Perry v. City of Worcester
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Action of tort for the obstruction of the plaintiff’s mill by the building of a bridge across the Blackstone River in such a manner as to throw back the water on the plaintiff’s water wheel.
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Action of tort for the obstruction of the plaintiff’s mill by the building of a bridge across the Blackstone River in such a manner as to throw back the water on the plaintiff’s water wheel. The parties submitted the case to the judgment of the court of common pleas, and, upon appeal, to this court, upon the following statement of facts: In 1829 the county commissioners laid out a highway across said river, and awarded damages to Nathan Perry, who then owned the plaintiffs’ premises, and to other owners of land through which the highway passed; and the municipal authorities of Worcester,…
1Opinion of the Court
Shaw, C. J.*
The question raised and discussed in this case was, whether the damages sustained by the plaintiffs, in the occasional flooding of their mills, by the bridge erected over the Blackstone River, should be claimed as damages and awarded as such by the city or by county commissioners, or whether an action at law will lie to recover them.
We think the distinction is well established by authorities, and founded upon just principles, that where damage is necessarily done to the property of an individual by taking his land for a highway, town way or bridge, or by changing the grade of a…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Tudor v. LewisCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1860
3Cited by1 opinion
- Riddle v. Delaware CountySupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1893