Williams v. Town of Greenville
Supreme Court of North Carolina
ActioN by E. C. Williams against tbe town of Greenville, beard by Judge F. D. Winston and a jury, at October Term, 1901, of tbe Superior Court of Pitt County. Erom a judgment for tbe plaintiff, tbe defendant appealed.
1DissentDouglas, J.
I must confess my inability to appreciate the distinctions drawn by the Court. It is admitted that the plaintiff can recover for any damage done to his property, and it is difficult to imagine a much greater injury to a man’s home than rendering it uninhabitable. I can readily see that it is not practical to award damages to the entire community for injuries to health for two reasons, (1) the extreme difficulty of measuring such damages, and (2) because of the imminent danger of bankrupting the town. The latter is apparently the basic reason in Hughes v. City of Auburn, N.Y., 46 L.R. A., 636,…
2Cases cited5 opinions
- McIlhenney v. City of WilmingtonSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1900
- Allen v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1893
- State v. . HatchSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1895
- State v. . HawkinsSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1877
- State v. . DicksonSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1899