Pittsburg Junction Railroad v. Fort Pitt Street Passenger Railway

Citations

• 192 Pa. 44
• 43 A. 352
• 1899 Pa. LEXIS 877

Syllabus

<p>Railroads—Street railways — Grossings — Acts of June 19, 1871, and May 14, 1889.</p> <p>The Act of June 19,1871, P. L. 1360, relating to grade crossings, applies to street railways, and is not affected by the Act of May 14, 1889, P. L. 211.</p> <p>The courts will liberally construe and rigidly enforce the provisions of the act of June 19,1871, relating to grade crossings, whenever cases fairly within its letter and spirit are presented.</p> <p>A grade crossing will not be authorized where the topography of the neighborhood, the surroundings of the crossing and the extent to which the crossing is used and will probably be used establish beyond a doubt the conclusion that it is exceptionally dangerous.</p> <p>The fact that there are other grade crossings in the same city, over which more trains pass than over the crossing in question, is no argument in favor of sanctioning another grade crossing of a dangerous character.</p> <p>In a controversy between a railroad company and a street railway company as to a crossing, the fact that the railroad company has been using the street without authority for the pui’pose of shifting its cars cannot be taken into consideration in determining whether a grade crossing shall be permitted or not.</p> <p>In order to avoid a grade crossing, a street railway company has the right to “ diverge for a short distance” from its route.</p> <p>In a suit in equity under the act of June 19, 1871, to regulate the crossing of a railroad by a street railway, no stay of the preliminary injunction should be granted, except upon tbe condition that precautionary rules and regulations, not less efficient than those embodied in the decree, be faithfully and rigidly observed and enforced, in the meantime.</p>