140 Minn. 289 | Minn. | 1918
Action to recover damages for injury to real property. Plaintiff recovered a verdict of $400 against the defendants Arthur Mining Company and Dean Iron Mining Company. From a judgment entered thereon this appeal was taken.
The village of Spina is situated on the Mesaba Range, which is one of the principal iron mining districts of northern Minnesota. A large part of the iron mining in this region is done by the system known as
On June 13, 1916, near the^northerly part of the east end of the dump a large mass of soft wet mortar-like material gushed out from the bottom of the dump across the highway and a distance of over 200 feet down one of the streets of said village, carrying with it for about 50 feet several houses with which it came in contact. The property of the plaintiff was not located upon this street and was in no manner whatever reached by the- material which was thus forced out from the bottom of the dump.
The basis of plaintiffs’ claim to a right of recovery, as appears from the complaint, is that the ground where the dump was constructed is low, spongy and sloped toward his premises; that the material constituting the dump was deposited thereon in a careless and negligent- manner by making the dump too high, the incline too steep and by depositing thereon soft earth, quicksand and gravel in such manner as to cause the same to give way and slide in large quantities; that a large portion thereof did give way and slide onto the streets in masses, and that another like slide is liable to occur and strike and injure his premises, and that by reason thereof the market value of his property has been greatly diminished.
-At the trial the issues were fully litigated. The controlling question here for consideration is, whether the evidence sustains the verdict.
Respondent's contention cannot he sustained. To recover damages for injury to real property, resulting from negligence, the owner must wait until the injury or damage has actually happened. It is the damage and not the anticipation thereof that gives rise to the cause of action. The following cases are analogous: West Leigh Collier Co. v. Tunnicliffe & Hampson (1908) A. C. 27; McGill v. Pintsch Com. Co. 140 Iowa, 4.29, 118 N. W. 786, 20 L.R.A. (N.S.) 466; Robb v. Carnegie Bros. & Co. 145 Pa. St. 324, 22 Alt. 649, 14 L.R.A. 329, 27 Am. St. 694.
In the instant case, apprehension of a future slide, though founded on the known fact of a former one, does not give rise to a cause of action for damages. To hold otherwise would be to allow damages 'for depreciation in the market value, due to the apprehension of future injury by negligence, for an act which has not and may never happen. Such a rule of damages would be too remote and speculative. The judgment appealed from must be set aside.
Reversed.