Harnish v. Quarryville Railroad

Citations

• 246 Pa. 426
• 92 A. 501
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 530

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — City street — Private siding — Right to construct siding — Right of adjacent property owner — Consent of city — Bill in equity — Injunction.</p> <p>1. The legislature may authorize a railroad company to lay its track on a public street in a city.</p> <p>2. While ordinarily the right of a railroad company to construct tracks on the streets of a city carries with it by necessary implication the right to build and connect sidings, a railroad company, whose tracks occupy a city street, has no right to construct a siding asked for by an adjoining owner without the consent of the city, where the right given the company by the legislature to use, pass over and occupy such street in the construction of its road contemplated the continued use of the street as a public thoroughfare, and it appears that it could continue to be so used, if sidings from the railroad tracks were not constructed.</p> <p>3. A bill in equity by an owner of a coal yard fronting on a street occupied by the tracks of the defendant railroad company, alleged that plaintiff had demanded from the defendant company a siding, with switching connections, from the line of the railroad to his coal yard, to be constructed at his expense, and that the company had refused to construct the siding. The defendant company filed an answer denying the right of the plaintiff to connect with the railroad without the consent of the city and averring that the city had not only refused consent, but had notified defendants that it would enjoin them from constructing the siding if attempted. The city intervened as a party defendant and in its answer denied the' right of the complainant to make the siding connection without its consent. The case was heard on bill and answer under an agreement that the sole question to be considered and determined was “the question of law as to whether or not the plaintiff is entitled to a mandatory injunction against the defendants to lay the proposed siding on South Water street