21 N.H. 359 | Superior Court of New Hampshire | 1850
The • act of November, 1844, requires the commissioners “ to assess the damages sustained by the owners of land.” Whether the commissioners take into consideration all the circumstances proper to be adverted to by them, depends on their attention to the subject, and their capacity to come to a correct conclusion. But the result they reach is conclusive upon the party, unless there be an appeal from their decision. This is plainly the intent of the statute, for the institution of this tribunal would be useless, unless their estimate should .be regarded as final. Any other view of the question would lead to great
It is a well-settled principle in this State, that when the legislature has authorized an act, the necessary and natural consequence of which is damage to the property of another, and at the same time has prescribed the particular mode in which the damage shall be ascertained and compensated, he who does the act cannot be liable as a wrongdoer. Lebanon v. Olcott, 1 N. H. Rep. 339; Woods v. Nashua Man. Co. 4 N. H. Rep. 527. Both these cases were actions on the case for erecting dams, and causing injury thereby to the respective plaintiffs, and in each of them damages were awarded by a committee designated in the charter of incorporation, and the position above stated was not denied by the plaintiffs.
If we were to consider the remedy by the award of the commissioners as merely cumulative, we should defeat the manifest object of the legislature, which was, not to give an additional remedy to the party injured, but to substitute one proceeding for
There is nothing in the present case to show, that the damage complained of was not the necessary consequence of a lawful act. That the commissioners could not probably have anticipated as a matter of fact, the cutting off the stream of water in the place excavated for the railroad and the consequent injury to the plaintiff, may be an argument against the expediency, but not against obligation of the law in question. As it does not appear that the cuttings and excavations were not made in a proper and reasonable manner, we think the action cannot be maintained upon these facts. Verdict set aside.