Reading City v. Davis

Citations

• 153 Pa. 360
• 26 A. 62
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 1109

Syllabus

<p>[Marked to be reported.]</p> <p>Municipalities — Eminent domain — Exclusive possession — Trespass.</p> <p>Where a municipal corporation condemns land for a public purpose, the municipality has the right to the exclusive possession of the land, and if the former owner attempts in any way to use it, even though his use may not interfere with the public use, he renders himself liable to nominal damages, at least, in an action of trespass.</p> <p>A portion of defendant’s farm was condemned by a municipal corporation for the purposes of a pumping station. About an acre of the land condemned was a narrow strip running alongside of a railroad, and used as a lane to connect the pumping station lot proper with a highway. Defendant was allowed to retain a right to cross the lane at a point where he had been accustomed to cross the railroad in passing from one part of his farm to the other. The lane in the narrow strip extended along the railroad back into the main part of the pumping-house lot. Without the city’s permission, defendant began to drive his wagons over the portion of the land in the main part of the pumping-house lot, but without interfering with the city’s use of the pumping plant. Held, that such use was an invasion of the city’s right of property, and that a judgment in trespass for nominal damages should be sustained against defendant.</p>