Stauffer v. East Stroudsburg Borough

Citations

• 215 Pa. 143
• 64 A. 411
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 752

Syllabus

<p>Statute of limitations — Eminent domain — Boroughs—Act of March 27,1713, 1 Sm. L. 76.</p> <p>The general statutory proceeding to assess damages for property taken, injured or destroyed in the eases of the right of eminent domain is not within the purview of the general statute of limitations of March 27, 1713.</p> <p>Boroughs — Waters—Eminent domain.</p> <p>While a borough has the power to construct a reservoir and conduct water to its inhabitants, it has no right to furnish the water to persons outside the borough limits.</p> <p>Boroughs — Eminent domain — Taking of water — Witnesses—Expert testimony — Evidence.</p> <p>In a statutory proceeding against a borough to recover damages for injuries to land resulting from the appropriation of a stream for a reservoir, witnesses who show that they had general knowledge of the stream and the values of property in the neighborhood may testify as to the value when the water was taken fifteen years before the trial in the statutory proceeding, although it appears that their knowledge of the place where the water was taken was practically confined to the examination made a short time before the trial, with the purpose in view of estimating the flow of the water, and arriving at the injury by the taking.</p> <p>Where water is taken from a stream by a borough for a reservoir, the damages are to be assessed as of the date of the appropriation, and not as of the date of the institution of the proceedings to recover damages.</p>