St. Louis Vandalia & Terre Haute Railroad v. Kaulbrumer

Citations

• 59 Ill. 152

Syllabus

<p>Trover—whether it will lie. In an action against a railroad company, it appeared the plaintiff had hauled out and delivered on the line of defendants’ road a certain number of fence posts, for the purpose of selling the same, at a place where fence posts were delivered for and received by the builders of defendants’ road; that the posts, without the knowledge or consent of the plaintiff, were loaded on a construction train on defendants’ road and taken away and used, by the employees of McKcen, Smith &Co., to fence the defendants’ road; that the defendants had made a contract with McKeen, Smith & Co., to construct and fence their road for a stipulated price, and for that purpose had given them the exclusive control over the road until its completion, all the earnings over and above the cost of operating the road, to be paid over b} the contractors to the company; that before the institution of the suit the road had been fully completed and turned over to the defendants. The plaintiff had no contract with the defendants in regard to the posts: Held, the posts having been placed upon and attached to the lands of the defendants by the contractors, while they were operating the road and without the plaintiff’s consent, thus becoming a part of their realty and thereby being in the possession of the defendants, the plaintiff could maintain an action of trover against the company for the value of the posts.</p>