Chicago & Pacific Railroad v. Stein

Citations

• 75 Ill. 41

Syllabus

<p>1. Amendment — as cause for continuance. In an action on the ease to, liso recover damages to the plaintiffs property occasioned by the erection and maintenance of a bridge, its piers and protections, by a railroad company, the court permitted the plaintiff, after tbe evidence was closed and the argument commenced, to amend his declaration by adding a count in trespass, and refused a motion of defendant for a continuance on that ground, there being no affidavit in support of the last motion: Held, that the amendment was properly allowed, and that the motion for a continuance was properly overruled for the want of an affidavit as required by the statute in such a case.</p> <p>2. Riparian proprietors — State cannot grant away rights of; without compensation. As the title of one owning land bounded upon a stream, not navigable at the common law, extends to the center of the stream, and as the State cannot take or damage such owner’s property so situated without compensation, it follows that the State cannot grant a charter to a railway company to do the same thing. Therefore, if such a company, under its charter, erects a bridge across such a stream, and the property of another bounded by the stream is either taken or damaged thereby, a right of action exists in his favor, but such party can only recover for damages which are special to his property and not for such as are incidental to and shared by the public at' large.</p> <p>3. Damages — decrease in value of property by erection of bridge near to. Where the erection of a railroad bridge across a river in a city causes a permanent injury or depreciation in the value of a lot in the immediate vicinity which is used for dock purposes, such inj ury is a proper element of damages in a suit by the owner against the company, and it is proper to allow the lot-owner to show such damage by proving the value, of his property before the erection of the bridge and its value after, or in other words, to prove how much less th