30 Iowa 262 | Iowa | 1870
Plaintiff’s counsel then asked the plaintiff, as a witness, “ How much and in what way has said property been injured in consequence of the injuries complained of?” This question was objected to, the objection sustained by the court, and plaintiff excepted. The court, however, allowed this and other witnesses to state “ in what waríj ” the property was damaged, “ and to give the items making up the aggregate of such damage, and the actual damage sustained, if hnown, by them, but were not permitted to give an opinión as to the damages sustained.” The witness was also asked whether the property was damaged in consequence of the injuries complained of, to which he answered in the affirmative.
The witness was then asked “ How much ?” To which the defendant objected. The objection was sustained and the plaintiff excepted.
There was no error in this ruling. The witness was permitted to testify to the facts showing in what manner the plaintiff’s property was injured, and to give, in the language of the bill of exceptions, the items making up the damages,” and also to state what it would require to make the plaintiff whole. But the opinion of the witness as to how much, in the aggregate, the plaintiff’s property
tions being objected to and the objections sustained by the court, the appellant complains that the court erred in so doing.
The petition alleges no cHrect injury to the plaintiff’s property, but that by reason of the negligence and unskillfulness of the city, in doing the grading of certain streets, pools of water, etc., accumulated and stood thereon in front of plaintiff’s residence, thereby rendering ingress to and egress from the same dangerous and inconvenient. The inquiry, therefore, should have been confined to such injury to the use of the property as was cafised by the negligent acts complained of, and could not properly, under the case made in the petition, include any deprecia
III. The plaintiff also proposed to prove, as an item of damages, the value of curbing which it was shown had fallen down and become buried up, in consequence of cutting down the streets by the city. The court, on defendant’s objection, excluded the evidence. Plaintiff excepted, and assigns this ruling as error.
There is no claim made in the petition for any injury to the curbing, nor, as has been seen, of any dweot injury to the plaintiff’s property, of which this curbing formed a part. The proposed evidence, therefore, was entirely outside the plaintiff’s case, as stated in his petition, and there was no error in its rejection.
That the city had authority to grade its streets and change the grade is not denied. If, in the exercise of this authority, the appellant’s property was consequentially injured, he will have no right to compensation, unless such compensation is given by statute, or his property has been injured by the negligence or unskillfulness of the city in doing the work. Creal v. The City of Keokuk, 4 G. Greene, 47 ; Cotes & Patchen v. The City of Davenport, 9 Iowa, 227.
It was immaterial, therefore, whether appellant had erected his residence by the grade thus furnished him or not, for the city might lawfully change the 'grade subsequently, and if it did so in a careful and skillful manner it would not be liable. If it did so negligently or únskillfully, whereby the plaintiff’s property was injured, it would be liable for such injuries, whether appellant had erected his house to the existing grade or not. Thus, if a material portion of the plaintiff’s lot had been washed away, or the
The judgment of the circuit court is
Affirmed.