New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-05-13
TIE r1EvdrEp RAILROADS At ALBAHY


A bill to take from property owners sub
stantial redress for damages caused by the
construction and operation of the elevated rail-
WAYS has been passed by the Assembly, APP
parently in the combined interest of the COM
NAMES in New-York and Brooklyn. 1t pro-
yidcs that all commissioners appointed or TO be
appointed to appraiSe real estate or the ease
ments in streets taken or sought to be acquired,
shall award only such amount as shall appear to
them to be the net depreciation, after making
such allowance for enhancement in the value OF
abutting property as they may find has arisen
or nav arise at any time in the future.
The plain and necessary effect Of this bill, in
troduced in the last days Of the Legislature
would be to overturn VIII oily the settled law and
policy of this State as it has always existed in
respect to the taking of private property ior
railway purposes. 1t is provided in the genera
Railway Act and in the Rapid Transit ActS'
under which the companies are organized ina.
no allowance or deduction shall be made for real
or supposed benefits The principle oil ms
provision is far older than any statute relauhg
TO RAILWAYS and is TO be found in the common
law rule regulating the measure OF damages IN
cases of nuisance. But the railway companies
are not satisfied simply to have the old eStab-
HShed law reversed for their particular bcneht {;
they demand. not merely that an allowance shall
now be made for actual present enhancement
Of value by the roads but also for any enhance
ment which it may be supposed will take place
in the future.
The proposed change in the law IL utterly
bad, and nothing whatever can be SAID IN us
! 1NN YtRn - H.
tional as authorizing the taking of private
property without compensation; since a benefit
which is 10 arcrue in the future and may never
accrue at all, cannot he called compensation
within any proper meaning of the term Aslde
from all other legal considerations the bill is an
audacOuS attempt to havo an exception Hade 10
the general law in favor of particular corpora
tons. II would also be highly unjust and OPP
nressive in It's operation upon abuttlng prop
erty- owners. The elevated railway companies
have received franchises to use the pubic
streets which are Of enormous and ever IN
creasng value. The only ground upon which
such gift to private corporations can be justi-
fed Is that the railways are benefit to the
general public The franchises are said to be
given in exchange for the public benefit which
ers of property on the line Of the railways are
part of the general public, and as such are en-
| titled to share in any benefit which belongs TO
it.. OF this right they would be deprived II
compelled to set off advantages which they en-
ioy in common with the general public and as a
part Of II against the loss and damage which
| they alone suffer. In a word the corporations
receive the franchises as gifts, the general pub
lie gets certain benefit from their exercise and
a small number OF property owners have to pay
| all the costs.
The bill in its present shape applies only "a
cities with less than 100000 inhabitants
thus excluding New York; but in measure Sc
obviously vicious both in its object and pro
visions and the circumstances attending its IN
PRODUCTION. it is 10 he expected that it's pro
moters will SEQ to it that somewhere In lts
course through the Legislature, or in some
subsequent Legislature, the trick is performed
by which its application is extended to TINS
city. However, public attention having been
called to the bill, it can hardly make any
| further progress.