Horace Harmon Lurton

“ We do not feel ourselves under any obligation to do more than to hold that we find no error in the decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals, and to remand the case to the Circuit Court, to be proceeded with accordingly. ”

“ It is not necessary that the title of the company to all the lands upon which its works are built or through which its pipes are laid should be a fee simple, perfect in every particular and subject to no criticism. ”

“ If, however, there should be found substantial defects, opportunity should be given the company to remedy them; and if it is unable to do so, the parts of the property so circumstanced can be valued and the purchase price abated accordingly. It would be expressing too narrow a view to say that an appraisal of a great system of waterworks under a contract of purchase must fail because the title to a small part, not vital to the integrity of the system, was afterwards found to be defective. ”

“ An arbitration is a reference to the decision of one or more persons, either with or without an umpire, of some matter or matters in difference between the parties. It is very true that in one sense it must be implied that although there is no existing difference, still that a difference may arise between the parties ”

“ Undoubtedly, as a general rule, the seller wants to get the highest price for his property, and the purchaser wishes to give the lowest, and in that sense it may be said that an expected difference between the parties is to be implied in every case ”

“ It is not the opinion of the city of Omaha that it would be proper or necessary to call expert witnesses as to the value, since the members of the board have been selected as experts (to) whose judgment the question of value must be submitted upon the examination of the property.'
Counsel for the water company appear to have fully concurred in this view of the function of the board. ”

“ The point from which the water wax taken by the existing water plant was beyond the corporate limits of Omaha. In the immediate suburbs of the city there are several villages outside the corporate limits. The distributing system of the Omaha Water Company has, from time to time, been extended to these outlying suburban towns. It is now said that the appraisers have valued these outlying distributing systems as a part of the plant to be acquired by the city under the ordinance electing to purchase. ”

“ The distinction suggested by counsel, that the authority for the submission must come from the public, if there be anything of substance in it, does not prevent the operation of the rule here, for the purchase upon a valuation settled by appraisers was in the ordinance of the city, in pursuance of legislative authority, and, in a very true sense, was an authority to submit to appraisers which came from the public. ”

“ In the present case there was not only no antecedent disagreement as to price, but the ordinance under which the purchase was to be made provided that the property was to pass 'at an appraised valuation, which shall be ascertained by the estimate of three engineers,' etc. The board was accordingly made up of such engineers, selected because they were experts of experience in the service they were expected to perform. ”

“ The difference between a dead plant and a live one is a real value, and is independent of any franchise to go on, or any mere good will as between such a plant and its customers. That kind of good will, as suggested in Willcox v. ”