Town of Windsor v. Whitney
Supreme Court of Connecticut
Suit to restrain the defendants from establishing and maintaining building and curb lines upon a certain tract of land in the plaintiff town which they were developing, from erecting buildings thereon and from using the streets laid out by them upon said tract for public travel, in alleged violation of a Special Act of the General Assembly creating a town-plan commission — brought to the Superior Court in Hartford County and tried to the court, Burpee, J., upon a demurrer to…
Read the full summary
Suit to restrain the defendants from establishing and maintaining building and curb lines upon a certain tract of land in the plaintiff town which they were developing, from erecting buildings thereon and from using the streets laid out by them upon said tract for public travel, in alleged violation of a Special Act of the General Assembly creating a town-plan commission — brought to the Superior Court in Hartford County and tried to the court, Burpee, J., upon a demurrer to the complaint; the court sustained the demurrer upon the ground of the unconstitutionality of the Special Act, and…
1DissentGager, J.
The majority opinion holds, in part, that the establishment of a reasonable building line is not “a taking of property in violation of constitutional right for which compensation must be made.” From this I dissent. The argument seems to be that such a restriction is an exercise of the police power and not of the power of eminent domain. The adoption of the term “police power” as a substitute for “eminent domain,” appears to be an attempt to change the character of the act by adopting a hitherto unused designation for what is at all times the same act, to wit: a taking of private property for…
2Cases cited10 opinions
- Pumpelly v. Green Bay Co.Supreme Court of the United States · 1872
- Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Co. v. Illinois ex rel. Drainage CommissionersSupreme Court of the United States · 1906
- Sage v. . City of BrooklynNew York Court of Appeals · 1882
- City of St. Louis v. HillSupreme Court of Missouri · 1893
- In re the City of New YorkAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1901
5 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.