A tenant for life or years, or from year to year, is an "owner" within the provisions of Gen. Stat. R.I. cap. 60, § 38, which give compensation to abutting owners for damages caused by a change of grade in highways.
DURFEE, C.J.
We think the words "any abutting owner," as used in Gen. Stat. R.I. cap. 60, § 38, are comprehensive enough to include a tenant for life or years, or from year to year, of the abutting estate, as well as the owner of the fee. A lessee is an owner pro tanto of the estate which is leased to him. This construction, moreover, is in keeping with the meaning which obviously belongs to the word "owner," in Gen. Stat. R.I. cap. 59, § 4 (as see cap. 59, § 6), and with the rule of construction given in cap. 22, § 9. We grant the writ of mandamus.
Petition granted.