Smucker v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 6 Pa. Super. 521
• 1898 Pa. Super. LEXIS 191

Syllabus

<p>Riparian rights — Effect of survey — Land bounded by stream.</p> <p>A survey returned as bounded by a navigable river vests in the owner the right of soil to ordinary low watermark of the stream subject to the public right of passage, etc., between ordinary high and low watermark and where there is nothing more in the case, the successors in the title hold coextensively.</p> <p>Eminent domain — Evidence—Ex parte drafts made by commonwealth.</p> <p>In order to fix the location of land appropriated by the state to public uses, a draft attached to the report of the inquisition appointed to assess the damages, together with all the explanatory memoranda attached thereto is admissible in evidence to show the location of the canal because it forms part of the record: Pennsylvania Canal Co. v. Dunkel, 101 Pa. 103; but an ex parte draft, offered to show the location of a canal which was not used in and which did not pertain to, either an amicable or adverse proceeding between the state and the landowner, made after the canal was finished, without knowledge or consent of the owners and long subsequent to the settlement had'with a number of the owners of distinct parts of the locus in quo, is inadmissible.</p> <p>Actions — Trespass for trying title.</p> <p>The right exists to bring trespass for an original tort for the purpose of trying title, and the judgment in such an action has the same effect on the' question of title as a judgment in ejectment.</p> <p>Trespass for trying title — What constitutes piossession.</p> <p>A mere discontinuance of actual occupancy of town lots, without an intention to abandon, does not put the true owner out of legal possession. To hold possession of a town lot once occupied, it is not necessarily required that the owner should build on it or even fence it. When there is no actual possession in another, the owner is to be deemed in actual possession, and trespass will lie against a wrongdoer, it is the close of him who has the right.</p> <p>