Dilts v. Plumville Railroad

Citations

• 222 Pa. 516
• 71 A. 1072
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 904

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Location of route.</p> <p>By the location of the route of a railroad on the ground by its engineers and its adoption by the company, the title to the route, as against rival corporations, passes to the company which has made the location.</p> <p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Appropriation of land — Bond—Title to right of way.</p> <p>When the damages due the landowner have been paid or when a bond to secure the damages has been given and accepted by the owner or approved by the common pleas, the title to the right of way passes to the corporation.</p> <p>After the bond has been given, the grasp of the owner is released from the property, and he is remitted to the bond for the damages which he may sustain. The right of way passes to a subsequent purcha'ser or mortgagee unincumbered by any claim for damages.</p> <p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Condemnation proceedings — Title acquired by railroad.</p> <p>The interest which a railroad company acquires in real estate by the right of eminent domain is not a fee, nor is it an easement in the proper sense of that word; it is in substance an interest in the land special and exclusive in its nature.</p> <p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Appropriation of land — Abandonment of part of appropriation.</p> <p>Where a railroad company under the right of eminent domain enters for the purpose of appropriating land for its right of way, fixes the width of its appropriation, which is approved and adopted by its board of directors, gives a bond to secure the damages resulting from such appropriation, and actually occupies and constructs its road on the land, the railroad company cannot thereafter refuse to take any part of the right of way so as to defeat the owner’s right to damages for the width originally fixed by the company.</p> <p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Appropriation of land — Spring of water.</p> <p>A railroad company does not by condemning land secure title to the waters of a spring within the