Baltimore & Ohio Railroad v. Kahl

Citations

• 124 Md. 299

Syllabus

<p>Streets: change of grade; liability for damages; municipal corporations; railroad companies. Damages', compensation only; punitive—.</p> <p>Where a municipality regrades a street, skillfully and without trenching upon the abutting property or affecting the owner’s easements of light and air, it is not liable in consequential damages, even though the means of egress from and ingress to the property are affected by the grade. p. 302</p> <p>But where a railway, for its own convenience,' changes the grade of a street, it is liable to the owner of the abutting land for consequential injuries, even though the change is authorized by the municipality. p. 302</p> <p>Apart from cases of punitive damages, compensation for injuries should be precisely commensurate with the injury done. p. 304’</p> <p>When the permanent depreciation in the value of property, eaused by the acts of the defendant, has been ascertained by using the rental value as a basis of calculation, it represents the whole damage recoverable, and the loss of rent may not be added as an additional and independent element of damages. p. 304</p> <p>Where abutting property was permanently injured by a railroad by changing the grade of the street, it was held, that, tax bills and assessments for two or three years after the act complained of, were of too remote a period to be admissible in evidence, to show the expenses upon the property, in an inquiry ro esatblish its value. p. 307</p>