Commonwealth v. Burford

Citations

• 38 Pa. Super. 201
• 1909 Pa. Super. LEXIS 112

Syllabus

<p>Trespass — Posted land — Private ways — Ways of necessity — Act of April 14, 1905, P. L. 169.</p> <p>1. The Act of April 14, 1905, P. L. 169, entitled, “An act making it unlawful to trespass upon land posted as private property, and providing the penalty therefor,” does not apply to a case where the owner of land builds tenement houses thereon in rows, and leases them to tenants, and where the only access to the houses for the tenants and those who have relations .with them is by customary or private ways on the land leading to public highways. A tradesman who uses such customary or private ways in order to deliver goods at the house of one of the tenants who has ordered the goods is not liable to the penalty imposed by the act for trespass upon posted land.</p> <p>2. When a conveyance contains no express grant of a right of way appurtenant to lands and no words are used from which such grant arises by implication, such right of way may, however, arise from the circumstances of the grant itself. The most marked right of way arising in this manner is the way of necessity. Where land is sold or leased and is so situated that access to it from the highway cannot be had except by passing over other land of the grantor or lessor, the grantee or lessee becomes entitled to a right to pass over the land of his grantor or lessor for the purpose of reaching the highway and returning to his own land.</p> <p>3. A right of way appurtenant to a house includes not only the right of the lessee to the use of it, but also the right to its use by any other person who with the permission of the tenant visits the house for any lawful purpose.</p>