Mutual Union Telegraph Co. v. Katkamp

Citations

• 103 Ill. 420
• 1882 Ill. LEXIS 191

Syllabus

<p>Eminent domain—of the damages for right of way for a telegraph line. A telegraph company sought to condemn a strip of land eighteen inches wide and three feet deep every one hundred and fifty feet from the point of beginning, etc., of sufficient width to erect telegraph poles and fixtures thereon, the poles to be set along the line of the right of way of a railroad which was fenced, and the proof showed there would be eleven poles on defendant’s land, which was worth $60 per acre. Three witnesses for the defendant testified that the damages would be $10 a pole, arising from their interfering with the use of farming implements, while three witnesses for the petitioner testified, one that fifty cents, and the other two that one dollar a pole, would be full compensation, and that when the poles pursued the line of the right of way of a railroad company, as in this case, in their judgment there could be no other damage than the value of the land taken. It also appeared that a strip of land six feet wide across the whole tract would be two-tenths of an acre, of the value of $12, at $60 an acre, and such a strip eighteen feet wide would be but six-tenths of an acre, and worth but $36. The jury, by their verdict, gave the defendant $38.50: Held, that the verdict was manifestly too high, and for this error the judgment was reversed.</p>