Stoner v. Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad

Citations

• 229 Pa. 521
• 79 A. 158
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 523

Syllabus

<p>Railroad — Eminent Domain —Widening Rood — Farm Crossings-— Acts of March 17, 1869, P. L. 12, and February 19, 1849, P. L. 79.</p> <p>1. Where a railroad condemns land for the widening of its right of way the failure to extend a farm crossing previously maintained amounts to a destruction of an easement appurtenant to the land appropriated and constitutes an element of damages in a proceeding under the Act of March 17, 1869, P. L. 12; but where the owner has claimed and been awarded damages in such a proceeding for the destruction of the causeway he cannot thereafter maintain a duty on the part of the railroad to give him another causeway or additional damages under the Act of February 19, 1849, P. L. 79. Davis v. Penna. R. R. Co., 43 Pa. Superior Ct. 119 distinguished.</p> <p>Railroads — Eminent domain — Statutory proceedings — Practice—Equity — Responsive answer — Introduction of additional facts.</p> <p>2. Where in a statutory proceeding the initial step is assimilated to a proceeding in equity, the subsequent pleadings, in the absence of directions to the contrary, are subject to the rules of equity practice.</p> <p>3. An answer in an equity proceeding is not made any the less responsive by the setting forth of all the fads, though some new matter may be introduced thereby.</p> <p>4. In a statutory proceeding to recover damages from a railroad for failure to extend farm crossings where the petition shows a proceeding already had “to recover damages for land taken and damage done to said farm” without any averment that the damages for the destruction of the causeways in question were not adjudicated in this prior proceeding, and the answer supplements the petition and avers that the destruction of these causeways was considered as an element in the other proceeding and that damages therefor were adjudicated and awarded to the plaintiff, and no general replication is filed and the answer is not excepted to, it is not error for the court to adjudge the petition