1908

Wagner v. Bristol Belt Line Ry. Co.

Supreme Court of Virginia

108 Va. 594, 62 S.E. 391

City of Bristol, pursuant to its charter, granted Railway a franchise to build and operate an electric street railway. Railway was to place the track on the side of a street where landowner owned three lots. Landowner requested that track be in the center of the street, but City Council passed a resolution that track be kept on the side closest to landowner. Landowner filed for injunction, asserting that the closeness of the track would impede access to, and damage the value of, his property. Trial court declined to enter permanent injunction, and Supreme Court affirmed. The question before the Court was: if the property would be damaged by the street rail line as a public use, was the just compensation owed before construction? As the street was previously granted to the City, the public had a right to use any property in a legitimate manner which the public had previously acquired the right to use, and for which the abutting landowner was conclusively presumed to have been fully compensated. A recovery was not allowed unless there was some physical injury to property, or an interference either with the front of the property, or with a right that one was entitled to exercise in connection with the property.

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