229 Pa. 484 | Pa. | 1911
Opinion by
The action was for damages for the taking of land under the right of eminent domain. The land taken is a narrow strip containing eight acres, part of a larger tract of sixty-one acres lying partly within and partly without the borough of Blairsville. This strip had been condemned by the defendant company for the purpose of constructing thereon a railroad track parallel with another previously constructed on the same tract. From the judgment obtained on the verdict in the court below the defendant company has appealed, and we have pre
The strip appropriated by the defendant company was covered with standing timber at the time of the appropriation. This timber was cut and used in the construction of the railroad. Evidence was admitted as to its value. This ruling is the subject of the fourth and fifth assignments. The evidence was competent for one purpose only. Two of plaintiff’s witnesses had testified to the value of the eight acres of land taken in making up their estimate of the total damage sustained. In so far as the offer to show the value of the timber would go to support these witnesses in their estimation of the value of the land actually taken, it would be competent for that purpose. It would not be competent as evidence of a distinct element of value separate from the land itself. Whether it was employed in the way indicated we have no means of knowing to a certainty. It would have been entirely proper for the court to have so instructed the jury, and it would doubtless have done so had a request for such instructions been made. The point was not in any way raised on the trial.
The ninth and twelfth assignments challenge the competency of certain witnesses who were admitted to testify to the market value of the plaintiff’s land on the ground that their knowledge of market value was confined largely to town lots. When it is recalled that more than one-