Potts v. Quaker City Elevated R. R.

Citations

• 161 Pa. 396
• 34 W.N.C. 261
• 29 A. 108
• 1894 Pa. LEXIS 706

Syllabus

<p>[Marked to be reported.]</p> <p>Railroads — Elevated railroads — Street railways — Municipal consent— ílctsof 1868 and 1887.</p> <p>There is no statute in Pennsylvania authorizing the incorporation of elevated street passenger railroads, and no machinery for acquiring a right of way for an elevated railroad, overhanging the streets and surface street railroads upon them.</p> <p>A railroad company incorporated under the act of April 4, 1868, P. L. 62, although entitled an elevated railroad company, is not a street passenger railway company, and cannot acquire the rights and franchises of such company without incorporation under the street railroad laws.</p> <p>The consent of the city cannot give to such a company the right to build and operate an elevated street passenger railroad overhanging the streets and the surface street railroad lines, in the absence of any legislation whatever authorizing or providing for such elevated structure, and the ascertainment of the damages to be done to lot owners thereby.</p> <p>As such a company has no right of way on the surface on which it can build a line of railroad, it has no line to elevate or depress under the provisions of the act of May 31, 1887, P. L. 275, and can take nothing whatever under that act.</p>