29 Conn. 523 | Conn. | 1861
In 1808 the legislature chartered the defendants to build a bridge over Connecticut liver, and a causeway through the East Hartford meadows. In 1810 the legislature passed an act providing for the assessment, by a committee named, of damages to land proprietors. This assessment was immediately made by the committee, who also made their report to the same legislature, which was approved and accepted. These land damages were at once paid to and accepted by the persons in whose favor they had been assessed, and among them was the person under whom the plaintiff holds the land in question.
The legislature directed in the charter that the causeway should be raised at least twenty feet, which was done to the acceptance of the committee. From that time to the present, now more than fifty years, this causeway has been treated and used by the public, without objection, as a public highway.
We will only add that the legal presumption is that damages were assessed in this instance for a causeway of any height which the public convenience should require, and not for one of any particular height, as claimed by the plaintiff’s counsel; nor could its exact height, whether a little more or less, be material in the assessment of damages for the land taken.
The plaintiffs case does not seem to rest so much upon this claim for land damages, as upon a claim for damage caused by the subsequent raising of the causeway beyond the height originally required. This it is which, as he alleges in his declaration, has put him to great inconvenience, obstructed his passage to and from his dwelling house, darkened his windows, and subjected him to increased dust and drainage of water from the causeway, and generally has made his dwelling-house loss comfortable and convenient as a habitation.
Now the court submitted to the jury the question whether the defendants, in what they had done, had conducted fairly and reasonably; for, if they had not, certainly they were liable; and the jury found that they had, and that public convenience ■and necessity justified and required the raising of the causeway in the manner in which it was done. This being established, it is not easy to see on what principle of law or public policy the defendants can be made liable for the natural consequences of the act; for it will not be contended that persons living on a highway can sue the officers of the government for the damage, no matter how real, which may result from a necessary change in the grade of the road ; and these defendants are clothed with like powers in relation to this causeway under the provisions of their charter. A contrary doctrine, such as the plaintiff must adopt if he will maintain his case,
In our view of this case, the resolve of 1858 presents the only ground of doubt as to the right of the defendants to raise their causeway in the manner they have done. Possibly this resolve may be construed so as to reach this case, and yet we should give it this construction with extreme reluctance, for we are persuaded that it would be to the prejudice of the public, as well as in violation of the rights of the defendants, who have a close charter which is unrestricted as to the height of the causeway, except that it must be at least twenty feet. If by reason of high water the public travel requires that it should be higher than twenty feet, and tlie defendants are willing to meet this want, and raise the causeway at their own expense, we know not why it may not and ought not to be done. Certainly the plaintiff has no ground of complaint, as his damages (if indeed there be any,) are not, as we think, of the character contemplated by the resolve of 1858.
Besides, the resolve purports to take away only what was given by the resolve of 1857; but the defendants do not admit
We do not advise a new trial.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
New trial not advised.