Eminent Domain
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary · Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
[Lat. dominium eminens.] The inherent sovereign power of a state, which gives to the legislature the control of private property for public uses. 2 Kent's Com. 339, and note. The ultimate right of the sovereign power to appropriate not only the public property but the private property of all the citizens within the territorial sovereignty, to public purposes.
Story, J., 11 Peters' R. 420, 641.
Webster, arg.
S. C. Wood, C. J., 14 Ohio R. 147, 173.
The original and ultimate property claimed by the people of a state in and to all lands within the jurisdiction of the state.
1 N. Y. Rev. Stat. [718,] 714, § 1. 3 Kent's Com. 613. 4 Id. 3.