Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co. v. City of Chicago

Citations

• 132 Ill. 372
• 23 N.E. 1036
• 1890 Ill. LEXIS 1048

Syllabus

<p>1. Eminent domain—strict construction. Private property can only be taken for public use by consent of the owner, or by a proceeding to condemn, in strict conformity with law. The fact that the owner may interpose a groundless defense will not justify a departure from the statutory requirements.</p> <p>2. Same—of the petition—requisites as to description of property sought to be taken or damaged. The statute (chap. 24, art. 9, sec. 5,) requires that the petition for the condemnation of land for a public improvement shall contain a reasonably accurate description of the lots, the parcels of land and property which are sought to be taken or damaged.</p> <p>3. Same—description must control—throughout the proceedings. The property sought to be condemned for public use should not only be described in the petition with reasonable certainty, but that description should be followed in the subsequent orders, and in the verdict of the jury'and judgment of the court.</p> <p>4. So where the ordinance for widening a street, and the petition for the condemnation of land for such purpose, describe the land as all that part of a lot or lots lying north of a diagonal line through the lots, the city can not, on the hearing, abandon such description, and condemn land differently situated. On such a petition the city can not condemn land for a new street.</p>