Fyfe v. Turtle Creek Borough

Citations

• 22 Pa. Super. 292
• 1903 Pa. Super. LEXIS 206

Syllabus

<p>Sewers—Damages—Viewers—Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75.</p> <p>In a proceeding before viewers under the Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, to recover damages for injuries to propertyresuiting from the construction of a sewer, the damages which may be recovered are for such injuries as are the direct, immediate and necessary or unavoidable consequences of the act of eminent domain itself, irrespective of care or negligence.</p> <p>Municipal authorities when adopting plans for or locating streets, sewers or other improvements, are vested with a discretion which the courts are without power to review, and upon passing upon questions of benefits or damages arising from the execution of the plan, evidence tending to show that some other plan might have been more beneficial or less injurious is not admissible.</p> <p>- Sewers—Damages—Lateral support.</p> <p>The rule which limits a private owner’s liability for damages for depriving his neighbor’s land of support, to the injury to the land without regard to the buildings, does not apply to a municipality which in the construction of a sewer deprives land of support and injures a building erected thereon.</p> <p>When an improvement is the direct and proximate cause.of an injury, and the loss is the necessary and unavoidable consequence of a careful execution of the work, the land and every right of property thereto appurtenant is within the protection of article 16, section 8, of the constitution of Pennsylvania, and the Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, affords an appropriate remedy.</p>