47 Wash. 166 | Wash. | 1907
A writ of review was issued by this court for the purpose of reviewing the action of the superior court
The situation is substantially as follows: The relator owns a tract of land containing about thii'ty-eight acres, lying upon the east bank of Wind river and a short distance to the north of the confluence of said stream with the Columbia river. The relator’s plat or survey as á boom company, filed in the office of the secretary of state of the state of Washington, and which shows so much of the shore line of the waters of Wind
Assuming, without deciding, that the facts in evidence are sufficient to show that the tract had been actually appropriated by the boom company for a public use, still the strip sought to be taken by the railway company constitutes but a small part of the entire tract said to be devoted to the public purpose. The case is, therefore, not that of one public service corporation seeking to deprive another such corporation of its entire means of operation at a given location. Both to the north and south of the strip sought to be condemned is room remain
The same section says:
“But we should say that there was a reasonable necessity for the taking where the public interests would be better sub-served thereby, or where the advantages to the condemnor will largely exceed the disadvantages to the condemnee.”
To the same effect the relations of a condemning corporation to .the property of another arising from reasonable public necessity were discussed by this court in State ex rel. Portland & Seattle R. Co. v. Superior Court, 45 Wash. 270, 88 Pac. 201.
It being established that the power to condemn exists in favor of the railway company as against the relator if a necessity exists, we must next inquire if a reasonable necessity does •exist. The trial court found that it does, and we think the evidence sustains the finding. The relator contends that a line which it proposes to the south of its tract of land would be a practicaba route, and that by its adoption the appropriation
It is also urged that the court erred in giving judgment for condemnation, for the reason that it was not shown that any effort was made to agree with the relator upon the amount of compensation prior to instituting the condemnation proceeding. By reference to Bal. Code, § 4334 (Laws 1903, p.
The judgment as to the necessity for appropriation is affirmed, and the order of this court suspending further proceedings is hereby vacated.
Rudkin, Crow, and Mount, JJ, concur.