Court Opinion

ID: 9534702
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:42:14.812857+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:31:41.911937
License: Public Domain

EDMONDS, J.
I concur in the conclusion that the judgment against the property owner should be reversed, but for reasons different from those stated by my associates. And as the decision vitally affects the public interest in that it may largely determine whether highway improvements essential for modern transportation can be made without incurring liability for damages beyond the capacity of the state or a municipality reasonably to pay, I deem it appropriate to state the grounds upon which I believe the determination should rest.
When the government acts, either by way of legislation or by the exercise of any other legitimate means,1 to promote the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare, a large area exists in which private interests may be restricted, impaired, or entirely destroyed by such action without compensation for the resulting loss or diminution in value of the property. (Miller v. Schoene, 276 U.S. 272 [48 S.Ct. 246, 72 L.Ed. 568]; Bowditch v. Boston, 101 U.S. 16 [25 L.Ed. 980]; Omnia Commercial Co. v. United States, 261 U.S. 502 [43 S.Ct. 437, 67 L.Ed. 773]; Ex parte Hadacheck, 165 Cal. 416 [132 P. 584, L.R.A. 1916B, 1248], affd. in Hadacheck v. Sebastian, 239 U.S. 394 [36 S.Ct. 143, 60 L.Ed. 348]; Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365 [47 S.Ct. 114, 71 L.Ed. 303]; Northwestern Laundry v. Des Moines, 239 U.S. 486 [36 S.Ct. 206, 60 L.Ed. 396]; Sligh v. Kirkwood, 237 U.S. 52 [35 S.Ct. 501, 59 L.Ed. 835]; Reinman v. Little *357Rock, 237 U.S. 171 [35 S.Ct. 511, 59 L.Ed. 900].) This power of the government to act in furtherance of the public good without incurring liability for the resulting injury to private individuals is commonly known as the police power. It has been held many times that the Constitution supposes the pre-existence of the police power, and must be construed with reference to that fact. (Chicago & N. W. R. Co. v. Illinois Commerce Com., 326 Ill. 625 [158 N.E. 376, 55 A.L.R. 654]; Borden v. Louisiana State Bd. of Education, 168 La. 1005 [123 So. 655, 67 A.L.R. 1183]; Carthage v. Frederick, 122 N.Y. 268 [25 N.E. 480, 19 Am.St.Rep. 490, 10 L.R.A. 178]; Re Morgan, 26 Colo. 415 [58 P. 1071, 77 Am.St.Rep. 269, 47 L.R.A. 52]; see 11 Am.Jur., Constitutional Law, sec. 245, p. 969.)
So far as the construction of improvements is concerned, however, even though their purpose be to promote and insure the public safety and convenience, the right of the State to take “private property” without the payment of “just” compensation, has been expressly forbidden by both the eminent domain provision of the state Constitution and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. (Cal. Const., art. I, sec. 14; Chicago B. & Q. R. R. Co. v. Chicago, 166 U.S. 226 [17 S.Ct. 581, 41 L.Ed. 979].) Obviously, under these provisions, if the State appropriates the land itself for a public use,, it is exercising its power of eminent domain with a corresponding liability to pay the owner the value of the land. And the amendment to the state Constitution entitling the owner to just compensation in cases where his property is “damaged,” as well as when it is “taken,” for the public use, indicates an intention to liberalize the policy of compensation in the area of consequential injury, as distinguished from an actual appropriation. (Eachus v. Los Angeles Ry., supra, p. 616; Reardon v. San Francisco, 66 Cal. 492, 501 [6 P. 317, 56 Am.Rep. 109]; Rigney v. City of Chicago, supra.) The term “consequential damage,” is used as meaning a diminution in value of land not actually acquired by the State, occasioned by the public improvement.
