Leard v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 229 Pa. 475
• 78 A. 1034
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 516

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Condemnation proceedings — Witness— Evidence — Damages.</p> <p>1. When, in a proceeding to assess damages for land taken by a railroad company, a witness is called to prove the market value of the land, it is the right of the other side, before the witness proceeds, to inquire as to his qualifications to express an opinion on the subject. When this right has been exercised or waived, and the witness admitted, after he has testified to the market value of the land at the time of its appropriation, his competency to testify to the market value as affected by the construction of the railroad, follows as matter of course.</p> <p>2. After the competency of such a witness has been established it is not error for the court to refuse to permit him to be interrupted so as to allow counsel, before the witness has expressed an opinion, to inquire of him what elements of damage he had taken into consideration in making his estimate.</p> <p>3. The construction of bridge piers in the bed of a navigable stream may be taken into consideration as an element of damages in condemnation proceedings where the evidence shows that the piers changed the current of the stream so as to endanger the plaintiff’s land in times of ordinary high water and freshets. In such a case where a number of competent witnesses testify that in such freshets as might be expected to take place at that locality, some thirty-seven acres of plaintiff’s land would be exposed to invasion by water, the question whether their testimony is sufficient to establish a degree of probability amounting to a reasonable certainty that the apprehended danger will be realized, is a question for the jury.</p>