Underwood v. Pennsylvania, Monongahela & Southern Railroad

Citations

• 255 Pa. 553
• 99 A. 64
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 492

Syllabus

<p>Railroad companies- — -Eminent domain proceedings — Acquisition of property — Damages—Parties entitled to damages.</p> <p>1. The rule is well settled that a claim for damages for taking land under the right of eminent domain is a personal one and does not pass to a subsequent purchaser in the absence of circumstances indicating a contrary intent.</p> <p>2. The successive steps necessary to vest title to land appropriated by a railroad company under its right of eminent domain are first, a preliminary entry on the land for the purpose of exploration and survey; second, the selection and adoption of a line as and for the location of the proposed railroad by appropriate action of the company’s board of directors; and, third, the making or securing of compensation by the corporation to the owner for the damages sustained by reason of the appropriation of his land. , Upon filing a bond the title passes, the right of damages is fixed and the company cannot subsequently avoid payment by abandonment of the right of way.</p> <p>3. A claim for damages for taking land under the right of eminent domain in so far as the right thereto between the grantor and the grantee of the land is concerned arises when the damages are secured and accrues to the person who owns the land at the time such security is entered.</p> <p>4. Where a railroad company adopted a route through private property but did not secure the damages until after such property had been conveyed, the owner ,of the land at the time of the entry of the security was entitled to the damages, not the heirs of the party who owned the land at the time when the route was adopted.</p>