|
1829.] Rights of Municipal Corporations. 200
superior, would apply. That maxim is bottomed on the prin-
ciple, that he who expects to derive advantage from an act
which is done by another for him, must answer for any injury
which a third person may sustain from it. The defendants
admit that these acts were done for the benefit of the inhabit-
ants, and being so done, there can exist no fear or apprehen-
sion that if they are compelled to pay for this special damage,
or any special damage necessarily incurred for the public ben-
efit, that any improvements useful or necessary to beautify or
extend the city, to preserve its health, to advantage its navi-
gation, will be in the slightest degree impeded. The city
corporation, the inhabitants of this city, will always be willing
to pay for that which their general advantage, and benefit, and
prosperity may require to be done ; and they ought to pay for it.
There is no principle which would bind the individual sufferer
to bear the whole burthen of any public improvement. The
law cannot be so unjust as to produce such a consequence.
I will not say that there may not be some cases which the
public interest and the policy of the country might demand
should not be heard in courts of justice, and in which the
maxim, Solus populi est suprema lex> must prevail, as in the
cases of war and public danger. It may be necessary to de-
molish a house, for offence or defence. It may be necessary
for a general to enter the lands of a citizen in pursuit of an
enemy, or to erect a fortification thereon to prevent his incur-
sions ; to march over extensive districts and constantly over
private estates in repelling an invasion. These are cases of
uncontrollable necessity, and of pressing public emergency.
And the policy of every nation might demand, in order to
secure the utmost possible exertion of all her agents and offi-
cers, that for damages thus occasioned, in seasons of public
danger, there should not be a remedy furnished personally
against such agents, because if courts of justice are open to
every complainant under such circumstances, the ruin of such
agents would be the necessary consequence. This might be
a case, too, in which it might be decorous in a court of justice,
for the public safety, to presume that the legislative authority of
the country would yield a proper indemnity. But be the law
in such cases as it may, it is sufficient to say that this case is
not in principle like any of those which have been mentioned.
This is a corporation invested with certain legislative powers
for the benefit of all within the sphere of its operation. It
|
