Mayor of Cumberland v. Willison

Alvey, J., filed the following opinion : In this case, I concur in the conclusion that the judgment appealed from should he reversed, and I- do not see ¹⁶⁰ that there is any such state of facts disclosed by the record as will entitle the plaintiff to maintain his suit. But there are several propositions maintained in the opinion of this Court to which I cannot assent. For instance, the leading proposition, that a municipal corporation is not liable to an action for consequential damages to private property or persons, where the act complained of is done hy it under authority conferred by a valid Act of the Legislature, if there be no negligence in doing the act, although the same act if done without legislative sanction would be actionable. With all due respect, I do not think that such proposition can be maintained either upon principle or any binding authority.

While an Act of the Legislature may be perfectly valid simply as an authority for doing acts of a certain character generally, it does not necessarily follow that particular individuals should be made to suffer all the consequences that may result from doing any particular act of the denomination authorized by the statute. A statute may authorize the making of grades and drains for the benefit and improvement of the town, and to that extent be perfectly valid, yet if, by making a particular grade or drain, the private property of an individual is flooded and rendered useless, or is thereby seriously injured, the