Schonhardt v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 216 Pa. 224
• 65 A. 543
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 785

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Widening road — Evidence—Licensed saloon property — Harmless error.</p> <p>In an action against a railroad company to recover the value of a hotel property appropriated in the widening of a railroad, it is improper to admit in evidence a record of the quarter sessions showing that an application for a license had been filed after the bond to secure the owners had been approved, and that a remonstrance had been filed by the defendant. Damages in such a case are to be ascertained as of the date of the filing and approval of the bond. The admission of such evidence, however, will, not be cause for reversal, if it appears that the defendant was not injured by it.</p> <p>On the trial of a railroad condemnation case, where the plaintiff in his examination in chief has placed the market value of his. property at a sum named, he cannot on cross-examination be asked what other properties on the same street had been sold for within two years for the purpose of having his answer go to the jury as affirmative evidence of value.</p>