Hershey v. H. S. Kerbaugh, Inc.

Citations

• 242 Pa. 227
• 88 A. 1009
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 869

Syllabus

<p>Nuisance — Public nuisance — Special damage — Trespass — Obstructions in public roads — .Evidence—Damages—Measure of damages.</p> <p>1. If an individual has sustained any special damage from a public nuisance beyond that which affects the public at large, whether it be direct or consequential, an action will lie against the author of the nuisance for redress. Therefore, in an action to recover damages for an obstruction of a public highway,- plaintiff may-recover notwithstanding the obstruction is a public nuisance, where the evidence shows that he has suffered special damages.</p> <p>.2. In an action to recover damages for interfering with plaintiff’s access to his land by obstructing a public road, evidence that defendant construction company, in building a railroad, had erected a bridge which had rendered impassable the road leading to plaintiff’s land, is inadmissible in the absence of allegation or proof that the bridge was not on the railroad right of way, and that the railroad company had not performed or would not perform its statutory duty to construct another road.</p> <p>3. In such case where the obstruction consisted in part of the abutments of a bridge located for a railroad company, not a party to the suit, upon a portion of the road, and in part of other obstructions outside of the railroad company’s right of way, it was error to submit to the jury the question of the amount of damages sustained by the plaintiff, in consequence of such obstructions, where there was no evidence tending to show that the obstructions in the road could not have been removed, or the cost of such removal, or that, if they had been removed, the railroad bridge would not still have interfered with the use of the road by plaintiff.</p> <p>4. In an action of trespass to recover damages for obstructing a channel of a river and a public highway, so as to interfere with plaintiff’s access to his land, it was error for the court to instruct the jury that the measure of damages w