81 Wash. 690 | Wash. | 1914
— This is an original mandamus proceeding in this court wherein the relator seeks to compel the superior court for Grant county to proceed with the trial of the assessment of damages and compensation in the condemnation proceeding of Ham, Yearsley & Ryrie, this relator, against the Northern Pacific Railway Company et al., and the annullment of an order of that court staying proceedings therein until another action pending in that court is tried and determined, wherein certain of the defendants, additional claimants in the condemnation proceeding, are seeking to quiet their title to the waters of Moses Lake as against the claims of the relator thereto, upon which claims the right of the relator to acquire the land by condemnation proceedings rests.
The history of this controversy appears in considerable detail in our decisions upon certain questions presented in State ex rel, Ham, Yearsley & Ryrie v. Superior Court, 70 Wash. 442, 126 Pac. 945, and State ex rel. Grant Realty Co. v. Superior Court, 76 Wash. 376, 136 Pac. 144. The facts appearing in the record before us, so far as necessary to be here noticed, may be summarized as follows: On October 7, 1910, the relator commenced condemnation proceedings in the superior court for Grant county against the Northern Pacific Railway Company et al., owners of a small tract of land at the southern outlet of Moses Lake, to acquire the land for a dam site to be used in connection with the relator’s prospective irrigation project. Soon thereafter, notice of the pendency of the condemnation proceeding was duly filed and made of record in the auditor’s office of Grant county. On January 10, 1912, the superior court for Grant county, having regularly before it the preliminary questions of public use, necessity and the relator’s right to acquire the
“It further appearing to the court, however, that the said Grant Realty Company, Manhattan Realty Company, Nashota Realty Company, Pelican Realty Company, Stade Realty Company, Neppel Townsite Company, Park Realty Company, McConihe-Moses Lake Irrigation Company and F. H. Nagel, have an interest in the subject-matter of this action, and that a complete determination of the controversy cannot be had without the presence of said parties,
*693 “It is ordered that pursuant to section 196 of Remington & Ballinger’s Code the said parties, to wit, Grant Realty-Company, Manhattan Realty Company, Pelican Realty Company, Nashota Realty Company, Stade Realty Company, Neppel Townsite Company, Parle Realty Company, McConihe-Moses Lake Irrigation Company and F. H. Nagel and all of them shall be made additional parties defendant or claimant and shall appear herein without service of process to which the above named parties agree in open court. . .
For convenience, we will hereafter refer to these new parties as additional claimants. The claim of interest of these additional claimants in the condemnation proceeding is rested upon their claim as grantees of the Northern Pacific Railway Company and the other original defendants who conveyed their title to the land sought to be condemned to these additional claimants, pending the condemnation proceeding, and also the claimed right of the additional claimants to the waters of Moses Lake, independent of their interest as grantees of the Northern Pacific Railway and other original plaintiffs in the condemnation proceeding. Thereafter, on November 19, 1913, these additional claimants filed in the condemnation proceeding a motion asking the vacation of the preliminary order of condemnation in favor of the relator as against the original defendants therein, with a view to having the question of the relator’s right to condemn and acquire the land by right of eminent domain as against these additional claimants tried anew, claiming that the relator had no such right of condemnation as against these additional claimants because of their right to all of the waters of Moses Lake, which right, as we have seen, if successfully maintained by these additional claimants, would render of no avail the relator’s right to appropriate and put to public use the land sought to be condemned. On the same day, to wit, November 19, 1913, these additional claimants commenced an independent action in the superior court for Grant county, seeking to quiet their title to the waters of Moses Lake as against the relator, setting up their claim of right
“It is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed that said motion be, and the same are hereby denied, save and except the motions of the additional claimants for a stay of all proceedings herein, which motion is granted, and all proceedings herein are stayed until the action now brought and' pending in the above entitled court, wherein The Grant Realty Company, a corporation, et al., are plaintiffs, and Ham, Yearsley & Ryrie, a corporation, et al., are defendants, the same being cause No. ———■ of the records and files in the office of the' clerk of the above entitled court, has been tried and determined.
“It is further ordered that the additional claimants herein are given leave to make further application to this court for a vacation of the order of appropriation in this case, should it be necessary for said additional claimants to have such order vacated after the said cause above referred to has been determined in this court.”
It is to annul this order and compel the superior court for Grant county to proceed with the trial of the assessment of damages and compensation for the taking of the land, that this mandamus proceeding is here prosecuted.
A statement of these facts renders it apparent that we have here two pending actions in the same court, wherein the issues ai’e so related as to possibly result in much useless and
We do not wish at this time to be understood as expressing any opinion upon the question of the finality of the preliminary order of condemnation rendered by the superior court in compliance with the decision of this court in favor of the relator, as against these additional claimants. However, in view of the circumstances surrounding the whole controversy, we are of the opinion that the learned superior court did not
The order of the learned trial court sought to be annulled is affirmed, and the writ prayed for is denied.
Crow, C. J., Fullerton, Morris, and Mount, JJ., concur.