taking.
* * * # * *
“The land-owner is entitled to the value of the lands at the time of the *554taking and appropriation, whether the damages are assessed, as they should be, by condemnation proceedings, before the entry for the purposes of constructing the road, or subsequently, after there has been an actual taking and appropriation, without such proceedings, and without making payment of compensation.”
The Jones case, supra, has been cited many times and its holding in regard to the question there for decision, apparently has not been abandoned by our later decisions. In Birmingham-Trussville Iron Company v. Allied Engineers, 225 Ala. 522, 144 So. 1, we applied the rule of the Jones case where, like the facts in that case, the land had been entered and occupied before condemnation proceedings were instituted. See United States v. Goodloe, 204 Ala. 484, 86 So. 546.
In Southern Railway Co. v. Cowan, 129 Ala. 577, 29 So. 985, 988, which was a bill in equity to have a deed conveying right of way declared null and void and for the assessment of damages for the use of the right of way, the Jones case, supra, was cited among other authorities in support of the following statement: “On the former appeal we held, consonant with our rulings on the subject previously and since, and the rule generally obtaining, that just compensation for the land, at the time of the taking, paid before, or concurrently with its appropriation, with interest thereon, is the right of the owner seeking compensation.” The Jones case, supra, has been cited in other cases where there was an entry and appropriation of the lands without the institution of condemnation proceedings.
We have cited the Jones case, supra, in a case where apparently condemnation proceedings were instituted before any entry in support of the statement: “The measure of damages in cases of this character, as established in this court, sustained by many decisions -elsewhere and textwriters, is, the value of the land when taken by the railroad company before any injury thereto resulting from the construction of the road, and the injury or diminution in the value thereby caused to the remaining and contiguous lands, with interest on the sum thus ascertained.” Mobile & Ohio R. Co. v. Hester, 122 Ala. 249, 25 So. 220, 221. To like effect see Mobile & Ohio R. Co. v. Postal Telegraph Cable Co., 120 Ala. 21, 24 So. 408; Pickens County v. Jordan, 239 Ala. 589, 196 So. 121. But in none of the cases where the condemnation proceeding was instituted prior to the actual occupancy of the land, do we find a definition of what constitutes the taking. That question was not up for decision in the Jones case, supra, where the entry was some ten years prior to the time the condemnation proceedings were instituted and it is not entirely clear from the opinion in that case, whether there was an intention to express an opinion as to the date for determination of value where there had been no occupation prior to the institution of the condemnation proceedings.
Under the present constitutional and statutory provisions which relate to the taking of private property for public use, the so-called preliminary assessment made in the probate court which becomes the final award where there is no appeal to the circuit court, must of necessity be finally determined by the commissioners prior to the actual occupancy of the land by the condemnor. In fact, the land may never be actually occupied, as the condemnor may not be satisfied with the amount of the award in which event he is neither required to pay the award nor to appeal to the circuit court. There should not be one time for ascertaining the valuation where there is no appeal from the order of condemnation entered in the probate court or where there is an appeal but the land is not occupied pending the appeal, and another time for the determination of value where there is an appeal, pending which the condemnor does go into possession.
In view of the fact that there appears to be no authoritative holding of this court on the question at hand, it is felt that the statement in Smith v. Jeffcoat, 196 Ala. 96, 71 So. 717, to the effect that compensation must be fixed by the valuation of the property as of the date of the filing of the petition or application for condemnation, although unnecessary to a decision in that case, states the correct rule to be applied in cases of this kind. This affords a definite and invariable rule, which has relation to the time at which the property is designated *555as being desirable and needed for the public use, the owners ascertained who are entitled to be compensated, and the judicial proceedings instituted for the purpose of determining such compensation. Such a rule is not as liable to be affected by the duration of the proceeding, or by increase or diminution in value, whether occasioned by the actual taking itself, or by acts of the owners, lapse of time, or other circumstances. In all these respects, it is a juster measure of valuation than a valuation of the estate at any subsequent point of time. See Burt v. Merchants’ Insurance Company, 115 Mass. 1; 10 Ohio State Law Journal, p. 79.
True, the landowner still has possession of the land, and no easement thereon has been established, but possession is not the only element of value in land. The right to sell, the right to rent-, the right to improve, the right to sow and to reap, are all va’uable rights which are affected by the mere filing of the application for order of condemnation.
Although the valuation should be determined as of the date of the filing of the application, compensation should not be awarded for property destroyed by fire subsequent to the date of the filing of the application for which the landowner has been compensated, by insurance or otherwise. In the instant case there was no insurance.
The award fixed in the circuit court is fully supported by the evidence and is in accord with the principles announced above and should not be here disturbed.
The trial court correctly awarded interest from March 24. 1953, the day on which the property was occupied by the State of Alabama, which was the day on which the land was appropriated by the condemnor and on which it became precluded from abandoning the proceeding. Southern Railway Co. v. Cowan, supra; Morton Butler Timber Co. v. United States, 6 Cir., 91 F.2d 884; Haig v. Wateree Power Company, 119 S.C. 319, 112 S.E. 55.
The assignments of error to the effect that the trial court erred in rendering a money judgment against the appellant, Jefferson County, are without merit. The judgment is not a personal judgment.
The appellant, Jefferson County, cannot be heard in this court to complain because it was adjudged below that the entire award be paid to Adwell when the First National Bank of Birmingham had an unsatisfied first mortgage on the property. This situation here is entirely different from that presented in the case of Williams v. Jefferson County, 261 Ala. 76, 72 So.2d 920.
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.
SPANN, J., concurs in the foregoing.