New York & New England Railroad v. Comstock

Citations

• 60 Conn. 200

Syllabus

<p>The rights of the owner of land condemned for railroad purposes differ in some important respects from the rights retained by the owner of land taken for a highway. The possession of the railroad company is necessarily exclusive.</p> <p>The power to exclude every one from the railroad limits must be left, as matter of law, absolutely with the officers of the company who are immediately responsible, subject only to such state supervision as may be deemed expedient.</p> <p>It does not follow, because there were long-used farm roads across the land condemned, that these crossings were to be considered as not included in the condemnation of the land.</p> <p>The act of 1889 (Session Laws of 1889, pp. 81, 167,) provides, under a penalty, that no railroad company shall obstruct any farm crossing “ until the legal right to do so has been finally settled by a judgment or decree of the Superior Court,” and that any railroad company may “ bring its complaint against the person owning the land adjoining such crossing to the Superior Court, which shall hear and determine the rights of the parties.” A railroad company which, before the act was passed, had made a fence across such a crossing, brought a suit in equity for an injunction to restrain the adjoining owners from removing it. Held to be a sufficient suit under the statute for determining the legal rights of the parties in the matter.</p>