But it is uniformly recognized that not all consequential damage to private interests was intended to be included within the scope of the eminent domain clause. In the words of Mr. Justice Holmes in Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, *358260 U.S. 393, 412 [43 S.Ct. 158, 67 L.Ed. 322]: “Government hardly could go on if, to some extent, values incident to property could not be diminished without paying for every such change in the general law [as the Pennsylvania statute under consideration forbidding the mining of coal within 150 feet of the improved property of another].... One fact for consideration in determining . . . [the] limits [of the police power] is the extent of the diminution. When it reaches a certain magnitude, in most if not in all cases there must be an exercise of eminent domain and compensation to sustain the act. So the question depends upon the particular facts.” The court recognized that the question as to when compensation is required to be made for a diminution in value of private property under the eminent domain clause cannot be disposed of by general propositions; the problem is one “of degree.” (p. 416.) Also this court, in Rose v. State of California, 19 Cal.2d 713, 737 [123 P.2d 505], held that the diminution in value of land occasioned by a public improvement diverting the main flow of traffic from in front of the premises is noncomp ensable. And the government may condemn private property and erect upon it a jail or “pest house” without compensating adjacent property owners for the undeniable impairment of their property values as a result of such public use. (See Eachus v. Los Angeles etc. Ry., 103 Cal. 614, 617 [37 P. 750, 42 Am.St.Rep. 149]; Rigney v. Chicago, 102 Ill. 64, 80; City of Winchester v. Ring, 312 Ill. 544, 550-552 [144 N.E. 333, 36 A.L.R. 520]; City of Geary v. Moore, 181 Okla. 616 [75 P.2d 891], distinguishing Oklahoma City v. Vetter, 72 Okla. 196 [179 P. 473, 4 A.L.R. 1009].)
From these decisions it seems clear that a determination as to whether the diminution in value of land resulting from public improvement, as distinguished from, a taking of the land itself for public use, falls within the scope of eminent domain necessitating the payment of compensation requires a consideration of the importance of the interest affected. (State of California v. Marin Mun. W. Dist., 17 Cal.2d 699, 706 [111 P.2d 651].) In considering this problem!, the court must weigh the relative interests of the public and the individual, so as to arrive at a just balance in order that government will not be unduly restricted in the proper exercise of its function for the public good, while at the same time giving due effect to the policy in the eminent domain clause of insuring the individual against an unreasonable loss occasioned *359by the exercise of governmental power. In this connection, a distinction must be made between a diminution in value because of an act of a private individual and the decrease in value resulting from a public highway improvemlent. Obviously, the courts will be more ready to protect even the less important interests connected with the use of land against interference by private individuals whose acts have no public utility, than when the governmental power is exercised in behalf of a public improvement for the general welfare. Therefore, the fact that a particular interest has been protected against impairment by a private person does not necessarily mean that it is of sufficient importance, as against the state, to be included in the term “private property” within the meaning of the eminent domain clause of the Constitution. (See, for example, the discussion of the distinction between impairment of view by a private individual and by a proper highway improvement, in my dissenting opinion in People v. Ricciardi, post, p. 390 [144 P.2d 799].) The factors to be considered are, on the one hand, the magnitude of the damage to the owner of the land, and, on the other, the desirability and necessity for the particular type of improvement and the danger that the granting of compensation will tend to retard or prevent it. (Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, supra; Town of Windsor v. Whitney, 95 Conn. 357, 366, 369 [111 A. 354, 12 A.L.R. 669]; Davis v. County Commrs., 153 Mass. 218 [26 N.E. 848, 11 L.R.A. 750]; Cram v. City of Laconia, 71 N.H. 41 [51 A. 635, 57 L.R.A. 282]; Richmond v. City of Hinton, 117 W.Va. 223 [185 S.E. 411]; see 34 Columb.L.Rev. 938; 42 Columb.L.Rev. 596, 637; and see Archer v. City of Los Angeles, 19 Cal.2d 19, 23, 24 [119 P.2d 1]; O’Hara v. L. A. County Flood etc. Dist., 19 Cal.2d 61, 63 [119 P.2d 23].)
