Whitehead v. Manor Borough

Citations

• 23 Pa. Super. 314
• 1903 Pa. Super. LEXIS 63

Syllabus

<p>Road law — Change of grade — Encroaching steps — Damages—Charge.</p> <p>In a proceeding to assess damages for injuries caused by a change of grade, where the plaintiff claims as an element of damages the removal of steps, but this question is practically eliminated from the case by the charge of the court, the question as to whether or not the steps were an encroachment on the highway is of no practical importance.</p> <p>In a proceeding to assess damages for change of grade of a street, it is not error to affirm a point of the plaintiff as follows: “If the jury find that the defendant borough, by changing the grade of the street, has caused sewage and water to flow into the plaintiff’s cellar, made it impracticable for him to enter his house by the front door, destroyed his drains, damaged his porch and steps, cut down and made an abrupt embankment of from two to three feet in height along the entire front of his property and left his house upon a dangerous pinnacle; then, while they may notallow any sum distinctly as damages for any of the particular items of injury before mentioned, they may, in estimating the difference in the market value of the whole property, before and after the change of grade, take into consideration the specific items of injury above mentioned, together with any others which they may find.”</p>