Hornstein v. Atlantic & Great Western Railroad
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Crawford county. This was an appeal from an award of viewers, assessing damages for making a railroad through the property of the plaintiff, upon which an issue was directed and tried in the Court of Common Pleas. The defendants ran their road close by the plaintiff’s distillery; the width of ground measured off by the defendants included the plaintiff’s spring and spring-house.
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Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Crawford county. This was an appeal from an award of viewers, assessing damages for making a railroad through the property of the plaintiff, upon which an issue was directed and tried in the Court of Common Pleas. The defendants ran their road close by the plaintiff’s distillery; the width of ground measured off by the defendants included the plaintiff’s spring and spring-house. The plaintiff claimed “ consequential damages” on account.of interference with his business, rendering access with teams difficult, preventing the working of a horse-power near…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered,
2Per curiam
If judicial authority can fix any rule, the series of adjudged cases from Thoburn’s Case, 7 S. & R. 411, down to Harvey’s Case, 11 Wright 434, has established the measure of damages for building a railroad through a man’s land, to be the difference betwixt the value of the land before the road was built and its value after the road is finished. In estimating the disadvantages resulting from the road, consequential or speculative damages are to be rejected, and in estimating the advantages, such only as are special and peculiar to the property in question…
3Cited by5 opinions
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