In addition, before compensation may be denied, the court must find that the particular improvement is not unreasonably more drastic or injurious than necessary to achieve the public objective. (Williams v. Los Angeles Ry. Co., 150 Cal. 592, 595, 596 [89 P. 330]; Lane v. San Diego Elec. Ry. Co., 208 Cal. 29, 35 [280 P. 109]; Town of Windsor v. Whitney, supra, p. 369; Maxwell v. Miami, 87 Fla. 107 [100 So. 147, 33 A.L.R. 682]; and see note, 35 Columb.L.Rev. 938, 939; 11 Am.Jur., Constitutional Law, sec. 266, p. 1006.) Thus, if, in balancing these factors, the court decides that the interest *360affected by the improvement which results in a diminution in the value of the land is of sufficient importance to require the payment of compensation under the eminent domain clause of the Constitution, it is not necessary to consider the improvement as a “damaging” of the land; since the interest is recognized as entitled to the protection of the law, it becomes a property right included in the .term “private property” within the meaning of article I, section 14 of the state Constitution. In the event, however, that the interest is deemed of insufficient magnitude to warrant the payment of compensation under the eminent domain provision, it.obviously is not “private property” within the scope of that clause, and the diminution in value of the land attributable to it, when affected by public improvement, falls within the area of uncompensated loss occasioned by the exercise of essential governmental power. •(Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, supra, see Rose v. State of California, supra, at p. 737.) And the Supreme Court of the United States has indicated that the recognition and definition of the interests in property included within the term “private property” are essentially matters which each state is permitted to determine for itself. (Reichelderfer v. Quinn, 287 U.S. 315, 319 [53 S.Ct. 177, 77 L.Ed. 331, 83 A.L.R. 1429]; Sauer v. New York, 206 U.S. 536, 548 [27 S.Ct. 686, 51 L.Ed. 1176].)
In balancing the necessity for a public improvement against the extent of damage sustained by an individual in order to determine the right to compensation, there need be no fear that individual rights will be unduly subordinated to the rights of society, for each claimed exercise of governmental power is subject to judicial examination as to whether the means exercised are reasonable, both in nature and extent. (Town of Windsor v. Whitney, supra, at p. 369.) And although the rule may be difficult to apply, it is not an arbitrary one. An analogous doctrine underlies a determination of the reasonableness of conduct in the law of negligence, which requires a court to weigh the magnitude of the risk involved in a particular act against its utility or the particular manner in which it is done. (2 Rest., Torts, see. 291.) Obviously, as the judicial decisions on the subject increase in number, the result in a specific ease may be predicted with increasing accuracy. (Noble State Bank v. Haskell, 219 U.S. 104 [31 S.Ct. 186, 55 L.Ed. 112].) One rule recently announced by *361this court in approaching such a problem is that at least if the property owner would have no cause of action were a private person to inflict the damage, he can claim no compensation from the state. (Archer v. City of Los Angeles, supra, at p. 24.) But in the area of individual rights as yet uncharted by judicial decision, a court must weigh the interests affected in each ease. ,
