Eachus v. Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Co.

Citations

• 103 Cal. 614
• 37 P. 750
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 834

Syllabus

<p>Street Improvements—Change of Grade—Official Grade—Right of Abutting Owner to Compensation.—An owner of land abutting upon a street is entitled to compensation for any injury to his property which it sustains over and above that sustained in common with other abutting owners or the public in general, resulting from a change in grade of the street; and the fact that the change in the grade is merely from the change of the natural grade to the official grade is immaterial.</p> <p>Id.—Constitutional Law—Eminent Domain—Personal Discomfort— Diminution in Value of Property.—Under section 14 of article I of the constitution, forbidding the taking or damaging of private prop, erty for public use without compensation, a mere infringement of the owner’s personal pleasure or enjoyment, or merely rendering the property less desirable for certain purposes, or even causing personal annoyance or discomfort, does not constitute a damage for which compensation is to be made, but the property itself must suffer some diminution in substance, or be rendered intrinsically less valuable by reason of the public use.</p> <p>Id.—Impairing Use of Street—Compensation to Owner.—The right of the owner of a city lot to the use of the street adjacent thereto is property which cannot be taken from him for public use without compensation; and any act by which this right is impaired is to that extent a damage to his property within the meaning of section 14 of article I of the constitution, for which he is entitled to compensation.</p> <p>Id.—Title to Street Immaterial.—For the purpose of determining the damage resulting to the owner of a lot abutting upon a public street, by reason of the destruction or impairment of the easement of the abutting owner, in the street fronting upon his lot, it is immaterial whether he has the fee in the street or only an easement for its use. In either case it is property, for an injury to which he is entitled to relief.</p> <p>Id.-—Determination of Benefit or Inj