Drury v. City of Boston
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Petition to the superior court to have the damages occasioned by taking the land of the petitioners to widen Hamilton Street, in Boston, assessed by a jury. The city council of Boston, on January 5, 1867, passed an order to widen Hamilton Street by taking part of the petitioners’ land, but did not award the petitioners any damages.
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Petition to the superior court to have the damages occasioned by taking the land of the petitioners to widen Hamilton Street, in Boston, assessed by a jury. The city council of Boston, on January 5, 1867, passed an order to widen Hamilton Street by taking part of the petitioners’ land, but did not award the petitioners any damages. The petitioners applied to the board of aldermen of Boston to assess and award damages for taking the land, but the board refused to award them any damages. Thereupon, before the expiration of a year from the taking of the land, the petitioners filed this petition.…
1Opinion of the CourtAmes, J.
It was for a long time a part of the law of this Commonwealth that the formal order or vote of county commissioners, or other proper authority having similar jurisdiction, locating and laying out, or widening and altering, a public highway or town way, was such an appropriation of the land, embraced in it, to public use, as would of itself give to the owner of such land a right to damages, without waiting for it to be entered upon, or for his possession of it to be disturbed. In one case it was decided that this right was so vested that it could not be defeated or taken away by a subsequent…
2Cited by9 opinions
- Edmands v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
- Main v. County of PlymouthMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1916
- Weeks v. GraceMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1907
- Ford v. Board of Park CommissionersSupreme Court of Iowa · 1910
- Iowa Electric Co. v. ScottSupreme Court of Iowa · 1928
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