Riley v. Pennsylvania Co.

Citations

• 32 Pa. Super. 579
• 1907 Pa. Super. LEXIS 57

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Occupation of street — Station—Nuisance—Act of April 11, 1849, P. L. 754 — Equity.</p> <p>Under the Ohio act of February 24, 1848, sec. 11, adopted in Pennsylvania by the Act of April 11, 1849, P. L. 754, entitled, “An Act to incorporate the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad Company,” the Pennsylvania company, the successor in title to the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad Company, has the right to occupy a street in a borough or township with the municipal consent, to the extent only of a width sufficient for its rails and ties, but not for passenger depots or freight houses.</p> <p>Even if it should be assumed that section eleven of the Ohio act gave to the railroad company the right at the time of the original location of the railroad, to encroach upon the street for the purposes of a station, this right will not be extended, years after the railroad was located and á station established outside the lines of the street, to a right to encroach on the street by an extension of the station.</p> <p>The power of a railroad company to occupy a public street or highway must be derived directly, or indirectly, from legislative grant, and must be given in plain words, or by necessary implication, or be taken not to exist.</p> <p>Where such an encroachment is about to be attempted, a citizen owning property on the opposite side of the street, whose light and view are interfered with, and whose right to use the street may be interfered with by increased travel in the future, and who has bought his property according to a plan of lots on which the street was indicated, has a standing in equity to enjoin the railroad company from encroaching on the street for station purposes.</p> <p>An abutting owner who must use a street as a means of access to his property has a special interest therein, which gives him a standing to invoke the aid of equity to prevent unlawful obstruction of the street which other members of the general public have not.</p> <p>The general rule is tha