Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Keystone State Construction Co.
Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Keystone State Construction Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The record shows the following facts: The plaintiff, a public service corporation, had constructed on its right of way, a line of poles and strung wires for the transmission of telegraph messages.
The Philadelphia and Western Railway Company, a public service corporation, entered into a contract with the defendant construction company, to build its road bed between Villa Nova and Norristown, and in doing the necessary work of grading, by reason of the condition of the ground, it was obliged to resort to the method of rock blasting along Gulf Road.
After this work was started and some damage had been done to the plaintiff’s wires, in anticipation of further and more serious injury to its property, the plaintiff voluntqyily removed its established line of poles and wires from its right of way along Gulf Road “back a distance of 360 feet. In making this change (and after the completion of the construction work by the defendant company), the plaintiff restored the line of poles and wires'to their original location. In doing this work it
The record and argument shows that the defendant is an independent contractor; that the work done, was necessary to properly construct the roadbed of the railway company; that it wras not done in an improper or negligent manner, and that the railway company was exercising its right of eminent domain in the construction of its roadbed.
The plaintiff contends, that as the injuries to its property were the necessary and unavoidable results of the construction company’s method of doing the work, it has a good cause of action against it.
It was held in Hauck v. Pipe Line Co., 153 Pa. 366, where a corporation is clothed with the right of eminent domain, and is expressly authorized by law to construct its works and operate them, any injury resulting from such operation, without negligence and without malice, is damnum absque injuria: Stork v. Philadelphia, 195 Pa. 101.
As this case is presented we' only decide that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover in this form of action against this defendant.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Postal Telegraph Cable Company v. Keystone State Construction Company
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- 5 cases
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- Syllabus
- Railroads — Construction, of roadbed — Blasting — Independent contractor — Injury to telegraph line — Trespass—Eminent domain. Where a railroad company in the exercise of its right of eminent domain constructs its roadway through the medium of a contract with an independent contractor, and as a result of blasting, a telegraph company, in order to prevent injuries to its wires and poles, removes them out of danger until the blasting is finished, the telegraph company cannot maintain an action of trespass against the independent contractor to recover the sum which it expended for labor and material in removing the poles and wires and in restoring them to their original location, if the blasting was done without negligence or malice.