Court Opinion

ID: 9794788
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:11:36.872323+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:20:37.405345
License: Public Domain

Schroedeb, J.,
(dissenting): In my opinion, the decision in Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, 181 Kan. 51, 310 P. 2d 199, *867decided this date on rehearing, does not control the decision in this case.
The following statement is made by the court in its opinion:
“. . . It was conceded by the parties to the appeal that the Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, 181 Kan. 51, 310 P. 2d 199, decision on which a motion for rehearing was pending, would be determinative of the case.”
It is incorrect to say that the appellees conceded that a reversal of the position in the Moore case on rehearing would control. At the time counsel for appellees made the statement they were propounding the proposition announced in the original Moore decision. This was long before the Moore decision on rehearing was announced. Furthermore, prior to the argument above advanced the appellees, Georgia B. Jenkins and Kansas Industries, Inc., challenged the appellant’s right to be heard on the ground that an order overruling the motion to consolidate was not a final order within the scope of G. S. 1949, 60-3302, and therefore not appealable. They request dismissal of the appeal by the Kansas Turnpike Authority.
A final order is defined as an order “. . . affecting a substantial right in an action, when such order in effect determines the action and prevents a judgment, . . .” (G. S. 1949, 60-3303.) In the present action there are now claimants left in these proceedings, and it is felt that an order refusing to consolidate all of their cases into one action does not determine the actions nor prevent the rendition of judgments. Where in a condemnation action the trial court sustained a motion to consolidate two cases for trial, this court held that the order was not an appealable order because it was not a final order and did not determine the action or prevent a judgment. (Western Shale Products Co. v. City of Fort Scott, 172 Kan. 336, 239 P. 2d 828; see, also, Cities Service Gas Co. v. Krehbiel, 168 Kan. 69, 211 P. 68, and Western Light & Telephone Co. v. Toland, 177 Kan. 194, 277 P. 2d 584.)
By similar reasoning, an order which overrules an attempt to consolidate is not a final order because it does not determine any action but leaves the actions to be tried and permits the respective claimants to proceed to reduce their claims to judgment.
In the interest of justice and for the guidance of the Bench and Bar of this state, this court should affirmatively rule on appellees’ motions to dismiss. The legislature has seen fit to pass title to the condemned property immediately to the Turnpike upon payment of the appraised value into the clerk of the district court, but to *868prevent those persons whose property is taken by the Turnpike Authority from getting one cent for their property where appeal is filed until judgment has been rendered on such appeal (G. S. 1955 Supp., 68-2006) even though such appeal be taken by the condemner. This is a privilege granted to the Turnpike and is a harsh rule not in accord with the general condemnation law, (G. S. 1955 Supp., 26-102.) These claimants are already complaining of the delay since their property has been condemned. People’s residences may be taken and they may not have money to secure another home, but until the appeal is determined they receive no payment for what has been taken from them. To permit the Turnpike Authority to extend this period of time by taking appeals from orders which are not final orders is justice delayed. For all practical purposes, in many instances this is justice denied. Unfair and inadequate settlements may be forced on landowners by reason of the time factor involved, and this question is of such general interest by reason of the scope of the Turnpike Authority’s operations that this court should establish a guidepost for future instances of similar nature.
Even assuming that the Turnpike is before this court with an appealable order, the decision in Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, supra (on rehearing), does not control in the instant case. At this point, it must be conceded that one expressing a dissent in this and the Moore case is confronted with the same dilemma which confronts the trial court and the attorney. Not much has been said on certain points in the opinion of this court on rehearing in Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, supra. If an appeal by any one of the interested parties in a lot or parcel of ground to the district court from an appraisement in an eminent domain proceeding brings to the district court in its entirety the question of the sufficiency of the award to be tried in a single action as to all of the parties, will the court be consistent and say that all of the parties owning an interest in a specific lot or parcel of ground are indispensable parties? If so, then the failure of one of such interested parties in an action is jurisdictional.
Specific reference is made to my dissenting opinion on rehearing in Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, supra.
If the failure of the lower court to consolidate the appeals was jurisdictional to the rendition of a final judgment, then the order was appealable but the court has not said so except inferentially, without even mentioning the fact that appellees have made an attack upon the validity of the appeal by the Turnpike.
*869If, however, the court has not intended to announce this broad reversal in condemnation policy in Kansas and does not regard the absence of one of the owners of an interest in a lot or parcel of ground as jurisdictional then appellees’ motions to dismiss the appeal of the Turnpike to this court are good and should be sustained. In such event, the authority of the district court to proceed is not jurisdictional as to the other interest holders. Under these circumstances, the position taken by the Kansas Turnpike Authority in the lower court is inconsistent with the theory presented on appeal to this court. In the instant case the Turnpike’s motion was to consolidate all of the appeals taken relative to an 85-acre tract of land, the fee title of which was owned by Georgia B. Jenkins. In the motion itself the Turnpike recites “. . . the owner of the property and each of the tenants filed separate appeals to the award of the appraisal in the respective cases above numbered.” They further allege “. . . that all of said cases should be consolidated together in one appeal.” The prayer of the motion itself “. . . moves the court for an order consolidating all of the above entitled numbered cases for trial except the appeal of Glenn H. Price, which appeal should be dismissed and denied by the court.”
If, as tire Turnpike here contends, an appeal by any one owning an interest in the property presents to the district court in its entirety the sufficiency of the award, then why has the Turnpike in the instant case requested in its prayer the exclusion of Glenn H. Price who was one of the owners of an interest in the tract of ground there condemned? As a matter of fact, the Turnpike means what it said when it requested consolidation, thereby recognizing that the statute granted separate appeals and the filing of separate actions.
Furthermore, how does the Turnpike account for its own conduct in the instant case? The record in this court discloses that the Turnpike settled with two of the appellants below, Mike Gregar and Joe Gregar, who had leases on the tract of land condemned operating two separate rock quarries and excavating rock from a portion of the property taken by the Turnpike. Pursuant to settlement for $3,808.80 each, the Turnpike approved an order of the court distributing $3,808.80 to each of said appellants from the total sum paid in to the clerk of the district court by the Turnpike and said appeals were thereupon dismissed.
One of the parties litigant to an action, the Turnpike in the instant case, is not permitted on appeal to this court to take a position in*870consistent with the theory presented in the lower court. (Oliver v. Nugen, 180 Kan. 823, 308 P. 2d 132, and cases cited therein.) The position taken by the Kansas Turnpike Authority in the instant case in the lower court is inconsistent with the theory which it presents to this court on appeal. It has thereby established the law of this case and the decision of the lower court in refusing to consolidate the appeals which were separately docketed in the lower court should be affirmed in my opinion. At no time in the lower court did the Turnpike take the position which it takes on appeal to this court, and as it took throughout in the case of Moore v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, supra, namely, whether an appeal to the district court by an owner of an interest in a lot or parcel of ground from an appraisement in an eminent domain proceeding brought to the district court in its entirety the question of the sufficiency of the award to be tried in a single action as to all of the parties. In the instant action the Turnpike in the lower court sought consolidation only of the appeals of the remaining interest holders with whom it had not settled.