Crescent Pipe Line Co. v. Jeffries
Crescent Pipe Line Co. v. Jeffries
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff’s right to maintain its line of telegraph posts over the defendant’s land is based on the contract of G. W. Jeffries dated November 24, 1891, set forth at length as an exhibit to the bill. This agreement is not an absolute and unconditional grant of the easement claimed. It is an option rather of a right of way to be exercised within six months from January 1,. 1892, by the payment of the additional consideration therein named and if the location therein mentioned be “adopted ” within the time limited. The agreement contains the following additional provisions: “In event foregoing location is not adopted by Crescent Pipe Line Company on July 1, 1892, then this instrument is not binding on either party. Nor is the second payment to be made. This right of way to continue as long as used for the above purposes.” It will thus be seen that the company was to do something before it acquired the right to enjoy the easement, that is, it was to adopt the location. This location had already been made by a survey and marking of the line along which the work was to be constructed. The provision that the right was to continue only as long as used for the purpose contemplated gives strong support to the conclusion of the court below that the adoption referred to in the contract was the actual occupancy of the land for the purposes intended. It is a reasonable construction of the second provision of the agreement that the right was to be exercised within the six months and was to continue no longer than when actually used-by the company. The evidence does not show when the location surveyed was adopted except as may be inferred
If, however, the learned trial judge was in error in holding that the plaintiff’s right to construct the telegraph line was lost by its failure to build it within six months from the date of its contract with Jeffries or was forfeited for nonuser there is another branch of the case which justifies the decree. Evidence is offered on behalf of the defendant to the effect that when the agent of the plaintiff presented the contract to George W. Jeffries for his signature he refused to sign it so far as it gave a right to the company to set up telegraph poles on his land; that he did not object to the laying of a pipe under the surface, but that he would not have the poles set through the fields. The plaintiff’s agent then assured him that the telegraph line would not be constructed on the farm but along the highway; and the learned trial judge has found as a fact that this was the condition under which the contract was signed. The evidence supports this conclusion. Two witnesses were called who were present at the time the paper was signed by George W. Jeffries who state that he refused to sign on account of the provision about the telegraph line and that the company’s agent said that they would then build the telegraph line along the road and not over the farm; that it was then understood that the telegraph line was not to be put through the farm. This evidence is uncontradicted, and when taken in connection with the fact admitted that while the pipe line was laid through the field the telegraph line was put along the road the conclusion seems inevitable that the plaintiff recognized the existence of the parol agreement entered into at the time the paper was signed and acted on it. It carries-conviction to the mind that the plaintiff understood that it was not getting a right to set the telegraph poles through the farm. “Parol evidence is admissible to establish a contemporaneous oral agreement, which induced the execution of a written contract, though it may vary,
The decree is affirmed and it is further ordered that the plaintiff be allowed a period of four months from the filing of this decree within which to remove said line of poles from the defendant’s land.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.