Harris v. Schuylkill R.

Citations

• 141 Pa. 242
• 21 A. 590
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 1066

Syllabus

<p>(a) In the construction of its railroad across an unimproved city lot abutting upon a navigable river, the company, as an engineering necessity, erected a bulkhead at the port-wardens’ line, outside its appropriation, under an agreement with the landowner that it should be built without cost or expense to him, in labor or material:</p> <p>1. In the assessment of damages to the land from the location and construction of the railroad, the true test was the difference between the value of the entire lot, as it was immediately before the taking, and the value of what was left of it, after the taking of the part occupied by the company’s appropriation.</p> <p>2. In estimating the value of the lot before the taking, its possible and probable uses were important elements, and might be shown by the opinions of expert witnesses; but the details and cost of improvements, and probable rental afterwards, were inadmissible as independent facts, though such details, as the basis of opinions as to value, were legitimate subjects of cross-examination.*</p> <p>3. Though the availability of the lot for improvements was an element of value, the value of the lot at the time of the taking was the value as it then was, not as it might have been with the improvements; and the value of the rest of the lot after the taking was also its value as it then was, and not as it was when subsequently improved and in use as a wharf properly.</p> <p>4. And both values, before and after the taking, were the general market values of the particular lot, considering such advantages and disadvantages only as were special and peculiar to it, and without reference to the general rise or fall commonto it and oilier neighboring properties, consequent upon the coming in of the railroad.</p> <p>5. The acquisition by the company of its defined appropriation, of itself gave the company no right to erect the bulkhead outside its right of way; and under the terms of the agreement, conferring the right to build i