Clay v. Postal Telegraph-Cable Co.

Citations

• 70 Miss. 406

Syllabus

<p>1. Master and Servant. Trespass. Gutting trees. Telegraph Go.</p> <p>A telegraph company is liable, if its laborers, clearing its right of way, cut trees on adjoining land of another, although done contrary to the positive orders of the superintendent, if it resulted from the negligence of the latter in absenting himself, and intrusting the work to ordinary laborers, without supervision.</p> <p>2. Cutting Trees. Liability. When sise immaterial. Instruction.</p> <p>The telegraph company so trespassing, will be liable as for cutting trees, although the evidence shows that those cut were small, in no case exceeding six or eight inches in diameter; and it is error, in instructions, to allude to them as shrubs or undergrowth.</p> <p>3. Public Highways. Width. Right of way. Telegraph line.</p> <p>Public roads are required to be opened and worked to a width of at least ten and not more than thirty feet. 'A telegraph company, given the right of way for its line along such a road, is not justified in assuming that there is a uniform legal width of thirty feet, and that it has the right to cut trees anywhere within fifteen feet of the center. It must be governed by the actual width of the road.</p> <p>4. Highways. Jurisdiction of supervisors. Right of way. Telegraph line.</p> <p>Boards of supervisors cannot grant to a telegraph company a right of way along the margin of a highway. It can confer no right outside the limits of the highway itself.</p>