Melville Fuller

“ And the more so in view of the fact that railroad companies, while private corporations, are quasi-public agencies, engaged in the performance of public duties, and that contracts which prevent them from the discharge of those duties cannot be sustained. It did not follow that the company, because it possessed the power to construct and operate this extension, could contract to operate it forever in so absolute a sense that damages could be awarded for the breach of such a contract, predicated on the expectation of its perpetual operation. ”

“ Whether prevented gains or prospective profits are or are not too uncertain and contingent to be regarded as probable and contemplated consequences is always a question of difficulty, and as in such cases juries are permitted to exercise a wide discretion in the allowance of damages, great care is required in advising them as to the elements proper to be considered in making up their verdicts.
In a case like this, gain prevented is a more accurate term that loss of profits. ”

“ Cincinnati, S. & M. R. Co. 78 Ala. 341, a railroad company agreed to locate houses for its hands near plaintiff's land, and it was held that possible loss of profits at his store and mill was too speculative.
So, in Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. Ft. Scott, 15 Kan. 435, where a railroad company failed to perform its agreement to make the city of Fort Scott the terminus of one division of its line, and erect machine shops there, it was held that an inquiry into the value of real estate and amount of business, in order to show what profits would have been made, was improper ”