North Chester Borough v. Eckfeldt

Citations

• 1 Monag. 732
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1236

Syllabus

<p>In an action for damages for tile change of grade of a street in a borough, a witness was offered to testify as to the vcilue of the land, who lived in the borough, had been assessor for a number of years, owned property therein, negotiated the sale of a property on the same street on which the property injured was situated, some five squares distant, knew the property injured, and expressed himself as competent to fix the value on the property before the interference complained of and afterward, by the value he would be willing to give or take, and by his opinion as assessor, and who was agent to sell a tract of some fifty-nine acres in different lots. The court below held that the opinion as assessor was insufficient, as being more of a comparative than actual value, and that fixing a value by what the witness would give or take was incompetent unless based upon a knowledge of the value, but admitted the witness, under all the evidence. On writ of error to review a verdict for plaintiff, the admission of the witness was assigned for error, quoting the evidence as to competency but not as to value. Held, that the judgment should be affirmed.</p> <p>Another witness was held competent who did not live in the borough, or own property there, but who testified that he knew the value of the property from sales that had been made in the vicinity of the property within the last year.</p> <p>The statute of limitations begins to run only from, the date of the actual grading of the land by a borough, and not from the date of the resolution of the borough council authorizing the change of grade.</p>