Name Jimmiral Taylor-Lucas Date May 6, 2018
Case: Barron v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore
(1833) 32 U.S. 243
FACTS: The case was instituted in error against the City of Baltimore, to recover damages for injuries to the Wharf property
of the plaintiff, arising from the acts of the corporation. The City asserted exercise of its corporate authority over the harbor,
the paving of streets, and regulating grades for paving, causing streams to divert from their natural course into the Wharf. The
necessary pavement of the streets, and adoption of new grades of street, and partly by the mounds caused the course of the
water to bend. Therefore, when the stream become full and violent from rain cause dirt and soil from the hills cause the water
of the Wharf to become to shallow. This caused the Wharf to be little or no value and lost its income.
ISSUE: Whether the plaintiff request for compensation of the Wharf falls under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution applies to the State?
HOLDING: No; J/D; Dismissed/ No Jurisdiction of Cause
REASONS: The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution declaring private property shall not be taken for the public use without
just compensation is intended solely as a limitation on the exercise of power by the Government of the U.S. and is not
applicable to the legislation of the States. The Fifth Amendment is used to limit the powers of the Government which makes
it not applicable to the legislation of the States. There is no repugnancy between the several acts of the general assembly of
Maryland given in evidence by the defendants at the trial of this cause.
DISSENT: (Chief Justice Marshall) The plaintiff in error contends that it comes within the Fifth Amendment to the
Constitution which inhibits the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. If this proposition be
untrue, the court has no jurisdiction of the cause.
If the proposition be correct, the Fifth Amendment must be understood as a restraining of the power of the General
Government, not as applicable to the States.
Lessons for the Course: The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution declaring that private property shall not be taken for
public use without just compensation is intended solely to limit the exercise of power by the Government of the United States
and is not applicable to the Legislation of States. The pavement of the streets were necessary for the health of the city and has