The question whether a property owner is entitled to compensation under the eminent domain clause of the California Constitution (art. I, sec. 14) when his property is placed in a cul-de-sac by the obstruction or vacation of one end of a street upon which the property abuts, but where the obstruction is not directly in front of the property, is one of first impression in California. Although an interference with the abutting owner’s right of access in one direction only, but leaving a less convenient means of egress in another direction, has been held not to be a taking of private property within the prohibition of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution (Meyer v. City of Richmond, 172 U.S. 82 [19 S.Ct. 106, 41 L.Ed. 199]), a majority of the courts which have considered the right of a property owner to damages, under the eminent domain clause of the jurisdiction, for being placed in a cul-de-sac have allowed recovery to those in the block where the obstruction occurs, even though one entrance to the block is left open. (Felton v. State Highway Board, 47 GaApp. 615 [171 S.E. 198]; City of Chicago v. Baker, 39 C.C.A. 318 [98 F. 830]; City of Chicago v. Burcky, 158 Ill. 103 [42 N.E. 178, 49 Am. St.Rep. 142, 29 L.R.A. 568]; Davis v. City of Chicago, 290 Ill.App. 244 [8 N.E.2d 378]; Falender v. Atkins, 186 Ind. 455 [114 N.E. 965, 967]; Highbarger v. Milford, 71 Kan. 331 [80 P. 633]; Burton v. Freund, 243 Mich. 679 [220 N.W. 672]; Vanderburgh v. City of Minneapolis, 98 Minn. 329 [108 N.W. 480, 6 L.R.A.N.S. 741]; Lowell v. Buffalo County, 123 Neb. 194 [230 N.W. 842, 242 N.W. 452]; Coy v. City of Tulsa, 2 F.Supp. 411; Atchison etc. Ry. v. Terminal Oil Mill Co., 180 Okla. 496 [71 P.2d 617]; Sandstrom v. Oregon-Wash. R. & Nov. Co., 69 Ore. 194 [146 P. 803, 49 L.R.A.N.S. 889]; In re Melon Street, 182 Pa. 397 [38 A. 482, 38 A.L.R. 275]; City of Texarkana v. Lawson, (Tex.Civ.App.) 168 S.W. 867. Contra: Kachele v. Bridgeport Hydraulic Co., 109 Conn. 151 [145 A. 756]; Micone v. City of Middletown, 110 Conn. 664 *362[149 A. 408]; Taylor v. Cooke, 113 Conn. 162 [154 A. 349, 351]; Krebs v. Uhl, 160 Md. 584 [154 A. 131], distinguishing Johnson v. Mayor, 148 Md. 432 [129 A. 648]; Smith v. Boston, 61 Mass. 254; Davis v. County Commrs., 153 Mass. 218 [26 N.E. 848, 11 L.R.A. 750]; Nichols v. Inhabitants of Richmond, 162 Mass. 170 [38 N.E. 501]; Arcadia Realty Co. v. City of St. Louis, 326 Mo. 273 [30 S.W.2d 995, 997]; Wilson v. Kansas City, -Mo. - [162 S.W.2d 802]; Cram v. City of Laconia, 71 N.H. 41 [51 A. 635, 57 L.R.A. 282]; New York etc. Ry. v. Bucsi, 128 Ohio 134 [190 N.E. 562, 93 A.L.R. 632]; City of Bellevue v. Stedman, 138 Ohio 281 [34 N.E.2d 769]; City of Lynchburg v. Peters, 145 Va. 1 [133 S.E. 674]; Richmond v. City of Hinton, 117 W.Va. 223 [185 S.E. 411].) But by the great weight of authority, as a matter of law, no compensation may be obtained because of an obstruction to or the vacation of a street in another block, even though the value of the complainant’s property is substantially reduced thereby, and this regardless of whether the particular state Constitution requires compensation solely for property “taken” or “taken or damaged.” (City of East St. Louis v. O’Flynn, 119 Ill. 200 [10 N.E. 395, 59 Am.Rep. 795]; Buhl v. Fort St. Union Depot Co., 98 Mich. 596 [57 N.W. 829, 23 L.R.A. 392]; Locascio v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co., 185 Minn. 281 [240 N.W. 661]; In re Hull, 163 Minn. 439 [204 N.W. 534, 538-540, 205 N.W. 613, 49 A.L.R. 320]; Chicago etc. Ry. v. Prigmore, 180 Okla. 124 [68 P.2d 90]; Cooke v. City of Portland, 136 Ore. 233 [298 P. 900]; Spang & Co. v. Commonwealth, 281 Pa. 414 [126 A. 781]; Hindes v. Allegheny County, 123 Pa.Sup.Ct. 469 [187 A. 219]; Hyde v. Minnesota etc. Ry., 29 S.D. 22 [136 N.W. 92, 99, 40 L.R.A.N.S. 48]; Lee v. City of Stratford [Tex.Com.App., adopted by Supr. Ct.], 125 Tex. 179, 81 S.W.2d 1003; City of El Paso v. Sandfelder, (Tex. Civ.App.) 118 S.W.2d 950; Jackson v. Birmingham etc. Co., 154 Ala. 464 [45 So. 660]; Whitsett v. Union Depot & R. Co., 10 Colo. 243 [15 P. 339]; Jarnagin v. Louisiana Highway Com., (La.App.) 5 So.2d 660; Mandell v. Board of Commrs. of Bernalillo Co., 44 N.M. 109 [99 P.2d 108]; Sanders v. Town of Smithfield, 221 N.C. 166 [19 S.E.2d 630]; Chicago & N. W. Ry. v. Railroad Com., 167 Wis. 185 [167 N.W. 266].)
