215 Pa. 506 | Pa. | 1906
Opinion by
This was a proceeding in the court below to assess the dam-,ages sustained by the plaintiff by reason of the defendant company’s appropriation of á strip of his land for widening its right of way. The viewers having reported in favor of the plaintiff, the defendant appealed to the common pleas, in which an issue was framed and the case was tried before a jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff. The defendant has appealed to this court.
It is well settled that the measure of damages for land taken or injured by a railroad company under the right of eminent domain is the difference in the market value of the tract as a, whole before the taking and afterwards, as affected by it. In adjusting this difference, the landowner is entitled to have the jury take into consideration the value of his property for any and every purpose or use to which it may be adapted, and to have the damages assessed upon a basis of the most valuable use to which the property may be adapted. As said by the present Chief Justice in Harris v. Railroad Company, 141 Pa. 242: “ In estimating the value of the lot before the taking, its possible and probable uses are important elements, and may be shown by the opinion of experts.” On the other hand, the defendant company is entitled to any benefits or advantages which may accrue to the part of the tract of land, not taken or injured, by reason of the construction of the improvement. In ascertaining the damages, therefore, the jury must take into consideration the value of the land for the uses to which it has been or may be applied, and the special advantage the construction of the road may be to the residue of the tract through which it is constructed.
While these general principles, applicable to the assessment of damages in condemnation proceedings, are well settled, there is another rule which has been recognized and enforced .for
In the case at bar it was proper for the plaintiff to call witnesses to show the uses or purposes for which his land was specially adapted, including that of duck raising. The landowner, in condemnation proceedings, is not limited to any one use for which his property may be available, but he is entitled to have its value considered for any and all purposes for which it can be used. He may, therefore, show by any competent testimony, expert or otherwise, that it is specially valuable for a certain particular purpose and that purpose must enter into its value before the jury. So, here, it was proper for the plaintiff to show by competent expert testimony the value of his property for duck-breeding purposes, and the jury was required, in passing upon the case, to take into consideration its value for that purpose. But in every case of this character the parties to establish their contention are required to produce competent testimony, and the question of competency was one for the court to determine. The plaintiff called at least four witnesses as experts to show the value of his farm for duck-raising purposes. Conceding that they disclosed sufficient knowledge of the business to make them competent to testify as to the adaptability of the property for a duck farm, their testimony clearly showed that their valuation of the property for such purpose rested upon an erroneous basis, the profits which the plaintiff would realize out of the business conducted upon the land. Mr. Stouffer fixed the plaintiff’s damages, by reason of the construction of the road through the premises, at $8,000. Of this sum he allowed $6,000 as the value of a pen on the premises destroyed by the defendant company. In testifying as to this item of depreciation, he said: “ That will depreciate the capacity about 2,000 ducks a year — our books will show twenty per cent apiece profit on a duck; that will be $400 a year. I arrive at that conclusion in this way — that is not taken for one year — it is taken for all time. ... If we were in business for twenty years — and there is no reason why we should not be— that would be $8,000 loss, without any interest.” Mr. Cox, the plaintiff, fixed the damages at about $10,000. He said the land was worth $1,500 as land and that the encroachment of the railroad on the part of the land used as a
At the close of the case, the defendant’s counsel moved to strike out that part of the testimony of the above witnesses relating to the value placed by them on the injuiy done to the plaintiff’s property, but the motion was denied. The testimony discloses the fact that the witnesses arrived at their conclusion as to the damages sustained by the plaintiff on an erroneous basis. Their estimates were made upon the profits which they
The court did not err in excluding the map offered in evidence by the defendant company. It was not shown to be a correct representation of the ground taken nor of the buildings affected; on the other hand, it appeared by the testimony of the party who made it that he did not have the data from which he could make an accurate map. In the trial of cases of this character, there should be a map of the locus in quo, as it aids most materially the court as well as the jury in the consideration of the case. From the evidence before us, it is difficult to determine the location of the spring or the buildings or the course of the stream with reference to the strip of land condemned.
The offer by the defendant to show that the use of the plaintiff’s land as a duck farm would pollute the stream passing through it and thereby prevent the use of the land for that purpose, was properly rejected as raising a collateral issue which could not be determined in this case. Whether the lower
The eighth assignment must be sustained notwithstanding the attempt to cure the error in the general charge. The plaintiff had the right, as we have held, to show that his farm was adapted to the use of and was valuable for duck raising, but he could not show the average number of ducks he raised on the farm each year. While in one sense such testimony would show the productive capacity of the farm per year, it would also afford the jury an opportunity to estimate the profits of the land. The plaintiff could show by competent testimony the acreage of his land and also its adaptability for the duck business by reason of its location, water, etc., which the jury was required to consider as an element of value; but when he was permitted to show that he produced from 45,000 to 50,000 ducks per year it furnished the jury the data from which it could and doubtless did ascertain the profits of the business which it used as a basis in determining the market value of the plaintiff’s property. The number of ducks the plaintiff may produce on the land in the future depends upon so many contingencies that any estimate thereof would be purely spec< ulative and should not go to the jury even as evidence of the productive capacity of the farm.
The assignments of error are sustained so far as the matters complained of therein are in conflict with the views above expressed and the judgment is reversed with a venire facias de novo.