627 Smith St. Corp. v. Bureau of Waste Disposal of Department of Sanitation of City of New York
New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
289 A.D.2d 472 (2001)
- Written by Rose VanHofwegen, JD
Facts
627 Smith Street Corporation (plaintiff) owned property on a canal directly opposite a waste-transfer station operated by the New York City Sanitation Department (defendant). Tugboats would tow two barges of trash in tandem into the canal such that the barges would either hit the bulkhead on the Smith Street property or come so close that the owners could not safely keep a boat along their portion of the canal. The transfer station towed tandem barges into the canal six times a day, six days a week. Smith Street’s owners tried to repair damage to the bulkhead and structures on it, only to have barges hit it again. The owners sued for inverse condemnation, arguing that the sanitation department had in fact appropriated Smith Street’s riparian right to access the canal. Experts testified as to the sales prices of comparable properties with and without riparian rights. The trial court concluded that the operation of barges effectively denied Smith Street its rights and calculated damages within the range of values the experts provided. The city appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Per curiam)
What to do next…
Here's why 804,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
