St. Louis, Jacksonville & Chicago Railroad v. Mitchell

Citations

• 47 Ill. 165

Syllabus

<p>1. Railroads—of damages in condemning lands. It is a proper element of damages, in condemning lands for railway purposes, to consider the cost of erecting and maintaining a fence along the line of the proposed railway. This rule is deducible from a proper construction of the law of 1855, in regard to fencing railways.</p> <p>2. When the damages so assessed have been paid by the railroad company, they may maintain an action against the land owner, if he neglects to fence, and this obligation becomes a covenant running with the land.</p> <p>3. But if the railroad company erect the fence, and furnish the materials therefor, and the damages assessed in this regard are for the maintaining and keeping in repair such fence, the liability of the land owner is limited by the nature of the obligation which he assumes in that regard, and if such is the nature of the damages assessed, and the company afterward neglect to fence, the land owner may himself build it and recover the cost.</p> <p>4. Same—of the finding of tlut jury. The finding of the jury should show on what basis the damages are assessed, in order that the record may show hereafter the rights of the parties.</p>