256 A.D. 397 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1939
Defendant city appeals from a judgment of $155,001, besides costs and disbursements. The items of the damage are described:
(1) $8,000, “ damages sustained by reason of the wrongful and unlawful acts of the defendant, its agents, officers and employees in diverting water of the Susquehanna river, causing a washing away or erosion of the plaintiff’s lands.”
(2) $42,000, “ the amount of the plaintiff’s share or interest in and to the usable value of the Rockbottom Dam, the land upon which it stands, its appurtenances, pondage, and all rights thereunto belonging and all of which have been used and occupied by the defendant for a period of six years prior to the commencement of this action and down to the time of this trial.”
(3) $105,000, “ the fair and reasonable market value of the plaintiff’s share or interest in and to the Rockbottom Dam, the land upon which it stands, its appurtenances, pondage and all rights thereunto belonging.”
(4) $1, “ nominal damages sustained by reason of the wrongful diversion of water from the Susquehanna River above the Rock-bottom Dam and property of plaintiff for water supply purposes of defendant from July 28, 1928, down to the time of this trial.”
Plaintiff, his grantors and devisors, for more than one hundred years have owned the Rockbottom dam in the Susquehanna river, together with the mill and water power rights incidental thereto, also riparian rights appurtenant to lands adjacent to the river and the pool or pond formed by the water impounded by the dam. As early as 1867 the city purchased riparian lands bordering on the river some distance above the dam and began to pump water from the pond formed by the dam into the mains for the use of the city and its residents. Since about 1887 the city has taken water from the pond through a thirty-inch pipe, and since 1899 also through a thirty-six-inch pipe. The facilities now operated by the city permit the taking of more than 20,000,000 gallons of water daily from the pond. Continuing demands since 1895 have been made by plaintiff and his predecessors in title that the city discontinue
TMs action was commenced in July, 1934. The complaint, inter alia, plead the facts earlier stated, including the judgment and that it was res judicata. Also that plaintiff had been physically ejected from Ms own property by the mayor of defendant aided by several armed policemen and by like armed force had been prevented from retaking possession; that the city had built structures upon the plaintiff’s property wMch prevented the water from flowing tM'ough the raceway and is maintaining the structures by force. The city by its answer pleaded general and qualified denials and also again sought to raise the issue that the city had gained a prescriptive right to the use of the water from the pond and an easement which required plaintiff, or upon Ms failure permitted the city, to repair and reconstruct the dam in a manner which would maintain the river at the level of the top of the dam. The decision was in plaintiff’s favor upon all of the issues, and damages were fixed therein as earlier recited. Alternative relief in part as follows is granted by the judgment: “ That unless the defendant within six months from the entry of tMs judgment and decree herein and service of notice of entry thereof upon defendant’s attorney or attorneys tenders
Under quite similar conditions, but lacking the accentuating features of forcible removal of plaintiff from his own property, and the detention thereof and the erection of structures thereon to the damage of plaintiff’s upland, a recovery has been permitted for “ inverse condemnation ” in a recent case in the Court of Appeals in which the judgment was modified by remitting the cause to the Special Term for the fixing of all damages suffered by plaintiff with the direction, “ when such damages have been determined a judgment may be entered providing that an injunction should issue against the village unless within a reasonable time, to be fixed by Special Term, the defendant should pay or tender to the plaintiff the amount of damages so fixed by the court.” (Ferguson v. Village of Hamburg, 272 N. Y. 234, .241.) Defendant asks a reversal because of plaintiff’s failure to present a verified claim of the damages to its common council and to serve a notice of intention to commence an action upon the corporation counsel under the provisions of section 244 of the Second Class Cities law. This action was brought pursuant to and “ at the foot of ” the judgment
The judgment should be affirmed, with costs. _
McNamee, Crapser, Bliss and Heffeknan, JJ., concur.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.