(DOWNLOAD) "St. Agnes Cemetery v. State New York" by Court of Appeals of New York ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: St. Agnes Cemetery v. State New York
- Author : Court of Appeals of New York
- Release Date : January 23, 1957
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 69 KB
Description
[3 N.Y.2d 37 Page 39] This appeal involves an award made by the Court of Claims for a portion of claimant's cemetery land, appropriated by the
State Highway Commission for highway purposes. This cemetery is located two miles north of the city of Albany and has been
in existence for almost a century, during which time there have been over 50,000 interments. Prior to this appropriation which
occurred in 1952, the cemetery contained about 150 contiguous acres of land. The condemned strip traverses and bisects a parcel
of almost 14 acres of land located at the southern extremity of the cemetery. This particular parcel was acquired by the cemetery
in 1938 not only to meet the growing demand for cemetery plots, but because it fronted on a public highway to the south, from
which an exclusive, safe and convenient means of access could be had. Prior to this acquisition, the only means of ingress
and egress to and from this cemetery was over a roadway easement through another cemetery which intersected a railroad track
at grade level, a way which was inconvenient for the people of Albany due to a general westward shift in the population of
that city. By 1951 this parcel, as well as the adjoining cemetery property, was improved by arranging it as a modern garden-type
cemetery -- that is, in place of the headstones which are found in a monument cemetery, there are bronze markers set in concrete
at ground level which gave the area a park-like appearance. As part of this improvement, plans were drawn for the construction
of a memorial entrance abutting the highway to the south with a central drive extending from the entrance to a memorial statue
in the interior portion of the cemetery which provided a suitable theme for the new entrance. From the highway on the south
there would be an unobstructed view of the new entrance, the central drive with a series of separate gardens on each side
and the memorial statue. The improvement by the State raised an embanked four-lane highway over the condemned strip which
destroyed not only the access through this new entrance on the south, the cemetery lots in the area taken by condemnation,
but also depreciated the value of the cemetery lots north of the new highway and the lots south of it in the separated portion
of this parcel.