City of Shawneetown v. Mason

Citations

• 82 Ill. 337

Syllabus

<p>1. Experts—not required to prow fact of sickness. Whether a person is sick, is a fact requiring no special skill or science to understand, and it may be proved by anybody who knows the fact, whether he is a physician or not, though it may be otherwise as to proving the character of the sickness.</p> <p>2. Practice—filling panel when juror discharged. Where a juror is taken sick after a trial begins, it is proper for the court to discharge him and call another juror in his place, and order the trial to proceed de novo.</p> <p>8. Cities—power to change grade of streets. A city may lower or elevate the grade of its streets, when done in good faith, with a view to fit them for use as streets, and can not be held responsible for errors of judgment in that respect, or made liable for the inconvenience and expense of adjusting the adjacent property to the grade of the street as changed.</p> <p>4. But the same law that protects the citizen, in the enjoyment of his private property, against invasion by individuals, will protect him against similar aggressions on the part of municipal corporations; and whilst a city may elevate or depress the grade of its streets as it thinks proper, yet, if, in doing so, it turns a stream of mud and water upon the grounds and into the cellar of one of its citizens, or creates in his neighborhood a stagnant pond, that brings disease upon his household, it will be liable to him to the extent to which he is deprived of the legitimate use of his property, or its value is impaired by thus turning the water thereon, or by creating the pond of stagnant water.</p> <p>5. Same—liable for changing grade of street for other purposes than to improve it as a street. • Whilst a city is not liable to owners of adjacent property for changing the grade of a street, if done for the purpose of improving the street, yet, if the street is appropriated to another use than that contemplated when it was laid out, as, for a levee to prevent a river from overflowin