Question juridique clé
Whether the railway company had to take over and pay for the upper water power used for the stamp mill.
Solution extraite
No. The water power was not inseparably tied to the demolished stamp mill; the company had no duty to acquire it merely because the mill was expropriated.
Motifs extraits
The court held that the water power was not a legal accessory automatically following the fate of the main object. Under Art. 4 of the 1850 Federal Expropriation Act, acquisition and payment were owed only if future use by the owner became impossible or excessively difficult, which was not the case because the power could still be used on the land made available by the railway.