Concordia Cemetery Ass'n v. Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad

Citations

• 121 Ill. 199

Syllabus

<p>1. Eminent domain—measure of damages—as to land claimed to be held for cemetery purposes. If property sought to be condemned by a railway company for a right of way is claimed by a cemetery company, it may be shown, on the question of the compensation and damages, that the land is not used for burial purposes, and is not susceptible of being used for cemetery purposes. The owner of the land is entitled to have the highest price for which the same can be sold for any purpose.</p> <p>2. Same—comparative values, as aiding in fixing the measure of damages. Evidence in regard to sales of prairie land one mile distant from the land sought to be condemned for a right of way, may be received, as tending, in some measure, to show the value of the land involved, when there is no evidence of any actual present market value, nor of sales of like property nearer. When the land sought to be taken is not laid out into lots, and improved as cemetery property, proof of sales of lots in other cemeteries is not competent evidence on the assessment.</p> <p>3. Same—benefits, when to be considered. It is competent to consider special benefits to property claimed to be damaged, but not taken, for the purpose of reducing, or, rather, to the extent of the special benefits, of showing that there are no damages.</p> <p>4. Same—an instruction construed, ■ as to the application of benefits. In a proceeding for the condemnation of a right of way, the court instructed the jury that the defendant was entitled, as compensation, to the cash market value of his land sought to be taken, as of the date of the petition, and damages to the remainder of his land described in his cross-petition, and then instructed that the total compensation and damages to which the defendant was entitled, must be equal to, but must not exceed, the difference between the fair market value of the whole land described in the petition and cross-petition, as it was on the date of the petition, and the fair market value of