## Facts

- Plaintiffs owned waterfront uplands on a public, navigable river and claimed associated riparian rights, including access to the water.
- Prior litigation had determined plaintiffs’ title to the uplands and to the adjacent land under water where the railroad’s road was built.
- Defendant railroad constructed and maintained tracks between plaintiffs’ upland and the river, physically separating the property from the shoreline.
- An earlier opening beneath the railroad’s original structure allowed passage to the river for shipping connected to a brickyard on the property.
- In 1880, the railroad built a new, parallel roadbed that closed the opening and blocked access from the upland to the river.
- Plaintiffs received a state grant in 1885 relating to submerged land in front of the upland adjoining the railroad’s structures.
- Evidence showed the brickyard and the shipping passage had not been used since 1875, before the 1880 obstruction.
- The trial court awarded damages based on diminished rental value attributable to the loss of river access and excluded evidence offered to show increased shipping/haulage costs as a consequence of the obstruction.

## Issues

1. Whether damages for the obstruction of riparian access were limited to the period after the 1885 state grant, rather than extending to injury from the 1880 obstruction.
2. Whether permanent injury from blocking a riparian owner’s access to navigable waters is measured by diminution in rental/market value of the land or by consequential expenses such as increased shipping costs.
3. Whether non-use of the access route and brickyard before the obstruction barred or materially reduced recovery for impairment of riparian access.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment for plaintiffs.
- The court rejected limiting damages to the period after 1885, treating the obstruction and occupation as actionable injury to plaintiffs’ adjudicated property rights.
- The court approved measuring damages by the reduction in the property’s rental/market value caused by the permanent obstruction of access.
- The court upheld exclusion of evidence of increased shipping costs as an improper, collateral, and variable measure of damages.
- The court held that plaintiffs’ non-use of the access route at the time of obstruction did not eliminate the riparian right or the injury to the property’s value.

## Legal Principles

- Riparian access to navigable water is a property right incident to ownership of waterfront land; permanent obstruction of that access is a compensable injury to the realty.
- Where a structure permanently interferes with riparian access and affects the value of the premises, damages may be awarded for permanent injury measured by diminution in rental or market value.
- Consequential business-related expenses (e.g., increased shipping or haulage costs) are generally not the proper measure of permanent damage to real property from a structural obstruction.
- Non-use of riparian access at the time of interference does not forfeit the right and does not bar recovery when the interference permanently impairs an attribute of the estate.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed an award of permanent damages for a railroad’s obstruction of a riparian owner’s access to navigable waters and occupation affecting waterfront property, holding that the proper measure is the diminished rental or market value of the land and that non-use of the access at the time of obstruction does not defeat the claim.


Rumsey v. N.Y. & New Eng. R.R. Co., 133 N.Y. 79, 30 N.E. 654 (N.Y. 1892)