Owens v. Crossett

Citations

• 105 Ill. 354
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 98

Syllabus

<p>1. Injunction—to prevent a trespass. An injunction will not lie to prevent a simple trespass to property, consisting of a single act, where the person committing or threatening the trespass is able to respond in damages; but if he is insolvent, and trespasses of a grave character are threatened to be repeated, equity will interfere to prevent the wrong by restraining the threatened trespass.</p> <p>2. Where a party, claiming to act as a road commissioner, had removed complainant’s fences a considerable number of times, claiming they were obstructions to a public road, and had said he would remove' them as often as replaced, and he had no property subject to execution, and the proofs failed to show the road was in fact located over the place in dispute, it was held, that the case fell within the exception to the general rule, and that a court of equity had jurisdiction to enjoin the defendant from again removing such fences, for the reasons there was no adequate remedy at law, and to prevent multiplicity of suits.</p> <p>3. Highway—party removing fences must show they are on the road. A party attempting to justify the removal and threatened removal of fences on the ground they are on a legally established road, must not only prove the establishment of the road, but also that such road was established and located at the precise places where the fences are built.</p> <p>4. Same—proof of., by user for twenty years. Evidence tending to prove that a road had been traveled over uninelosed prairie land for forty years, in a general direction, but the line of travel varying considerably, and had been changed within twenty years past, is insufficient to show a road by user or prescription over a particular place in question, so as to justify a road commissioner in removing fences placed thereon.</p> <p>5. Because a road is traveled, or even legally established, does not authorize a road commissioner to open or remove fences not within the boundaries of the road. His power