Commonwealth, Department of Highways v. Thomas

EDWARD P. HILL, Judge.

In this case the novel question is presented concerning the right of riparian or littoral landowners to recover for the destruction or impairment of their access to Barkley Lake by reason of the construction by appellant of a roadway, also by a fill across an inlet bordering on the landowners’ property. The courts of the states are about equally divided in interpreting the law on this question.

*214The judgment appealed from awarded appellees $18,000 damages, from which only the Commonwealth appeals. The award of the county court commissioners was $7500.

Appellees own an…