City of Amarillo v. Stockton

The City of Amarillo let to S. G. Stockton a contract for the excavation of a trench along and within the street and the laying therein of a sanitary sewer line. During the course of the work by the contractor a cave-in occurred. Johnnie Gray sued the City for damages to his building located on land abutting the street caused, as he asserts, by the loss of lateral support. He alleged that the City’s liability for this damage arose out of the constitutional inhibition that “no person’s property shall be taken or destroyed or applied to public use without adequate compensation being made * *…