Commonwealth v. Llewellyn

Citations

• 14 Pa. Super. 214
• 1900 Pa. Super. LEXIS 36

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Bight to stand aside juror.</p> <p>The right of the commonwealth to stand aside a juror has ceased to be an open question in Pennsylvania and this right rests upon the same foundation whether the trial is for misdemeanor or a capital felony.</p> <p>Dedication — Evidence—Deeds calling for boundary — Alley—Highway.</p> <p>Deeds calling for a certain alley in question as a boundary are not conclusive of the fact of dedication or of acceptance by the public. Deeds alone do not constitute an alley a public highway.</p> <p>Indictment for nuisance — Encroachment on alley — Dedication and acceptance.</p> <p>If an alley was one laid out by a grantor in a plan of subdivision of his property and he has sold lots in accordance with the plan that amounts to a dedication to public use, there must be evidence of acceptance by the public before an indictment for nuisance caused by encroachment on the alley can be sustained.</p> <p>Dedication — Adverse user — Question for jury.</p> <p>The public may acquire the right to a highway by adverse user as such without the intervention of municipal authorities and there being evidence from which the jury might find such adverse user it was error to withdraw the question from their consideration.</p> <p>Dedication of highways — Acceptance—Buies to determine width.</p> <p>The extent of the public right to a street or alley is to be determined from all the evidence in the case; it is not to be measured by the width of a beaten track.</p> <p>Where the evidence clearly indicates the owner’s desire to surrender control and donate a right of way to the exclusive use of the public and the public so accept and use it, it is an acceptance of the right of way as of the width dedicated and actually opened for public travel.</p> <p>Where the right to a public highway is acquired by adverse user, an important element in determining the width thereof is the recognition of the limits of the way by the owners whose lands front thereon, as