Joseph McKenna, District of Columbia v. Robinson…
“ The greatest strength of proof attributable to an answer under oath in a suit in equity is that it cannot be overcome by a single witness unaccompanied by some corroborating circumstance. That it has even that strength in a common-law court we are not called upon to decide. ”
Joseph McKenna, District of Columbia v. Robinson…
“ It is objected that the prayer submitted to the jury a pure question of law; to wit, whether the gravel was taken as an incident to the legal exercise of the power to grade. But a definition accompanied the question. The jury was told that what was meant by the legal power to grade was a power exercised by the Commissioners jointly, and the court carefully added that such legal power could be presumed from the supervision of the grading by the officers and employees of the District. The prayer is not amenable to the objection made. ”
Joseph McKenna, District of Columbia v. Robinson…
“ The right to take gravel outside the limits of the road, or not for the purpose of grading it, was denied, and properly denied. It was an easement in the land, not the fee to the land, which the public acquired by the road, and the measure of the easement was the width of the road. The right to grade and improve was incident to the easement, but the easement gave no other right in the soil or to the soil. The right to remove soil from one part of a road to another part may be conceded. ”
