Cox v. Pennsylvania Co.

Citations

• 263 Pa. 132
• 106 A. 70
• 1919 Pa. LEXIS 384

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Damages — Farm land — Plan of lots — Boundaries—Riparian rights — Will — Conversion—Personal property — Delay of payment — Burden of proof.</p> <p>1. Where in proceedings to assess damages for widening a railroad company’s roadway, it appears that the company had originally located its right of way so as to divide the owners’ land into two portions, one a small tract, the other a large one on which farm buildings were located, both connected by a grade-crossing, and both continuously used for farm purposes, and that the smaller tract had been divided into lots on which some houses had been built, but no streets opened, the court commits no error in holding that in view of the use of both tracts as farm land, neither a conveyance of the whole tract by deed to the father of the present owners, nor the laying out of lots and sale of the same, operated as a severance necessitating the • assessment of the property as building lots, and that the owners’ damages should be based on a consideration of the market value of the remaining property as a whole for building lots or for any purpose to which it might reasonably be put.</p> <p>2. Where in' such a case the deed of the owners gave courses and distances and referred to monuments to define the eastern boundary line, without reference to a river as a boundary, the court commits no error in permitting the jury to consider the value of riparian rights on a river in assessing the damages, if it is shown that for over forty years the owners and their predecessors had been in actual adverse possession of the river bank, and, during that time, had exercised ownership over that part of the property, had used the river for various purposes, and had planted a row of willow trees along the bank to protect the land from washing.</p> <p>3. In assessing damages for land condemned by a railway company the jury may allow damages for delay where there is no evidence that the railway company had made an offe