Port v. Huntingdon & Broad Top R. R.

Citations

• 168 Pa. 19
• 31 A. 950
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 752

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Causeways—Measure of damages — Act of Feb. 19, 1849, sec. 12.</p> <p>Under the act of Feb. 19, 1849, see, 12, P. L. 84, providing for the construction of a causeway where a railroad severs a tract of land, the conditions of the ground must be considered as to whether the causeway shall be overhead, under grade, or at grade.</p> <p>A causeway within the meaning of the act is an internal improvement or arrangement intended to afford the means of getting from one part of the land to the other, and has no reference to road crossings, or to the means of getting off the premises to market or elsewhere.</p> <p>The measure of damages in such a case is the inconvenience which the landowner has suffered in the enjoyment of his property arising out of the failure to construct a causeway. The injury to the land caused by its being severed, or by the inconvenient shapes of the severed parts, or by excavations or embankments, or by obstruction of access to public or private wavs cannot be considered, as such injury is provided for in the assessment of damages for the original taking of the land.</p>