Court Opinion

ID: 9677700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:57:43.767173+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:57.742176
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
GOODWYN, Justice.
We placed the case on the rehearing docket for the purpose of considering the applicability of the following cases, viz.: Mobile County v. Barnes-Creary Supply Co., 225 Ala. 127, 129, 142 So. 72, and McGowin v. City of Mobile, 241 Ala. 576, 578, 4 So.2d 161.
In those cases it was held that equity had jurisdiction to enjoin a proposed taking of or injury to land without just compensation being first paid therefor as required by § 235, Constitution 1901. The basis for such holding is thus stated in Mobile County v. Barnes-Creary Supply Co., supra [225 Ala. 127, 142 So. 73]:
“The bill is rested upon the theory that the property of complainant is being taken, injured, or destroyed by the proposed improvement of the highway abutting its property, without compensation being first paid therefor, in violation of section 235 of our State Constitution. It is settled by our decisions that the right to compensation for ‘injury’ to land by the ‘construction or enlargement of its works, highways, or improvements’ by any corporation (section 235, supra) is placed upon the same basis as the taking thereof, and that the same remedies and the limitations thereto apply to the one as to the *690other. Birmingham Belt Ry. Co. v. Lockwood, 150 Ala. 610, 43 So. 819.
“Injunctive relief does not rest upon any averment of irreparable injury to the owner, but upon the inadequacy of the legal remedy to protect his constitutional right in its entirety, as a court of law is unable to compel the payment of compensation to the owner before his property is faken, injured, or destroyed. The ownership being admitted, or clearly established, and the fundamental law being plain that compensation must be paid before the property is taken, the owner is entitled to the intervention of a court of equity. * * *»
There is, however, a material distinction between those cases and the one now before us. Here, the injury to complainants’ land had already occurred, thus rendering the stated principle inapposite for that reason, if for no other.
Those cases also hold that “the equity of the bill being established, a court of equity, if the enforcement of such injunctive relief appears impracticable or unjust, has the power to so mold its decree as to award damages in lieu of such relief.” So, the question is, Does the bill have equity on some other ground? In other words, to state the question more specifically, Is the maintenance by the City of an already existing system for the drainage of surface waters which causes injury or damage to another’s land, subject to abatement in equity ? A negative answer to this question is found in the following from Harris v. Town of Tarrant City, 221 Ala. 558, 560, 130 So. 83, 85:
“ * * * [Wjhen a city in the exercise of its duty adopts a system of drainage to care for the rainwater and constructs storm sewers or ditches for that purpose, especially one of the size here considered, it would be treated as of such character as to be embraced in section 235, and could not ordinarily be abated, but it would subj ect the city to liability for such compensation as is contemplated by the Constitution. But for the negligent maintenance of such . sewers and ditches resulting in damages, the liability would not necessarily be controlled by the nature of the structure. The damages for the construction of the improvement is as though it were permanent for that it is not abatable. But for an improper or negligent maintenance the rule applicable to an abatable condition has application.”
The last two sentences of the foregoing have reference to the following from the same case, viz.:
“* * * For an abatable nuisance the cause of action does not arise until the harmful consequences occur, and each occurrence or recurrence of such damages constitutes a separate cause of action. Alabama Great So. R. R. Co. v. Shahan, 116 Ala. 302, 22 So. 509; Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co. v. Mitchell, 161 Ala. 278, 49 So. 851; Crawford v. Union Cotton Oil Co., 202 Ala. 3, 79 So. 299. But for an injury by a permanent and unabatable condition the damages are estimated on the hypothesis of an indefinite continuance • of the nuisance, and thus affecting the permanent value of the property. In such event, one may not recover in successive suits, but his damages are awarded in solido in one action. SlossSheffield Steel & Iron Co. v. Mitchell, supra; Crawford v. Union Cotton Oil Co., supra.
“The principles of the above cases as now controlled by what is section 235 of the Constitution apply to cities. Section 235 of the Constitution makes a city liable for just compensation for the damages which accrue from ‘the construction or enlargement of its works, highways, or improvements.’ Under this section changes in the grade of a street and other improvements of it working damage to adjacent property is held compensable as for a permanent *691injury. [City of] Birmingham v. Evans (Ala.Sup.) [221 Ala. 381] 129 So. 50; [City of] Eufaula v. Simmons, 86 Ala. 515, 6 So. 47; [Town of] Avondale v. McFarland, 101 Ala. 381, 13 So. 504; Batterton v. [City of] Birmingham, 218 Ala. 489, 119 So. 13.
“Likewise, after the improvement is complete the city is responsible for the careless and negligent manner in which it is maintained by it. [City of] Birmingham v. Crane, 175 Ala. 90, 56 So. 723; [City of] Birmingham v. Greer, 220 Ala. 678, 126 So. 859; City Council of Montgomery v. Gilmer, 33 Ala. 116, 70 Am.Dec. 562.”
In City of Birmingham v. Flowers, 224 Ala. 279, 281, 140 So. 353, 354, reference is made to the case of Harris v. Town of Tarrant City, supra, as drawing “the same distinction that we have attempted in the present opinion; that is, if the improvement is of a permanent character and not abatable as a nuisance, the injury thereby done should be assessed in solido. * * * ”
See also, Fricke v. City of Guntersville, 251 Ala. 63, 64, 36 So.2d 321, 322, from which we quote the following:
“This court has held that ‘there can be no abatable nuisance for doing in a proper manner what is authorized by law.’ Branyon v. Kirk, 238 Ala. 321, 191 So. 345, 349; Harris v. Town of Tarrant City, 221 Ala. 558, 130 So. 83.
“The cities of this State are expressly given the authority to make all needful drainage improvements. § 601, Title 37, Code 1940.
“It is certain that this was a needed improvement and we think that the evidence shows it was done in a proper manner.”
It is to be noted that the trial court concluded that the complaint does not charge the city with negligence in the construction or maintenance of the drainage system emptying the surface waters into the Wellman ditch running through complainants’ property.
See, also, Branyon v. Kirk, 238 Ala. 321, 326, 191 So. 345, 349, supra, where it was said:
“ * * * The liability of a city to adjoining property owners for the consequences of its highway and drainage construction, by which levels are changed and drains and gutters constructed in the streets, have been heretofore treated as a permanent and unabatable condition, with consequences materially different from those occasioned by abatable nuisances. Harris v. Town of Tarrant City, 221 Ala. 558, 130 So. 83; City of Birmingham v. Evans, 221 Ala. 381, 129 So. 50.”
We forego a discussion of the evidence “for fear its consideration on another trial may be prejudiced, however careful the language of discussion.” Holderfield v. Deen, 269 Ala. 260, 262, 112 So.2d 448, 450; Frost v. Johnson, 256 Ala. 383, 386-387, 54 So.2d 897; German-American Wholesale Optical Co. v. Rosen, 233 Ala. 105, 170 So. 211; Parker v. Hayes Lumber Co., 221 Ala. 73,127 So. 504.
It is our view that the bill is not one calling for equitable relief and that the equity court was without jurisdiction to award damages to complainants. See § 149, Tit. 13, Code 1940.
Rehearing denied.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and SIMPSON and COLEMAN, JJ., concur.