Chambers v. Balt. & O. R.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Chambers v. Balt. & O. R., 139 Pa. 347 (Pa. 1891)
21 A. 2; 1891 Pa. LEXIS 1001
Clark, Cubiam, McCollum, Mitchell, Paxson, Reen, Sterbett, Williams

Chambers v. Balt. & O. R.

Opinion of the Court

Peb Cubiam:

There was a bill and a cross-bill filed in this case. The court below dismissed the original bill, and sustained the cross-bill, and decreed, inter alia, “ that the plaintiffs in the cross-bill have the right to maintain and use said tracks, referred to, *354mentioned, and described in said bill, over and upon the lands of the defendant, described therein, in the manner and for the purposes the same has been heretofore maintained and used.” The master has found that the Y in question was put in at the request of the predecessors of the plaintiff in the title to the land, and was used for years in their business, and also by the railroad company for their own purposes. He also finds that, after the property was sold by the sheriff under the mortgage, “ the purchaser and his grantees for more than twenty years did not object to this use of the Y by the railroad, but acquiesced in such use, and used it jointly with the railroad for the purpose of receiving supplies for the factory, and shipping, away the finished product.” Without elaborating, it would now be inequitable to require the company to take up its track. We are not considering the question in a court of law, but in a court where a decree is of grace. A chancellor cannot be called upon to make an inequitable decree.

Decree affirmed, and the appeal dismissed, at the costs of the appellant.

Reference

Full Case Name
J. A. CHAMBERS v. BALT. & O. R. CO.
Cited By
2 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
(a) Under a sealed agreement with the owner of lands subject to a mortgage, a railroad company, for the benefit of the owner’s business, constructed a Y upon the property, in consideration of a sum certain and the unrestricted right to turn its trains thereon whenever necessary. (b) Afterward, the land was sold upon a judgment obtained on the mortgage, and the purchaser and those acquiring his title recognized the continued use of the Y by the railroad company, under the agreement, for a period of twenty years after its construction: 1. A master so finding, on a bill filed by the landowner to compel the company to remove the Y, alter such an acquiescence in its joint nse for the period stated, it was not error for a court of equity to decree that the plaintiff's bill should be dismissed.