Riedling v. Harrod

HARRIS, Justice. One of the principal arteries of travel into the downtown section of Louisville is Brownsboro Road. Connecting with Brownsboro Road is University Avenue, which extends to and across Regan Avenue to and through the corporate boundary line of the city, thence to Fleming Avenue, and thence to University Place and Cleveland Boulevard. The appellees and all of the persons residing on Regan Avenue, Fleming Avenue, and in the territory generally lying between the city boundary line and Cleveland Boulevard, use University Avenue to its point of intersection with Brownsboro Road it commuting to and from the downtown sections of the city; and this course is some four blocks shorter than any other available route. Some time ago the City of Louisville, in Action No. 272-548 in the Jefferson Circuit Court against R. D. Riedling, obtained a judgment closing University Avenue from the point of its intersection with the northerly line of Regan Avenue to a point some feet short of the city's corporation boundary line; and by the terms of the judgment the title to the portion of the street so closed reverted to the defendant Riedling. The properties of the appellee Harrod and of the appellee Real Estate Mortgage Company abut on University Avenue and lie in the block which is bounded on the south by Regan Avenue and on the north by Fleming Avenue, if extended. The city's boundary line cuts diagonally across the property of the appellee Harrod, across University Avenue, and across the property of the appellee Mortgage Company in such a manner as that both the Harrod and the Mortgage Company properties abut on University Avenue on both sides of the corporate boundary line. The total length of the section of the street that is closed is approximately 200 feet, and the properties of the appellant Riedling about on each side for the full length thereof. Conceiving that they were necessary parties to action No. 272-548 and that they had been deprived in their rights and of their property without just compensation, in violation of the Constitution of Kentucky, ? 13, and of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the appellees together with John R. Bennett and wife, filed against the city and Mr. Riedling, in the Jefferson Circuit Court, Chancery Branch, Second Division, a petition, later amended by way of certain corrections unnecessary to be noted here, with concluded with the following prayer: 'Wherefore, plaintiffs pray that the Court issue a temporary mandatory injunction ordering and directing the defendants, R. D. Riedling, and the City of Louisville, to remove the barricades now interfering with public travel over that portion of University Avenue attempted to be closed in action No. 272,548, Jefferson Circuit Court; that upon final hearing said injunction be made permanent, and that defendants be perpetually and permanently enjoined from obstructing travel over said portion of University Avenue, or erecting and barricades thereon; plaintiffs further pray that the judgment in said action No. 272,548, Jefferson Circuit Court, be declared null and void as to these plaintiffs, and other residents and property owners in University Place Subdivision; that the reversion of the portion of University Avenue closed to R. D. Riedling, as provided in the judgment aforesaid, be declared null and void. Plaintiffs further pray for their costs herein, and for all other general proper and equitable relief to which they may appear entitled.' Attached to and made a part of the petition are a map and a properly attested copy of the entire record in the above-mentioned action. The demurrer of the appellants to the petition of the appellees having been overruled, and the appellants having declined to plead further, the Chancellor entered the following judgment: