66 Md. 319 | Md. | 1887
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Act of 1882, chapter 196, incorporated The Western Maryland Railroad Terminal Company. By the sixth section of the Act, certain powers are conferred' on the corporation which are described in these words: “ to provide ample yards and depot, and other terminal facilities for the business of the Western Maryland Railroad Company, and the erection of the necessary structures thereon, and the laying of rails thereon, and the connection of the same with all tracks in use by the said railroad company.” Under an inquisition authorized by the seventh section of the Act, a certain lot of ground in the City of Baltimore, was condemned for the use of the corporation. We are required to determine the effect and legal consequences of this condemnation. The complainants below (who are now appellants,) were the owners of an equitable leasehold interest in two lots of ground on the west side of Burén street; and from the tract a parcel of land formed by these lots, a small triangular section was taken and condemned under the inquisition. The sheriff's return ■shows that the jury was sworn to value the said triangular lot and the improvements on it, and the other damages which the owners would sustain by the taking of the land in fee simple by the corporation for its uses under its ■charter; and the inquisition itself shows that the jury made an estimate both of the property, and the other •damages which would result to the owners from the taking ■of it. They assessed twelve hundred and thirty-three dollars to the leaseholders, and two dollars to the reversioners. By agreement the amount to be paid to the leaseholders was increased to twenty-one hundred dollars, and the inquisition was ratified by the Superior Court of Baltimore. This sum has been duly paid by the corporation. The requirement that the jury should estimate both the value of the land, and the other damages which the owners would sustain from taking it, was made neces
The case of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Co. vs. Reaney, 42 Md., 117, shows with great clearness that a private corporation may be using the streets in a lawful manner, and in pursuance of a lawful authority, and yet it must be held liable for damages which actually result from such use. If Burén street was opened in the manner most usually adopted -in the City of Baltimore, a public easement was condemned for the ordinary purposes of a street, and the owners of the fee were compensated for it. When the tracks of the Terminal Company were laid in the bed of the street, (on sidewalk and carriage-way,) a new burden was imposed on their estate, above and beyond the original servitude to which it was subjected at the time the street was opened. The property was put to a use entirely different from that required by the public in the case of a street. The amount of injury caused to the owners of the fee, by a new appropriation of this kind would in most cases be exceedingly small. When their land is taken for a street, they can make no private or personal use of its surface as long as the street is in existence ; but if it should ever be closed, their right of possession would be fully restored. And when it is restored to them, they will find it encumbered by railway tracks. It is the prospect of the closing of the street which gives the actual value to the fee. The constitutional question, however, does not depend on the amount of damage done, but on the rights of ownership. The damage done by the tracks and their use is a matter entirely different from the invasion of the realty, and the impairment of its usefulness to its owners, by the imposition
It will be perceived that we have considered the questions in the case, as if the complainants owned the fee in the bed of Burén street, The record however does not in
Decree affirmed, with costs.