City of Dixon v. Baker

Citations

• 65 Ill. 518

Syllabus

<p>1. Cities—liability for private injury from change in grade of street. Municipal corporations, such as cities and towns, hold the streets in trust for the public, and may regulate and establish their grade, but this must be done so as to do no serious injury to the owners of abutting lots.</p> <p>3. Such corporations have no more power over the streets than a private individual has over his own land; and neither one has the right to change the natural flow of water, so as to throw it upon the lands of another.</p> <p>3. Where a city, by elevating the grade of a street, caused the surface water to flow upon the plaintiff’s lot and into the basement of his cellar, whereby the building thereon was injured and the walls were cracked, and it appeared that the injury might have been prevented by proper sewerage : Held,, that the city was liable to the plaintiff, in an action on the case, for the damages caused thereby.</p> <p>4. Negligence—instruction. Where the change in the grade of a street made a sewer necessary to prevent the surface water from flouting upon the plaintiff’s premises, and the city made a sewer for that purpose, which was wholly insufficient, and such fact might have been known to the common council, by the exercise of reasonable judgment and care, it was held, in a suit by the plaintiff against the city to recover for the injury caused by the flow of surface water upon his premises, that the court below properly refused to instruct the jury, in behalf of the city, that it was not liable for injuries resulting from error in judgment as to the size of the sewer necessary for the passage of the surface water.</p> <p>5. Daha&es—owner of real estate not entitled to recover for injury to his tenant. In a suit by the owner of a house and lot, the building being occupied by several tenants, to recover for injury caused by turning a flow of surface water upon the lot, whereby the building was injured, the court instructed the jury that “ they had the right