Court Opinion

ID: 3605750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 23:51:16.252901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:40:23.743745
License: Public Domain

I dissent upon the ground that the construction by a municipal corporation of a new and independent street in the form of a bridge, fifty feet high and sixty-three feet wide, extending lengthwise through block after block over an existing street, which, graded and paved for years, is left undisturbed except by the huge columns supporting the elevated structure, is neither the improvement of the street as a street, nor a proper street use sanctioned by precedent, or coming within the reasonable contemplation of the parties when the fee of the surface street was acquired from the abutting owner, who has no access to the aerial street from his own premises, and when this is done without compensation, it is a taking of private property for public use in direct violation of the Constitution.