Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad v. Loeb

8 N.E. 460, 118 Ill. 203
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 26, 1884
StatusPublished
Cited by90 cases

This text of 8 N.E. 460 (Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad v. Loeb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad v. Loeb, 8 N.E. 460, 118 Ill. 203 (Ill. 1884).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Sheldon

delivered the opinion of the Court:

This was an action on the ease, brought by Adolph Loeb, against the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Company, on June 9, 1880, in the Superior Court of Cook county, to recover damages sustained from the operation of defendant’s-railroad, by throwing smoke, cinders and ashes upon plaintiff’s premises. Upon a trial by the court, without a jury, there was judgment for the plaintiff for $1200, which was-affirmed by the Appellate Court for the First District, and the defendant appealed further to this court.

The declaration avers, that plaintiff was the owner of three-certain lots in Chicago, with the buildings thereon, which, were used for dwellings, and that defendant wrongfully and. unjustly maintained and operated near by plaintiff’s property, divers railway tracks and switches upon the street, within ten feet of the property; “that steam engines have passed and repassed along the property, and in doing so have unlawfully and unjustly caused to be thrown and deposited in and upon plaintiff’s property, large quantities of smoke, cinders, dust, soot, ashes, sparks of fire, and other substances, and in operating the same they greatly disturbed and vibrated the buildings; that by reason of the close proximity to said premises, the defendant has constantly thrown and deposited upon plaintiff’s property, smoke, cinders, soot, dust and ashes, and other substances, which greatly damaged the same, and depreciated the value of the property. ” There were two pleas,— the general issue, and the Statute of Limitations of five years.

The following facts appear: The Chicago, Danville and Vincennes Bailroad Company was created by a private charter February 16, 1865, and during the year 1872, under its. charter, and the permission of an ordinance of the city of Chicago, it built a railroad on the west side, and on one-of the public streets. It used the same as a railroad until April, 1877, when all its property in this State was sold under a mortgage foreclosure to Messrs. Huidekoper, Dennison & Shannon, who afterwards conveyed the same to the Chicago and Nashville Bailroad Company, which company consolidated with the State Line and Covington Bailroad Company, creating the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Bailroad Company, the defendant. The plaintiff, during the year 1876, purchased the three lots in question, being seventy-five feet on May street and one hundred and twenty-five feet on Carroll avenue, near the said railroad, which railroad had been in constant operation since 1872, and on the lots there were four tenement houses at the time of his purchase. After he purchased the lots, the plaintiff purchased two more houses and moved them on the lots, making, then, six houses on the lots. The plaintiff rented the houses to tenants, and the same have, ever since he became the owner thereof, been occupied by his tenants.

At the trial, the defendant submitted to the court the following proposition of law: “The plaintiff in this case having purchased the property described in the declaration, after the railroad was built and in operation, he can not recover in this action for the matters stated in the declaration, for the reason that the entire cause of action for which he is now suing was in his grantor, and it makes no difference whether his grantor sued for the same or not.” The court refused the proposition,' and the defendant took exception. The soundness of the above proposition is to be considered.

The position taken by appellee is, that the operating of the railway caused a private nuisance to his property; that the construction of the railroad was lawful, and produced no damage, but that the operation of the railroad was the sole cause of the injury, and that, in such case, where the structure in itself does not' cause damage, but its use, then the damage arising from its use is the cause of action; that the grantee of premises upon which a nuisance is erected, is liable for damages ensuing from his maintenance of it, because-every day’s continuance of a nuisance is a new nuisance.

There is quite a weight of authority to the effect, that one may bring suit for the deterioration in value of real property from a nuisance, alleging its permanency, and that by such an action the plaintiff consents to the continuance of the nuisance, and accepts the judgment recovered, as a compensation therefor,—that such recovery will have the effect to give the defendant a permanent right to do the acts which constitute the nuisance, as fully as though there had been a condemnation of the property by the exercise of the power of eminent domain. (Sec. 3, Sutherland on Damages, 413, 414.) Thus, in E. L. and B. S. R. R. Co. v. Combs, 10. Bush, 393, the action was for the throwing of smoke, cinders and ashes on premises, and the court, in speaking of the right to a subsequent recovery, which was denied, say: . “We have heretofore held, in actions for injury to real estate by trespassers, that the plaintiff can only recover compensation for the injury done up to the commencement of the action; but that was in case of injuries not continuing and permanent in their character. The injury in this case, if any, is permanent and enduring, and no reason is perceived why a single recovery may not be had for the whole injury, to result from the acts complained of.” And in J. M. and I. R. R. Co. v. Esterle, 13 Bush. 669, which was also an action for the throwing of smoke, cinders and ashes on land, the court say: By instituting this action for damages, the lot owner, in effect, consents that the railroad company may continue for all future time to use the street as it is now using it, and as consideration therefor to accept such judgment as may be therein rendered. In C. B. U. P. R. R. Co. v. Andrews, 26 Kan. 711, an action to recover damages for interference with an alley, it is said by the court, upon this point: “The plaintiff has chosen to consider the obstruction of the alley as a permanent injury to his lots,—as a quasi condemnation and permanent taking and appropriation of a certain interest in his property. * * * It seems to us that he gives his consent (that his property shall be permanently appropriated) when he brings an action for such damages. It seems to us that he then consents that the railroad company, shall permanently appropriate his property in the alley, for he then brings his action for damages because of such appropriation.” In Fowle v. N. H. and N. R. R. Co. 112 Mass. 334, where the action was for damages caused by the building of a railroad in such a manner that at times the current of a certain stream would be thrown upon the plaintiff’s land, the court say: “And if it (injury) results from a cause which is either permanent in its character, or which is treated as permanent by the parties, it is proper that entire damages should be assessed with reference to past and probable future injury. ” And see Town of Troy v. Cheshire Railroad Co. 3 Foster, (N. H.) 83; Powers v. City of Council Bluffs, 45 Iowa, 652; Kansas Railroad Co. v. Mihlman, 17 Kan. 224.

It has frequently been held by this court, that in an action brought for deterioration in the value of real estate, from a. nuisance of a permanent character, all damages for past and future injury to the property may be recovered, and that one-recovery in such action will be a bar to all future actions for the same cause. Ottawa Gas Co. v. Graham, 28 Ill. 73 ; Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Grabill, 50 id. 242; Cooper v. Randall, 59 id. 321; Decatur Gas Co. v. Howell, 92 id. 19 Chicago and Alton Railroad Co. v.

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Bluebook (online)
8 N.E. 460, 118 Ill. 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-eastern-illinois-railroad-v-loeb-ill-1884.