Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad v. Ayres

Citations

• 106 Ill. 511
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 200

Syllabus

<p>1. Eminent domain—damages to property not taken—of the right in respect thereto. The right to recover damages for injury to private property occasioned by the taking of other property for public use, if not conferred, is secured by section 13, article 2, of the constitution. Property taken for a railroad, or damaged by the construction and operation of a railroad, is taken or damaged for a public use, the public having an interest in railway corporations.</p> <p>2. Same—construction of railway tracks on a public highway—right of adjacent owners to recover damages occasioned, thereby—and of the elements of damage. Where railway tracks are constructed in a public highway on ground thrown up considerably above the common level, under proper license, in front of a person’s tract of land, whereby he is cut off from access to and egress from the same, it was held, in an action by the owner against the railway company to recover damages, that he could not recover for any injury or damage he thereby sustained in common with the public generally, but might recover for any damages he may have sustained individually in respect to his private property, separate and distinct from the disturbance of the public easement.</p> <p>3. Under section 13, article 2, of the constitution, a recovery may be had in all cases where private property has sustained a substantial damage by the making and using of an improvement that is public in its character, as, a railway, and it is not required that the damage shall be caused by trespass, or an actual physical invasion of the owner’s real estate; but if the construction and operation of a railroad or other public improvement is the cause of the damage, though merely consequential, the party damaged may recover. Depreciation in the value of land fronting on a highway, caused by obstructing access to it, is a proper element of damages.</p>