Scott v. Donora Southern Railroad

Citations

• 222 Pa. 634
• 72 A. 282
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 923

Syllabus

<p>Road law — Plan of lots — Dedication of street — Acceptance by the public— Railroad — Eminent domain — Damages.</p> <p>While title by adverse possession cannot be acquired in land which has been dedicated to the use of the public for the purpose of a street, the rule will not obtain unless the dedication has been accepted.</p> <p>Where an owner of land lays the land out in a plan of lots and records the plan, but the streets indicated are never accepted by, open to, or used by the public, and the owner and his successors in title for over fifty years keep the land fenced and cultivated, a railroad company, in condemning a portion of the land, cannot claim that it is not liable for the depreciation in value of the whole of the tract because of a division of the tract by a street or streets.</p> <p>In such a case it is immaterial if the owner of the land within twenty-one years prior to the condemnation proceedings described the land in partition proceedings and in an affidavit filed under the Act of May 31, 1901, P. L. 352, by reference to the recorded plan of lots.</p>