Pa. Schuylkill Val. R. R. v. Phila. & Read. R. R.

Citations

• 157 Pa. 42
• 27 A. 683
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 1398

Syllabus

<p>[Marked to be reported.]</p> <p>Railroads — Exclusive grants — Implied grants — Streets.</p> <p>A grant by the commonwealth or by a municipal corporation under authority derived from the commonwealth, is to be taken most strongly against the grantee, and nothing is to be taken by implication against the public, except what necessarily flows from the nature and terms of the grant.</p> <p>Where the express words of a statute do not grant to a railroad company the right to the exclusive occupancy of a street, such a right cannot be implied, unless the whole width of the street was reasonably necessary for the construction and operation of such road.</p> <p>Railroads — Streets—Width of easement — Presumption.</p> <p>The presumption that a railroad company has taken the general width of its right of way as specified in the charter, has no application to the surface of public streets, where the words of the charter express, with reference to such streets, nothing more than a right of way.</p> <p>The right in such case is limited to an occupation reasonably demanded by the transaction of the business contemplated; where, by years of actual use in the business, it has been demonstrated what extent of occupancy is sufficient to accomplish the purpose of the grant, the extent of the use determines the extent of the grant.</p> <p>A railroad company was authorized by its charter to use a public street At the time of the location and construction of the railroad, there were no outside facts pointing to a necessity for more than one track on the street. The company laid one track and continued to use it for twenty years. Held, in a controversy with another railroad company over the occupancy of the remaining portion of the street, that the power under the grant was exhausted, not by delay in appropriation, but by the full exercise of the power in the beginning.</p> <p>Exclusive grants — Acts of March 20, 1860, and March 29, 1871.</p> <p>The act of March 20,1860, P. L. 471, aut