Gibson Properties Co. v. City of Oakland

CURTIS, J.

The following statement of facts upon which this action is based is expressly approved by the appellants, and impliedly by the respondent. We, therefore, accept it as the true factual situation of the parties in this action.

This appeal was taken from a judgment for the defendant in an action at law for damages claimed because of changes in the design and construction of a building made in anticipation that street-opening proceedings, later abandoned, would be carried through to completion.

In March of 1926 the appellant Gibson Properties Company had acquired title to an irregularly shaped piece of land in Oakland within the block bounded on the west by Franklin Street, on the south by Water Street, on the east by Webster Street and on the north by First Street, upon which it proposed to erect a three-story concrete warehouse for the appellant Lawrence Warehouse Company. On March 15, 1926, the Properties Company made a lease to the Warehouse Company of the proposed warehouse, according to plans and specifications then prepared, for a term ending October 15, 1946, for a total rental of $900,000. About this time the Properties Company was granted a building permit, and on April 2, 1926, it made a contract for the construction of the warehouse for $296,000, which was to cover the entire area owned by the Properties Company, the northerly line of which, extending for 100 feet was the southerly line of First Street. On April 15, 1926, a letter was written by the commissioner of public works, referring to the fact that a building permit had been issued, indicating that street-widening proceedings were going to be started and that the street to be opened would impinge upon the Properties Company lot and suggesting “that before definite plans are made for any construction it would be advantageous to yourselves and the City if a conference could be arranged”. Work was, nevertheless, started on the warehouse. On June 17, 1926, the respondent by ordinance, declared its intention to widen First Street for the two blocks from Broadway to Webster Street, under the Street Opening Act of 1903, which opening, the ordinance showed, would add to the width of First Street

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by taking 20 feet off the northerly side of the two blocks in question. The Properties Company had designed on the northerly 20 feet of its lot and within the walls a spur track so depressed that the floor of a railroad ear would be level with the floor of the warehouse. As soon as the ordinance of intention was passed, the respondent’s commissioner of public works notified the Properties Company in writing of the passage, and ordered it to cease and desist from any building operations upon the 2'0-foot strip, which order was at once obeyed. Before the ordinance had been passed the foundation of the north wall of the building had been laid along the south line of First Street, forms for the pouring of the concrete for the entire height of the building’s north wall had been made, the excavation for the depressed track had been dug, and certain other work had been done. Appellants then had their plans redrawn, setting the north wall back, or southerly, 20 feet from its original location, setting the elevator pit, likewise, 20 feet back, and eliminating the depressed track. The cost of these changes and the redesigning of the building was $5,696.60, which the court found was the reasonable value of that work. As reconstructed the building occupied 98.4 per cent of the ground area and contained 95.35 per cent of the floor space originally planned. On September 16,1926, an ordinance was adopted ordering the widening of First Street, in the manner already indicated, and directing condemnation proceedings. A condemnation suit was filed on October 29, 1926, and eventually went to trial, resulting in an interlocutory judgment on July 9, 1929, awarding the appellants $33,997.