Surocco v. Geary

Citations

• 3 Cal. 69

Syllabus

<p>A person who tears down or destroys the house of another in good faith, and under apparent necessity, during the time of a conflagration, for the purpose of saving the buildings adjacent, and stopping its progress, is not personally liable in an</p> <p>v*--a.ction by the owner of the property destroyed.</p> <p>A house on fire, or those in its immediate vicinity, which serve to communicate the flames, is a nuisance which it is lawful to abate, and the private rights of the individual yield to considerations of general convenience and the interests of society.</p> <p>The constitutional provision, that requires payment for private property taken for public use, does not apply in such case. This right belongs to the State, in virtue of her right of eminent domain.</p> <p>The property thus taken was not a taking for public purposes, but a destruction for individual benefit, or for the city, and not for the State.</p> <p>The necessity for such act of destruction must be clearly shown. But in all such cases the individual must be regulated by his own judgment; and if done without actual or apparent necessity, he is liable in trespass.</p> <p>The plaintiff cannot recover for the value of the goods in the house which he might have saved—these are equally liable to the necessities of the occasioa with the house in which they are placed.</p>