Reyenthaler v. Philadelphia

Citations

• 160 Pa. 195
• 28 A. 840
• 1894 Pa. LEXIS 793

Syllabus

<p>Land damages — Streets—Road law — Municipality—Destruction of buildings — Evidence—Gross-examination—Rebuttal.</p> <p>In a proceeding to recover damages for opening a street, where plaintiff testifies that certain buildings standing in the line of the streets had been torn down and sought to convey the impression that they had been removed by the city, it is proper to admit evidence on behalf of defendant to show that the buildings, which were old and dilapidated, had been torn down and removed by boys and women for fire wood.</p> <p>Land damages — Possibility of municipal improvements — Market value— • Presumption as to estimate by witnesses — Charge.</p> <p>In a proceeding to recover damages for opening a street it is not improper to charge the jury that they are “ not to take possibility of municipal improvements as an argument against the weight of thought or opinion on either side,” where the court also says that the possibility is not to be considered as an independent claim, that it enters into the question of the market value of the ground after the street is opened, and that the witnesses must be presumed to have taken it into consideration in reaching a judgment as to the market value of the property.</p>