Jones v. Erie & Wyoming V. R.

Citations

• 144 Pa. 629
• 23 A. 251
• 1892 Pa. LEXIS 750

Syllabus

<p>1. A railroad company, authorized by its charter to take for its right of way a strip of land not exceeding sixty feet wide, may limit the width of its appropriation to less than sixty feet; but, unless such limitation affirmatively appear, it will be presumed that it has appropriated the full width allowed by its charter of incorporation.</p> <p>2. The right of way appropriated is not defined by the extent of the company’s actual possession and use of the land. So, the lines of a street on which a railroad company locates the centre line of its road and lays its tracks, are not necessarily, nor even presumptively the boundaries of its right of way; these may be within, beyond, or upon the lines of the street.</p> <p>(а) A railroad company located the centre line of its road twenty-five feet from plaintiff’s lot, within the bounds of a street. Upon that location it constructed a track wholly within the limits of the street. The plaintiff commenced a proceeding under § 11, act of February 19,1849, P. L. 84, for the assessment of damages for the appropriation of a part of his lot.</p> <p>(б) There was evidence that defendant’s engineer, while surveying the route, staked out a width of sixty feet in the vicinity of plaintiff’s lot, and set a mark on that lot, thirty feet from the centre line, saying that it designated the outside line of the railroad. On the trial, the defendant refused to designate the bounds of its right of way, or to disclaim of record any right in plaintiff’s land by virtue of the location made:</p> <p>8.. In view of the presumption as to the width of its appropriation, and the evidence, it was error to charge that there was no evidence of an appropriation of any part of plaintiff’s lot, and to direct a verdict for defendant. If the company had taken less than sixty feet, it was its duty to show a limitation of the appropriation by some plain and decisive act.</p>