Wheelock v. Fuellhart
Wheelock v. Fuellhart
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The appellee, under and by virtue of his agreement with Mrs. Philopena C. Fuellhart, acquired the privilege of piling
But the appellee contended in the court below and contends here that Mrs. Fuellhart had no right on the first of June, 1890, or thereafter, to the possession of the land to which his privilege applied, or to remove therefrom his lumber and bark, because he says the land was either in the public highway or appropriated by the railroad company. The learned judge of the court below instructed the jury that if the lumber and bark
We have no doubt that the appellee could have taken his property from Mrs. Fuellhart’s land without becoming liable to her as a trespasser. It was not appropriated by her, and there is nothing on the record to indicate that she claimed or intended to claim it. He knew where it was and had an undisputed right to take it. He cannot therefore charge her or the appellants with any loss he may have sustained by his neglect to do so.
The first, second and third specifications are sustained, and the fourth is overruled.
Judgment reversed.
Reference
- Status
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- Syllabus
- Highways — Depositing material upon road — Trespass. No one has the right to deposit and maintain material upon a highway without the consent of the person who owns the fee in the soil of the road. Plaintiff, under an agreement with defendant, the owner of the soil of a highway, deposited lumber and bark upon the road; and when the agreement had expired he refused to remove it. Defendant then transferred the lumber from the road to her own land, but there was no evidence that she claimed or intended to claim it, or prevented plaintiff from moving it. Held, that plaintiff could have removed the lumber from defendant’s land without becoming liable to her as a trespasser, and that he was not entitled to damages for the removal of the lumber from the road. In the above case plaintiff claimed that part of the lumber had been placed upon a portion of the road appropriated by a railroad company. It did not appear that any portion of the land had been condemned by the company, and three witnesses for defendant testified that the platform upon which the lumber was piled was wholly within the public road, while plaintiff himself testified that it was “ almost entirely on the public highway.” Held, that a jury ought not to have been permitted to find on this evidence that plaintiff’s lumber and bark were taken by defendants from the railroad company’s land.