McNulty Bros. v. Pennsylvania R. R.

Citations

• 272 Pa. 442
• 116 A. 362
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 846

Syllabus

<p>Mechanic’s lien — Railroad buildings — Office building — Freight station — Function of court and jury.</p> <p>1. Where a railroad company builds under one contract and at one time a freight station and an office building firmly fastened together with communicating doors and passages, and the primary purpose is a freight station with an office building for the convenience of the employees of the freight station, the building is one structure, and a mechanic’s lien cannot be filed against a part of it.</p> <p>2. Nor can a mechanic’s lien be filed against the building as an entirety, where it appears that the building is necessary for the exercise of the corporate franchises of the railroad company.</p> <p>3. The necessity is not an absolute but a reasonable necessity,— i. e., property which is reasonably necessary in carrying out the purposes of the public service corporation with the greatest facility and convenience to itself and the public.</p> <p>4. The structure remains a railroad freight office building notwithstanding the fact that the first floor comprises store rooms, which, with their basements, are rented for business purposes.</p> <p>5. Such building cannot be sold on a writ of levari facias.</p> <p>6. Where the object of the structure and the uses made of it do not depend upon the credibility of witnesses, but upon all the evidence, oral and written, of both sides, and no controlling fact is in controversy, it is the duty of the court to pass upon the case, and not submit it to the jury.</p>