The question immediately arises as to the reason, if any, for such a distinction. What are the factors which have induced courts to recognize the damage of one owner as com*363pensable and that of another as noncompensable when the diminution in value of the properties of both is occasioned by the same public act? So far as the mere inconvenience of traveling any additional distance necessitated by the inability longer to use the obstructed street is concerned, no compelling reason for such a distinction is warranted by logic, as it is difficult to justify the denial of compensation to one whose property is located directly across the first intersecting street while allowing recovery to the person owning the lot on the corner of the block in which the cul-de-sac exists. And because many of the courts have confined consideration of the damage caused by the obstruction to what they term the necessity for “circuity of travel,” the conclusion that the allowance of recovery should not be extended to the whole neighborhood with a probable throttling of public improvements, has influenced a substantial number of them to deny compensation altogether. (Dantzer v. Indianapolis Union Ry., 141 Ind. 604 [39 N.E. 223, 50 Am.St.Rep. 343, 34 L.R.A. 769]; Nichols v. Inhabitants of Richmond, (Mass.) supra; Cram v. City of Laconia, (N.H.) supra; Henry L. Doherty & Co. v. Joachim, 146 Fla. 50 [200 So. 238].) Also some decisions which follow the majority view have treated recovery in a cul-de-sac case as an exception to the rule generally announced that circuity of travel occasioned by a proper highway improvement, or regulation, is a noncompensable item of damage.
But the traveling of additional distances occasioned by modern traffic engineering to make travel more safe and to adapt the highway system to the adequate disposal of the increasingly heavy burden of automobile traffic—as, for example, by the construction of divided highways for various types of traffic, or the re-routing of traffic by one-way regulations or the prohibition of left-hand turns—is an element of damage for which the property owner may not complain in the absence of arbitrary action. (City of San Mateo v. Railroad Com., 9 Cal.2d 1, 9, 10 [68 P.2d 713]; see note 100 A.L.R. 487, 491-493.) It is, therefore, not surprising that many courts have refused compensation in cul-de-sac cases because of the similarity in problems so far as the question of circuity is concerned. And, therefore, in testing the merits of the majority rule, mere “circuity of travel,” in the sense that it refers to the additional distance required to be tra*364versed because of a proper highway construction, should not be used to justify the allowance of compensation to the owner abutting upon the street in the block where the obstruction exists.
There is a material difference, however, between the situation of the property owner in the block where one end of the street is obstructed and that of the persons whose lots abut on the same street beyond the first intersection. Whereas formerly he had an outlet at both ends of the street on which his lot fronts, after the obstruction, he has but one. This is obviously not true of the landowners beyond the first intersection, for they still have access in either direction.
But, it may be asked, of what practical significance is this distinction, so far as damage to the property owner is concerned? If, for example, the land is used for business or industrial purposes, the fact that it is in a block where the street terminates may seriously affect the easement of access, in considering the full and beneficial use of the property. All vehicles entering the block must either turn around or back out in order to leave it, to this extent impairing the right of egress. In the case of trucks or other large vehicles, such a requirement may substantially interfere with the highest and best use of the property. (See Cartmell v. City of Marysville, 231 Ky. 666 [22 S.W.2d 102, 104].) And the owner of a lot so located is more adversely affected than is one whose property abuts upon a street restricted to one-way traffic, for in the latter case free ingress and egress is possible.
Yet, even though the interference with the use of the land within the block where the cul-de-sac is created is materially greater than that of the property beyond the first intersection upon the same street, the question remains whether the owner’s access to his property is so materially affected as to warrant the payment of compensation under the eminent domain provision of the California Constitution.
