Lockie v. Mutual Union Telegraph Co.

Citations

• 103 Ill. 401
• 1882 Ill. LEXIS 187

Syllabus

<p>1. Eminent domain—rights acquired by condemnation for telegraph purposes. A telegraph company, by a judgment condemning land for its use under the Eminent Domain act, does not acquire the fee to the land, or the right to use it for any other purpose than to erect telegraph poles and suspend wires upon them, and maintain and repair the same, and use the structure for telegraph purposes. This, of course, gives the company the right, at all times, when necessary to construct or to repair the line, to enter upon the strip condemned, doing as little damage as possible. The company can not cultivate such strip, or take exclusive possession of it, or enjoy it for any other purpose. The only exclusive right of occupancy the company acquires is the ground occupied by the poles erected for telegraph purposes.</p> <p>2. Same—width of strip that may be acquired. The statute does not designate the width of the strip of land that may be condemned for telegraph purposes, but only authorizes such companies to acquire such an amount of land as may be necessary; and where only one line of poles is specified in the petition, and the evidence does not show that a half a rod in width is an unreasonable amount of land, the judgment condemning that much of the land will be sustained, and will be construed to authorize the erection of but one set of poles.</p>