126 Iowa 313 | Iowa | 1905
, Tbe question considered in Long v. Wilson, 119 Iowa, 267, was whether an adjudication against a municipality that certain ground was not a part of the street was res ju-dicata as to a landowner ingress and egress to whose property would be cut off, and it was declared that he had a right to and interest in the street distinct and different from that of the general public. In the course of the opinion the court said:
It is important to the individual owner of abutting property that he shall be able to get to and from his residence or business, and that the public' shall have the means of getting there for social and business purposes. In such a case access to thoroughfares connecting his property with other parts of the town or city has a value peculiar to him apart from that shared in by citizens generally, and his right to the street as a means of enjoying the free and convenient use of his property has a value quite as certainly as the property itself. If this special right is value — and it is of value,if it increases the worth of his abutting premises — then it is property, regardless of the- extent of such value. Surely, no argument is required to demonstrate that the deprivation of the use of property is to that extent the destruction of its. value.
As such destruction is presumed to have been for the public good, the public must make just compensation for the property to the extent taken. As the authority of the city to vacate is conceded, it is manifest that the remedy by certiorari was not available to plaintiff, and that her only recourse was an action for damages. The decisions upon which appellant relies were reviewed in the last-cited case, and shown not to be inconsistent with the conclusion announced.