Property damage

“ If damage is sustained by any person in his property by the laying out, alteration, or discontinuance of a public way, he is entitled to receive just and adequate damages therefor, to be assessed, in the first place, by the town or city authorities or by the county commissioners, and, finally, by a jury, in case one is demanded by him. He is entitled to a reasonable time to take off any timber, wood or trees, which may be upon the land to be taken ”

“ After every fire the company's agent examines the damage and estimates what is saved. On this the payment is based.
INSURABLE PROPERTY A building is classed as real estate, but personal property is just as liable to be destroyed by fire.
Fire policies can be secured on goods, furniture, machinery, live stock and other things, and the method is about the same as where buildings are insured, but as a rule the premiums are higher, for such things are apt to be ruined by smoke and water, when the building in which they are stored may not be much injured. ”

“ Any person, firm, association or corporation, who may construct or operate any public utility along or across the public streets of any city, town or village, under any privilege or franchise permitting such construction or operation, shall be liable to abutting proprietors for the actual damage done to the abutting property on account of such construction or operation. ”

“ The principle applicable to the erection of common buildings whose fall might do damage to persons or property on the adjacent premises holds owners to a less strict duty. This principle is that where a certain lawful use of property will bring to pass wrongful consequences from the condition in which the property is put, if these are not guarded against, an owner who makes such a use is bound at his peril to see that proper care is taken in every particular to prevent the wrong.... ”

“ Bail is taken for property attached for the value of the same when delivered to the claimant, and it will not be reduced if the property when sold brings less than the appraised value; and it is the settled rule, that, where the value of the property held in a cause of damage is insufficient to pay the loss, it is not competent for the court to award damages against the sureties in the stipulation beyond the proceeds or value. ”

“ And every such entry or breach of a man’s close carries necessarily along with it some damage or other: for, if no other special loss can be assigned, yet still the words of the writ itself specify one general damage, viz. the treading down and bruising his herbage [3] .
One must have a property (either absolute or temporary) in the soil, and actual possession by entry, to be able to maintain an action of trespass: or at least, it is requisite that the party have a lease and possession of the vesture and herbage of the land [4] . ”

“ If again, the government seek to take the property of A, consisting of a single house in a city, and he has also acquired, through a separate title and at a different time, houses adjoining, would the government be liable to A for the damage sustained by that other property on account of the use the government proposes to make of the property taken? ”

“ Whatever of property the citizen has the Government may take. When it takes the property, that is, the fee, the lease, whatever he may own, terminating altogether his interest, under the established law it must pay him for what is taken, not more; and he must stand whatever indirect or remote injuries are properly comprehended within the meaning of 'consequential damage' as that conception has been defined in such cases. ”

“ There is no homestead exemption law and exemptions from levy for the satisfaction of debts extend only to $100 worth of property, besides wearing apparel and books and tools used by the debtor in his profession or trade, and to all money payable in the nature of insurance. Employers of workmen in a clay or coal mine, stone quarry, or on a steam or street railway are liable for damage in case of an injury to any of their workmen where such injury is caused by the negligence of the employer or of any servant or employee of the employer. ”

“ Apart from the money value of the property itself, they were entitled to be compensated so as to lose nothing by the interruption of their business and its damage by the change. A business stand is of some value to the owner of the business, whether he owns the fee of the land or not, and a diminution of business facilities may lead to serious results. There may be cases when the loss of a particular location may destroy business altogether for want of access to any other that is suitable for it. ”

“ The principle is that one [963] must not use one’s own property so as to injure one’s neighbour. So one must keep one’s beasts, filth, stenches, &c., within the boundaries of one’s own property; and if they transgress, the transgression imposes liability for the damage caused thereby. ”

“ By the provisions of the statute referred to, a city is made liable for three fourths of the damage resulting to property situated therein, caused by the violence of any mob or riotous assemblage of more than twelve persons, not abetted or permitted by the negligent or wrongful act of the owner, etc. ”

“ Where minerals are wrongfully severed and carried away, the damage is assessed by calculating the value of the mineral as a chattel and deducting the reasonable expense of getting it. But where the interference with property, whether real or personal, is attended by circumstances of aggravation such as crime or fraud or wanton insult, it is well established that additional damages may be awarded which in effect are penal or vindictive. ”

“ When property has been injured or destroyed by the enemy, or the owner unable temporarily to use or occupy it by reason of the presence or proximity of the enemy, the assessment may be reduced in proportion to the damage sustained by the owner, and the tax in the same ratio by the district collector. ”

“ The Government has the right to make contracts and hold and dispose of property, and, for the protection of its property rights, it may resort to the same remedies as a private person. Cotton v. United States, 11 How. 229, 13 L.Ed. 675. Liquidated damages are a well-known remedy, and in fact Congress has utilized this form of recovery in numerous situations. In all building contracts, for example, Congress has required the insertion of a liquidated-damage clause which 'shall be conclusive and binding upon all parties' without proof of 'actual or specific damages sustained * * *.' 32 Stat. ”

“ For it is clear that the case is not one for equitable relief. If the plaintiffs as abutting property owners have any legal right which is interfered with, an action at law for damages will afford them a full and complete remedy. ”

“ In a great many such cases abutters could be induced to waive any claims for damages on condition that the building line should be applied to the whole street. Furthermore, the actual net damages to be paid would be distributed over a long period, and a considerable proportion of them, in many cases, could properly be assessed on adjacent benefited property owners. ”

