Electric Co v. Dow

• Decision Date: 19 April 1897
• Docket Number: No. 258,258
• Citation: 17 S.Ct. 645,41 L.Ed. 1088,166 U.S. 489
• Parties: ELECTRIC CO. v. DOW
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

166 U.S. 489

17 S.Ct. 645

41 L.Ed. 1088

ELECTRIC CO.

v DOW.

No. 258.

April 19, 1897.

This was a writ of error to reverse a judgment of the supreme court of New Hampshire against the Electric Company, a corporation of the state of New Hampshire, the plaintiff in error, upon a petition filed by Samuel I. Dow for the assessment of damages occasioned to his land by an overflow caused by a dam erected by the defendant company in the Piscataqua river. The defendant company also filed a petition praying for an inquisition into the question of damages. The proceedings were had under the general mill act of that state, approved July 3, 1868. Both parties elected trial by jury, which resulted in a verdict for Dow in the sum of $1,500. The plaintiff moved that 50 per cent. be added to the amount of the verdict, in pursuance of a provision of the statute which is as follows:

'If either party shall so elect, said court shall direct an issue to the jury to try the facts alleged in the said petition and assess the damages; and judgment rendered on the verdict of such jury, with fifty per cent. added, shall be final, and said court may award costs to either party at its discretion.'

The defendant objected to this motion on the ground that said provision of the statute requiring the court to add 50 per cent. to the damages assessed by the jury was in violation of the constitution of the United States. The question thus raised was reserved by the trial judge, and certified to the law term of the supreme court of the state, which overruled the defendant's contention; and judgment was accordingly entered in the supreme court for the amount of the verdict, with 50 per cent. added, and costs, to review which this writ of error was sued out.

H. E. Loveren, for plaintiff in error.

Henry M. Baker, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice SHIRAS, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

We agree with the supreme court of New Hampshire in thinking that the plaintiff in error, by availing itself of the power conferred by the statute, and joining in a trial for the assessment of the damages, is precluded from denying the validity of that provision which prescribes that 50 per cent. shall be added to the amount of the verdict. The act confers a privilege, which the plaintiff in error was at liberty to exercise or not as it thought fit.

Clay v. Smith, 3 Pet. 411, was a case where the plaintiff below, a citizen of the state of Kentucky, instituted a suit against the defendant, a citizen of the state of Louisiana, for the recovery of a debt incurred in 1808; and the defendant pleaded his discharge by the bankrupt law of Louisiana in 1811, under which, according to the provisions of the law, 'as well his person as his future effects' were forever discharged from all the claims of his creditors. Under this law the plaintiff, whose debt was specified in the list of the defendant's creditors, received a dividend of 10 per cent. on his debt, declared by the assignees of the defendant. It was held by this court that the plaintiff, by voluntarily making himself a party to those proceedings, abandoned his extraterritorial immunity from the operation of the bankrupt law of Louisiana, and was bound by that law to the same extent to which the citizens of Louisiana were bound.

In Beaupr e v. Noyes, 138 U. S. 397, 11 Sup. Ct. 296, a similar question was presented. There it was contended on behalf of creditors, the plaintiffs in error, that an...