J. G. Brill Co. v. City of Philadelphia

Citations

• 167 Pa. 1
• 31 A. 348
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 851

Syllabus

<p>Boad law — Ghange of grade of streets — Policy as to opening streets in the future — Municipalities.</p> <p>A municipality is under no duty to landowners to define its future policy in regard to the opening of streets over suburban lands, and to indicate with certainty the grades on which each one will be opened when the time for opening it arrives.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for an injury caused by the change of grade of a street on which plaintiff’s land abuts, it is error to charge “if the uncertainty of the city’s action in connection with the opening of future streets affects the value of property, then you can find that the property was worth less because the city has not defined its future policy in regard to the grade of these streets.”</p> <p>Resolutions and ordinances directing the opening and grading of streets, no matter how clearly or strongly they show the purpose of the city at the date of their passage, may be modified or repealed to-morrow, and property owners affected thereby may be greatly disappointed and the value of their property affected, but such loss of a prospective gain is not a cause of' action. It is damnum absque injuria. But if the ordinance remains unrepealed, and is, at the proper time, carried into execution by the actual opening and grading of the street, the injured landowner has then a cause of action for the actual injury sustained. Per Williams, J.</p>