“ Penalties are triple damages, fine, and ransom to the King. A forceful possession lasting three years is exempt.
By common law, a tenant could not take away buildings or fixtures he built on land because it would be wasteful. This applied to agricultural fixtures, but not to other trade fixtures. Also at common law, if a person had enjoyed light next to his property for at least 20 years, no one could build up the adjacent land so that the light would be blocked.
Women of age fourteen or over shall have livery of their lands
and tenements by inheritance without question or difficulty. ”

“ The former surface will be deeply buried under the earth that will have been brought upon it, and the changed condition is to be perpetual. If the old property is restored, the new property which has been annexed to it must go with it. This would be very unjust to the city, which has been compelled to incur the great expense of destroying the nuisance, unless the owner were required to make a reasonable compensation, which might be far beyond the amount of the damages to which he would be entitled. ”

“ The Artisans' Dwellings Act, 1882, provides that when in the opinion of the arbitrator the demolition of the property dealt with adds to the value of other property belonging to the same owner, the amount of such increased value may be apportioned and levied as an improvement rate on the lands, &c., affected ”

“ The owners of lands abutting on a street in the city of New York have an easement of way, and of light and air, over it; and, through a bill in equity for an injunction, may recover of the elevated railroad company full compensation for the permanent injury to this easement; but, in an action at law, cannot, without the defendant's acquiescence, recover permanent damages, measured by the diminution in value of their property, but can recover such temporary damages only as they have sustained to the time of commencing the action. ”

“ Whoever sets fire to the house of another in a city, shall be arrested by order of the judge, and condemned to be burned alive; and shall pay out of his own property the loss incurred by the owner of the house, as well as the price of the house itself, should the latter be consumed. ”

“ These cases take the ground that 'the damages awarded for the negligent act are such as result to the property rights of the person or persons for whose benefit the cause of action was created.' [20] Indeed, even at common law, since statutes adopted in the reign of Edward III (4 Edw. III, c. 7; 25 Edw. III, Stat. 5, c. 5) , which were extended beyond their letter by an equitable construction, an administrator might recover where the wrong was an injury to property and not an injury to the person. ”

“ But is even the abuse of land worse than the abuse of other forms of property; and is the spectacle of one man owning 75,000 acres of rich land more deplorable than that of another man holding enough personal property to buy him out? ”

“ That these effects do not amount to a complete, physical, or permanent deprivation of real property is irrelevant, since even the temporary or partial impairments to property rights that such encumbrances entail are sufficient to merit due process protection. ”

“ It is further asserted by plaintiffs in error, in their capacity as taxpayers, that the effect of allowing these and other consequential damages is to deprive them of their property without due process of law. ”

“ It is obvious that even this law, which was essentially just, might work the most serious inconvenience both to the owner and the holder of the soil in dispute. The owner might be unable to purchase the improvements established on the property by the holder, and yet find no real compensation for the loss of the land in the amount which the verdict of a jury might require the latter to pay him. On the other hand, it would frequently be no real compensation to the occupant if the expense he had incurred in establishing a home on the soil of which he had been dispossessed were refunded him. ”

“ It is so spoken of by counsel in the argument, and the authorities referred to as furnishing the measure of damages are all in cases of actions at law for what is equivalent to a conversion of property held for another's use. ”

“ So Domat says: 'If the tenant is expelled by the act of the sovereign, by vis major, or by some other accident, or if the property is destroyed by an inundation, by an earthquake, or other event, the lessor, who was bound to give the property, cannot demand the rent, and will be bound to restore so much of it as he has received, but without any other damages; for no one ought to answer for accidents.' Droit Civil, pt. ”

“ While a much longer time might be allowed to assert this right in regard to real estate whose value is fixed, on which no outlay is made for improvement, and but little change in value, the class of property here considered, subject to the most rapid, frequent, and violent fluctuations in value of any thing known as property, requires prompt action in all who hold an option, whether they will share its risks, or stand clear of them. ”

“ Section 3 provides for the payment of damages to any person owning or having an interest in an uncompleted building begun before the fourteenth day of January, 1898, which is affected by the act, and Section 4 provides for compensation to all persons sustaining damages to their property by reason of the limitation of the height of buildings prescribed by the act. ”

“ Any citizen, acting either as an individual or as a public official under the orders of local or municipal authorities, whether such orders be or be not in pursuance of special legislation or charter provisions, may abate what the common law deemed a public nuisance. In abating it, property may be destroyed, and the owner deprived of it without trial, without notice and without compensation. Such destruction for public safety or health is not a taking of private property for public uses without compensation, or due process of law, in the sense of the constitution. ”

“ And by what process of reasoning, it is asked, could the legislative mind have discovered the foundation for allowing the recovery of a reasonable attorney's fee in case of a total loss of real estate insured, and not permit recovery of such fee when the property insured has been only partially destroyed? The distinction between real and personal property has in all systems of law constantly given rise to different regulations concerning such property. ”

“ That under the act of Congress authorizing said defendants to open streets, when they have once graded and opened the same, that they have no lawful authority, without the consent of the property holders injured thereby, and without making compensation for the damages sustained, to regrade so as to injure the value or the use of real estate when the said regrading is made; and that if they find said defendants have so regraded, they are liable to said plaintiff for all damages she has sustained by such regrading. ”