Willock v. Beaver Valley Railroad

Citations

• 222 Pa. 590
• 72 A. 237
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 914

Syllabus

<p>Streets — Title—Plan of lots — Land owned by commonwealth.</p> <p>Where the commonwealth lays out a plan of lots of land owned by itself, and the lots are sold with streets as boundaries, the title to the fee to the center of the streets passes to the purchasers.</p> <p>Where the commonwealth lays out a plan of lots on which one of the boundary streets is indicated as of the width of 200 feet, but before any of the lots are sold, and before the rights of the general public attached, the commonwealth makes a grant of adjoining land so as to include 100 feet of the width of the boundary street, and thereafter the street is always regarded by the borough and by abutting property owners as of the width of 100 feet and no more, and lots are sold accordingly, and this condition of things continues for over 100 years, it will be presumed that the commonwealth intended to cut down, and did, in fact, cut down the width of the street from 200 feet to 100 feet.</p> <p>Railroads — Occupation of street — Special injuries — •Damages.</p> <p>The construction of a railroad upon a public street already dedicated to public use as a highway, imposes an additional servitude upon the owner of the fee, but such owner is only entitled to recover damages from the railroad company if he has suffered some special injury by reason of the construction of the railroad, such as interference with access to his property, or the cutting off of light and air from it. He cannot recover damages for the mere inconveniences and discomforts which the general public living near a railroad is compelled to bear.</p> <p>Railroads — Damages—Constitution—Art. XVI, sec. 8.</p> <p>Section 8 of art. XVI of the constitution which provides for just compensation to the owner of property “taken, injured or destroyed” in the construction of a railroad only applies when the title to the property so taken or injured is in the abutting owner who complains. If no property be actually taken or injured there is no damage