Kine v. Defenbaugh

Citations

• 64 Ill. 291

Syllabus

<p>Eminent domain—of the'assessment of damages where private property is taken for public me since the adoption of the constitution of 1870. The statute in force at the adoption of the constitution of 1870 providing for the taking of private property for the purposes of a public road, so far as it authorized the commissioners of highways, or three supervisors of the county, on appeal from the decision of the commissioners, to assess {he damages that a party would sustain bjr reason of the construction of a public road across his premises, was repealed and rendered inoperative by the thirteenth section of Article 2 of that instrument, which provides that “ private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation,” and “such compensation, when not made by the State, shall be ascertained by a jury, as shall be prescribed by law.” And the assessment of such damages by the commissioners or supervisors in a proceeding commenced after the adoption of the new constitution, would be void, notwithstanding there was then no mode “prescribed by law” for the ascertainment of the compensation by a jury, as required by the constitution.</p>