The necessity for arterial freeways, uninterrupted by numerous intersections, in order to dispose of vehicular traffic safely and efficiently is a matter of growing public concern! Allowance of damages to the property owners on each street formerly crossing a highway which is to be rebuilt for the requirements of fast moving or interurban traffic for a distance of a few or many miles, even if confined to one block on each side of the freeway, might prove so burdensome as to stop or substantially decrease needed improvements. (See *365Davis v. County Commrs. [Mass.], supra, at p. 850; Cram v. City of Laconia [N. H.], supra; Richmond v. City of Hinton [W. Va.], supra; 13 Ya. L. Rev. 334-337.) It must be remembered also that to the amount of damages awarded must be added the probable expense of defending hundreds of suits. At the same time, however, in view of the policy underlying the eminent domain provision of the Constitution, the court must give adequate recognition to the hardship to the individual in a block ending in a dead end, materially affecting, as the obstruction does, the right of egress from his property. In addition, the possibility of locating and constructing the improvement in such a way as to leave the property owner with a way out in each direction along the street upon which he abuts has a direct connection with the limitation that, in order to avoid liability for compensation, the placement of the improvement and its manner of construction must not be unreasonably more drastic or injurious than is reasonably required to achieve the necessary end. For example, ordinarily, in constructing an arterial freeway the objectives of the project may be served and a method of egress provided for property owners by the construction of local service roads, paralleling the main freeway, into which the traffic from the side streets may pass and enter or cross the freeway at locations consistent with safety. (See People v. Ricciardi, post.) Were the construction of such service roads to be approved as a proper use. of the land owned by the state for highway purposes without subjecting the state to liability to abutting property owners for such improvements, the cost of such service roads would constitute a definitely ascertainable item, thus obviating the uncertainty in estimating in advance the damages to the property owners, were the streets to be terminated so as to create cul-de-sacs. Under such circumstances, where governing authorities fail or refuse to include such service roads as a part of the project, or in the relatively few situations where their construction is not possible, the damage sustained by the individual should be borne by the public. But the majority opinion in the Ricciardi case, by creating a cause of action in every property owner abutting upon the lane constructed for local traffic along the route of an arterial highway, certainly offers no inducement to the state to include such features in highway improvements, and makes the balancing of the respective interests of the public and the land owner a close question. However, because circum*366stances readily can be visualized where, after a block is closed at one end, the owner’s access to his property from the street may be as effectively blocked as though an obstruction were placed directly in front of his premises,1 in my opinion the question of compensable impairment of ingress and egress should be left for the trier of fact to determine.
But in ascertaining the amount of damage arising from the impairment of the easement of access, the jury may consider only compensable elements of injury, relating to the interference with the ingress to and egress from the property insofar as it affects the uses to which the property is adaptable. Such elements as the additional distance which one is required to travel upon the public street in order to reach the property and the divergence of travel occasioned by the highway improvements should be excluded from the testimony of the witnesses and the consideration of the jury. (People v. Ricciardi, supra; Rose v. State of California, supra, at p. 737; Dantzer v. Indianapolis Union Ry., supra; Grigg Hanna Lumber, etc., Co., v. Van Wagoner, 294 Mich. 346 [293 N.W. 675, 678-679]; Tomaszewski v. Palmer Bee Co., 223 Mich. 565 [194 N.W 571]; Atchison etc. Ry. v. Terminal Oil Mill Co. (Okla.), supra, at p. 619; Chicago etc. Ry. v. Prigmore (Okla.), supra, at pp. 91, 92; Henry L. Doherty & Co. v. Joachim (Fla.), supra; Canady v. Coeur D’Alene Lumber Co., 21 Idaho 77 [120 P. 830]; Jarnagin v. La. Highway Com. (La. App.), supra; Sanders v. Town of Smithfield (N.C.), supra, at p. 634; Chicago & N. W. Ry. v. Railway Com. (Wis.), supra.)

“The expression ‘police power’ is sometimes used In a very broad sense, ineluding all legislation and almost every function of civil government. ’ ’ 11 Am.Jur., Constitutional Law, see. 257, pp. 971, 972.

For example, a truck which formerly entered the street, stopped in front of the landowner’s industrial premises, and then, in leaving, continued along the street in the same direction, may, because of the width of the street, be unable to turn around in it after one end is blocked, and for that reason, be unable to use the street for access to the land.