Old Colony & Fall River Railroad v. Inhabitants of Plymouth
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Petitions by a railroad corporation for the assessment of damages occasioned by the laying out of two highways across their railroad in Abington.
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Petitions by a railroad corporation for the assessment of damages occasioned by the laying out of two highways across their railroad in Abington. The petition first named was filed after, and the other before, the union of the Old Colony Railroad Corporation and the Fall River Railroad Company, under SL 1854, c. 133. At the trial of each case before a sheriff’s jury, the petitioners introduced warranty deeds from the former owners of a strip of land four rods wide, along which their railroad was laid, and which was crossed by the highway in question ; and offered evidence of the value of the…
1Opinion of the Court
Shaw, C J.
We believe it has never yet been judicially determined that a railroad corporation who have, in the ordinary course of business, under an act of incorporation, built a road, and have it in full operation, can recover damages for injuries occasioned by laying out other ways, say public highways and town ways, turnpikes and other railroads over it. But the tendency of judicial opinion has been that they may. The language of the Constitution, in which the right to damages occasioned by the exercise of the power of eminent domain is given to all persons, whose property is appropriated…
2Cited by2 opinions
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