New York & New Jersey Telephone Co. v. State
New York & New Jersey Telephone Co. v. State
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The Supreme Court, by its judgment, set aside proceedings for the appointment of commissioners to appraise the damages to be sustained by Jonathan; J. Broome, by reason of the erection and maintenance off telegraph poles, wires and other fixtures, in front of his lands-along Park avenue, in the township of East Orange, upon two grounds:
First. Because the petition for the appointment of the-commissioners is too indefinite to apprise the commissioners of the burden which they are to estimate, and the land-owner-of the burden to which he is to submit.
Secoud. Because the act to incorporate and regulate telegraph companies (Rev., p. 1174) and its supplement (Rev.. Sup., p. 1022), required the plaintiff in error to apply to the.legislative body of the township of East Orange for a designation of the streets in which its telegraph poles might be placed, before it could proceed to have the damages to accrue to individuals assessed.
The petition states that the telegraph lines, to be constructed,, will run over and across a public road (designated upon a schedule diagram annexed to the petition), which adjoins, and; is in front of, the lands of Mr. Broome, “ and that the said, highway is required and necessary to be used and taken for the purpose of erecting posts or poles on the same for the purpose of sustaining wires and other fixtures of the petitioner.”
The schedule annexed to the petition is a diagram, upon which Park avenue and Mr. Broome’s land are delineated. In Park avenue, adjoining the premises of Mr. Broome, there-appear upon this diagram five dots, to indicate telegraph poles,, but neither the petition nor the schedule mentions a scale by which the exact or even proximate location of the poles may
The Supreme Court was correct in its opinion that the ¿petition was too indefinite to be sustained.
Our -.conclusion upon this point obviates the necessity of •expressing an opinion upon the other branch of the case, upon vwhich the Supreme Court passed, and the act of 1887 (Pamph. JL., p. 119), has so changed the law that it is not a public •utility that we should do so.
The judgment of the court below will be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.