Brand v. Union Elevated R. Co., 238 U.S. 586 (1915)

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Brand v. Union Elevated Railroad Company

No. 268

Argued May 6, 7, 1915
Decided June 21, 1915
238 U.S. 586

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

Syllabus

Nothing in the federal Constitution gives anyone the right to have the jury instructed that he is entitled to damages for property taken where the instruction is not based on some evidence or entitles him to damages without proof.

After an elevated railroad had been built in a street, the jury, in a suit brought by an abutting owner, viewed the premises, and the only testimony showed that the property was worth more after than before the erection of the structure; held, that the owner was not entitled to an instruction that the jury must exclude from their estimate of market value subsequent to the construction any enhancement from the facilities furnished to the property by the structure itself in the absence of any direct evidence a to whether any such enhancement exists.

By simply viewing property after the erection of an elevated structure in front of it, a jury cannot, in the absence of any evidence other than that the property is worth more than before the structure was built, ascertain what the market value was either before or just after the erection of the structure.

258 Ill. 133 affirmed.

The facts, which involve the right of an abutting property owner to recover damages for depreciation of his property by reason of the erection of an elevated rail road in the street, are stated in the opinion.