Commonwealth v. Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain Railroad & Coal Co.

Citations

• 35 Pa. Super. 416
• 1908 Pa. Super. LEXIS 55

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Constable’s return — Indictment—Obstruction of highway — Failure to construct substituted road — Railroads.</p> <p>Where a bill of indictment is found upon a constable’s return, the offense charged in the bill must be identical with that, the essentials of which, at least, appear in the constable’s return.</p> <p>An indictment charging the common-law offense of unlawfully obstructing a public highway cannot be sustained, where the constable’s return, upon which it is founded, charges that the defendant, a railroad company, took and used a public road under the Act of February 19, 1849, P. L. 79, and failed to construct another public road in place of the one taken and used.</p> <p>Where a railroad company, having exercised the power conferred upon it to take an existing public highway, refuses at the same time to obey the statutory command to reconstruct another of prescribed character in its stead, it is guilty of a breach of public duty declared by the statute for which it may be indicted and convicted.</p>