Seaboard Air Line Railway v. Southern Investment Co.

Citations

• 53 Fla. 832

Syllabus

<p>1. The allegation in a bill of complaint that the complainant is the owner and seized in fee of four blocks of land described, and that said blocks of land adjoin and abut on a public thoroughfare known as Stebbins avenue in the town of Manatee, states a prima facie case of the ownership of the soil to the middle of the street in front of said blocks of land; and, together with the further showing by said bill of complaint that two of these blocks of land lie on one side of said avenue directly across from and opposite to the other two blocks of land on said avenue, is a sufficient allegation and showing that the complainant’s ownership extends across the whole street.</p> <p>2. Where the fee in the street is in the abutting owner, afld the public have only an. easement in the street or highway, the laying of a steam railroad track along said street on his soil without his consent and without taking and paying just compensation therefor, is an unlawful appropriation of the property of such owner, and the abutting owner has all the remedies of any other owner of the soil, and an injunction will lie to restrain the taking possession of the street until payment be made therefor or secured to him by deposit of money.</p> <p>3. The remedy by injunction is a preventive one only, but when there is a continuance of the injury against which, before the act was committed, an injunction might have been granted, and a right to continue the injury is claimed by the aggressor, an injunction may, in a proper case, be granted to restrain such continuance.</p> <p>4. Where the allegation in a bill for an injunction, and the affidavit in support thereof, do not assert simply the legal conclusion that notice to the defendant of the application for injunction will accelerate the injury complained of, but show further that, before said application could be heard, the defendants would be able to lay their track and • have their cars in operation over the land of complainant, a sufficie