71 Mo. 392 | Mo. | 1880
This is an action in which plaintiff seeks to make defendant liable for special injuries sustained by him, occasioned by an obstruction of a certain highway within the corporate limits of defendant. It appears that the highway, the obstruction of which is complained of ran in front of plaintiff’s house and premises, and led into the business part of the city of Cape Girardeau, passing through and over a tract of land or lot of about forty acres included in the corporate limits; that the obstruction which - plaintiff claims worked a special injury to him, not common to the public at large, consisted of a fence built around the tract through which the highway or road passed, whereby the use of it was denied plaintiff, and he was compelled to use a circuitous route to reach his place of business in the city. It appears that this obstruction was
Counsel have called our attention to the case of Hill v. City of Boston, 122 Mass. 344, where, it is claimed, a differ
It is also insisted that plaintiff’s remedy for the wrong is afforded by resort to indictment, and that .he is not entitled to redress by private action. If the injury to plaintiff resulting from the obstruction was only such as the whole public sustained, then the position of defendant is maintainable; but it is otherwise when the damage is special and peculiar. Mr. Thompson in his work on Negligence, volume 1, page 340, announces the rule to be, “that the unlawful or unreasonable obstruction of a highway is a public nuisance, and in general the only remedy therefor is by indictment; but if any person has sustained special damages in consequence of such obstruction, he may maintain a civil action therefor against the obstructor.”
We see no valid objection to the instructions,and perceiving no error, affirm the judgment,