Commonwealth v. Penn. R. Co.

Citations

• 117 Pa. 637
• 20 W.N.C. 448
• 12 A. 38
• 1888 Pa. LEXIS 450

Syllabus

<p>A railroad company, whose charter provided that if said company “ should find it necessary to change the site of any turnpike or public road, they should cause the same to be reconstructed forthwith, at their own expense, on the most favorable location and in as perfect a manner as the original road,” occupied a portion of a public highway with a wall and an embankment on which to support its own road-bed, and subsequently before its railroad was completed and opened for travel, by statutory authority leased its franchises and privileges to another railroad company, who completed and was operating the same. No reconstruction of the public highway, obstructed by said wall and embankment, having been made: Held</p> <p>1. That the rights and franchises in the hands of the lessees were of the same public character as if they had remained in the hands of the lessors, and that the lessees, in the acceptance and in the exercise thereof under the charter of the lessors, must be taken to have assumed the correspondent duties and obligations.</p> <p>2. That, as the duty to reconstruct the public highway was a public duty, the disregard and violation of it was a public wrong, and the proper* subject of an indictment, following P. V. & C. By. Co. v. Commonwealth, 101 Pa. 192.</p>