Florida Southern Railway Co. v. Brown

Citations

• 23 Fla. 104

Syllabus

<p>1. Where a street or highway is mentioned in the deed as the boundary of a lot or piece of land, the owner of such land owns the soil of said street to the centre of such street or highway, subject to the right of the public to pass and repass over and along it.</p> <p>2. When no street or highway is specifically mentioned in the conveyance, but the land abuts thereon, and is described by words or figures, the same rule prevails.</p> <p>3. Where a person owns a lot on a public street of a town or city and the fee in the soil as far as the centi'e of the street, the laying of a railroad track along said street, wholly or partly, on Ms soil without his consent, and without taking it and paying just compensation therefor, in accordance with the statute regulating the method by which private property may be taken for public use, is an unlawful appropriation of the property of such owner. In such a case he is entitled to damages for a depreciation of the market or rental value of his premises for annoyances to his business or to his family occupation.</p> <p>4. Where an adjacent owner of real estate abutting on a street of a town or city is not the owner of the soil to the centre of the sPreet, though he is not entitled as against a compauy laying a railroad along said street by proper authority to recover damages for the appropriation of the soil of t*he street, or for any incidental injury to his property from noise or smoke, or like annoyances, yet he is entited to the use of the street and may recover damages for any special injury he may sustain by reason of said railroad track being so laid as to materially abridge or curtail his use of .said stregtj or by any negligence or improper act in operating said road, In such case the diminution of the value of the estate of plaintiff is not a. ground of damages.</p> <p>5. When a railroad is laid along a street by competent authority in a manner not preventing the public from crossing over the same conveniently, leaving