Court Opinion

ID: 3613609
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 23:57:16.641801+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:24:27.992780
License: Public Domain

I dissent from the decision about to be made because I regard it as not only inconsistent with our recent decision in the case of Lewis against this defendant (162 N.Y. 202), but as opposed to the prevailing law of this state. Four propositions are settled law with us: 1. That the damage inflicted on an abutting owner by a change in the grade of a street does not constitute a taking of property within the meaning of the Constitution, and that the abutter is not entitled to compensation for such injury unless some statute awards it. (Radcliff's Exrs. v. Mayor,etc., of Brooklyn, 4 N.Y. 195; Talbot v. N.Y.  Harlem R.R.Co., 151 id. 155.) 2. That the use of the surface of a street or highway for the purpose of a railroad does not invade any property right of an abutting owner who has no title to the soil of the street. (Kellinger v. F.S. St.  G.S.F.R.R. Co.,50 N.Y. 206; Fobes v. R., W.  O.R.R. Co., 121 id. 505.) 3. That an abutter has an easement in the street for the purposes of light, air and access; that the erection of an elevated structure for the purpose of carrying a railroad thereon is an invasion of such easement and an appropriation of the abutter's property rights, for which, under the Constitution, he must be compensated. (Story v. N.Y. El. R.R. Co., 90 N.Y. 122. See all the elevated railroad cases since that decision.) 4. That while the public authorities may raise the grade of a street for street use, or may authorize the construction of a surface railroad on the street, in either case without liability to abutters, they cannot raise the grade of a street for the exclusive *Page 286 
use of a railroad without compensating an abutter for the injury inflicted. (Reining v. N.Y., L.  W. Ry. Co., 128 N.Y. 157.) The circumstances which distinguish a case which falls under one rule from one which falls under another rule are readily apprehended, and the rules are of comparatively easy application. Whether the difference in circumstance is such as to justify the distinction in principle which prevails in our state is quite another question. I admit that two rules of law, one of which declares that raising the grade of a street and the construction of a bank of solid filling opposite an abutter's premises isdamnum absque injuria, and the other which holds that the erection of an elevated railroad is an invasion of the property rights of an abutter which cannot be constitutionally effected without compensation, may seem somewhat inconsistent. But I intend not to be led into a discussion of that subject. It is sufficient to say that such is the settled law of the state, and that the rules which I have stated, consistent or not, exist in full force and integrity in our jurisprudence at this very time, and that on their authority we are deciding cases at almost every term of court. I may, however, remark in passing that if the attempt is to be made to harmonize the law on this subject, surely it should not be in the direction of extending the doctrine of Radcliff's Exrs. v. Mayor, etc., of Brooklyn. That case has been repudiated in many jurisdictions, and though firmly imbedded in the law of this state, the hardships occasioned by its application have been so great that in most cases legislative enactments have given abutters the right to compensation for their injuries. If while the legislature can authorize the laying of a surface railroad without compensation to the abutter, it cannot authorize the construction of a viaduct for an elevated railroad unless compensation be made to the abutter, it must be equally without power to transform a surface road into an elevated road without providing for such compensation. It necessarily follows that, notwithstanding the legislature might have authorized the grade of Fourth avenue to be raised to the height of the structure for the erection of which the plaintiff brings this action, without liability *Page 287 
to abutters, that structure invades the plaintiff's property rights, an invasion for which he is entitled to compensation. To relieve the defendant from liability for such compensation it must trace its right to maintain the viaduct as against the abutter, not to the act of the legislature alone, but to a grant of some private property easement to which the plaintiff's title is subordinate or to prescription, which is merely the presumption of such a grant.
It is said that the legislature had power to authorize the improvement of Fourth avenue and to direct the railroad company to elevate its tracks. This cannot be doubted But it could not relieve either the commissioners or the railroad company from paying for any private property taken for the improvement. If I am right in the proposition repeatedly held by this court that an abutter has an easement of light, air and access in a street as against all structures therein except those to be used for strictly street purposes, and as against all improvements save a change in the grade of the street itself, then the situation in no way differs from that which would have been presented had the legislature turned the railroad company off the street altogether and made it construct a new line on adjoining property. In either case the railroad company would be bound to pay for what it took. These propositions were not discussed in the Lewis case, but were assumed as settled by the previous decisions of this court and that decision could not have stood on any other foundation. What here has been written, there passed without the saying. In the Lewis case the defendant was held not to be answerable in damages until it began running its trains over the structure. This ruling did not proceed on the theory that the construction of the viaduct worked no trespass on the plaintiff's rights, but on the ground that the defendant did not participate in that trespass until it went into possession of the structure and ran its trains thereon. There is no inconsistency between the Lewis
case and that of Conabeer against this defendant (156 N.Y. 474). The same learned judge that wrote in the earlier case concurred in the opinion *Page 288 
delivered in the later case. In the Conabeer case the trial court found as a matter of fact that no injury to the plaintiff's easement was occasioned by the new structure. In the Lewis case and in the present one the findings of fact are the exact reverse.
It is said that the trial court has found the structure to be lawful and that such finding is binding upon us. The finding is merely one of law and properly construed it is correct. An obstruction in a highway that would otherwise constitute a nuisance may be authorized by the legislature; but, of course, the party creating it would have no right to maintain it as against the owner of the soil of the highway. Yet the maintenance of the obstruction would be properly characterized as lawful, that is to say, as having the authority of law and as not being a nuisance. It is further contended that for the plaintiff to succeed, the statute authorizing this improvement must be held unconstitutional and that as no question of its constitutionality was raised in the trial court none can be raised here. The statute is not unconstitutional and no decision to that effect is necessary to secure the plaintiff's rights. If an act were passed by the legislature authorizing a corporation to construct a bridge across the Hudson river above Waterford, it would be unconstitutional because the Constitution prohibits the enactment of a special law for such purpose. If, however, the act authorized the construction of a bridge at the Highlands (the Constitution permitting special acts for bridges over the Hudson river below Waterford) it would not be rendered unconstitutional by the fact that the company did not own a rood of ground in either of the counties which border on the river at that point. The statute would simply be inoperative until the company acquired the necessary land.
As this is a dissenting opinion, I do not deem it necessary to discuss the extent of the right acquired by the defendant through private grant. It is sufficient to say that it is not greater than that carefully examined and considered in the Lewis case, and that it is of the same general character. If my difference with the majority of the court related merely *Page 289 
to that subject I should be content to confine myself to the record of my vote. It is against what I consider the broad and far-reaching doctrine of the prevailing opinion that I feel constrained to express the reasons for my dissent.
MARTIN, J., in memorandum concurs with O'BRIEN, J.; PARKER, Ch. J., and LANDON, J., concur with O'BRIEN and MARTIN, JJ.; BARTLETT and VANN, JJ., concur with CULLEN, J.
Judgment reversed, etc.