Waterbury Democrat., 1902-07-10
BROWN WINS SUIT
Judge Robinson Says City
 Should Pay Dana ges.
OTHER SUITS MAY FOLLOW.

Suit is One That Grew Out of the
 Widening of Little Brook-The Ruls
 ing of Judge Robinson, Which is arl Interesting Document for Waterbury
 Taxpayers, is Given in Full.
 Robert K. Brown has won his suiu against the city. This morning Clerk Marsh of the superior court received Judge Robinson's judgment in the case and it gives Mir Brown not only fa- vorable decision, but also damages in the sum of $1,S10. This suit arose out of the widening of Little Brook where l it flows across East Main street and under the cellar of the Curran Dry Goods Go building, which is owned by MT Brown. For this improvement the 1 city assessed Mir Brown $500 damages and about $1,7OO benefits. In other words, the city determined that MT Brown was benefited about $1,200 and l that he should pay that amount to the city. From this he took an appeal, and Judge Robinson says that MT Brown shall not only not pay the above sum to the city, but that the city shall pay him 1,S1O. Attorneys Pierce and Hunt represented Mir Brown in the case and Kellogg and Root the city. Following l is the memorandum of the courts judg- ment in full:
 'This is an appeal from an assess ment of benefits and damages in the matter of the Little Brook conduit and the taking of the right of way of it. l Little brook, so called, is natural stream, and the city of Waterbury has taken the right of way for the same; and at the time of said taking this stream ran through premises of which 1 the appellant is conceded to be the sole owner. There was at the time of said taking an old conduit across said prem | 1ses to accommodate the flow of water | from said stream
 l 1'This old conduit, which the appe1- lant's predecessor in ownership built some thirty years ago, furnished a passage way four feet ip width for the water of said stream and was. find. of sufficient capacity at the time of said taking, to take care of the water com 1 ing through said brook.
 | 'The city, in this public improve ment, I find, took not only the old passage way just referred to, but took an additional six feet for the purpose of the new conduit, so that this new conduit occupies width of ten feet and length of nearly 200 feet through the land of this appellant
 l T find that this public improvement is not of any special benefit to the property of the appellant. The damage to the appellant from said taking I find
 to be $1,S1O, and I assess his damages at said sum. The appellant in the trial
 made claim of damages upon the
 ground that the building of this con- duit deprived him of the privilege of l increasing the cellar room of the build
 ing occupied by the Curran Dry Goods firm, but the appel1anl did not estab-
 ish the fact of such damage to the sat- isfaction of the court.
 "The taking of the four feet former l ly occupied as the passage way for said Little brook find deprives the ap- l pellant of the use and control of this I natural stream. but the extent of the
 damage to said appellant from such l deprivation was not proven. with rea- l sonable certainty, and have therefore
 assessed for this feature only nominal damages in the sum of S10. l l 'sThe sum of $1,S1O above assessed l covers all damages to this appellant, | from the taking of the whole ten feet
 of land just as they were taken, in-
 cluding the sum for nominal damages l just referred to. Tn making this as-
 sessment of damages assume that the appellant can still use the land for any l
 ment taken by the city of Waterbury 'T am satisfied from the evldence
 and from the personal inspection of
 the place that the appellant may with
 reasonable precaution and safeguard
 build above this conduit by arching
 over, and this I have also taken into
 consideration in assessing damages above stated.
 "Judgment Is accordingly. rendered
 that the appellant, Robert K Brown, recover from the defendant the sum of
 $1810 with costs.
 "ROBTNSON, Judge.'
 There Is every probability that ths case will be appealed to the supreme court, but aside from this it appears to be the opinion that improvements on the water courses that run through the city upon private property are at an end. This decision will undoubtedly revive the score of others that have been pending for some years and which arose out of overfiows of the brook that runs along South Main street. Almost all the storekeepers and property own CTS on the east side of the street entered suit against the city some time ago for damages for loss of goods and dam- aged property caused by an overflow 1 of the brook.