Lansing v. Smith – New York, 1829 (8 Cowen 146, 4 Wendell 9); Beekman v. Saratoga & Schenectady R Co. – New York, 1831 (3 Paige Ch. 45); Mohawk Bridge Co. v. Utica & Schenectady R. Co. – New York, 1837 (6 Paige Ch. 554); Sharpless v. Mayor of Philadelphia – Pennsylvania, 1853 (21 Pa. 147)
| George Inness, The Lackawanna Valley (1855) - courtesy Wikimedia Commons and the Yorck Project “[E]very great public improvement must, almost of necessity, more or less affect individual convenience and property; and where the injury sustained is remote and consequential, it is to be borne as apart of the price to be paid for the advantages of the social condition.” - Judge __, in Lansing “The legislature has indeed protected the Mohawk Bridge Company in the enjoyment of an exclusive right, … to a certain extent, by prohibiting others from establishing a ferry within a certain distance from the toll bridge; but it has not deprived a future legislature of the right to authorize the erection of another bridge within the prescribed limits whenever the public good shall appear to require it.” – Chancellor Reuben Walworth, in Mohawk Bridge “If [railroad building] be public it makes no difference that the corporation which has it in charge is private. A railroad is a public highway for the public benefit … because travel and transportation are cheapened by it to a degree far exceeding all the tolls and charges of every kind.” – Justice Jeremiah Black, in Sharpless |
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