Turpin v. Baltimore, Ohio & Chicago Railroad

Citations

• 105 Ill. 11
• 1882 Ill. LEXIS 228

Syllabus

<p>1. Ejectment—when not maintainable by holder of legal title. Where the defendant’s possession of land is rightful, and the plaintiff is not wrong-ft y kept out of possession, the action of ejectment can not he maintained. So where the owner of land lets a railway company into possession of a part thereof under a contract for the right of way, which the company fully performs, the former owner can not maintain the action against the company.</p> <p>2. Contract—aid of surrounding circumstances in construction. The surrounding circumstances may be looked at in construing a contract, where there is any uncertainty of meaning.</p> <p>3. Same—circumstances to identify land meant. In a contract by one of several tenants in common with a railway company it was agreed to convey to the company a right of way over the party’s land, a portion of which was described, and in the concluding clause it was provided: “It is understood that the right of way east of Stony Island avenue is to be procured free of cost to the party of the second part, except through one ten-acre tract, which is to be paid by the party of the second part. ” The lots over which the right of way was then laid and marked were east of the avenue named, and when the party of the first part, by a partition, had acquired such lots in severalty, so that the right of way was on his own land solely: Held, that by virtue of the provision in Ms contract for procuring the right of way, the railway company might enforce a conveyance of the right of way from him.</p> <p>4. Purchaser—with notice of easement takes subject thereto. A purchaser of land, with notice that his grantor had agreed to give a right of way over the same to a railway company, for a valuable consideration, takes the premises subject to the rights of such company under its contract with his grantor, and can not maintain ejectment against the company for the land occupied by it rightfully under such contract.</p>