Taylor v. Erie City Passenger Railway Co.
Taylor v. Erie City Passenger Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The appellants filed this bill to enjoin the use of a switch and to compel the appellees to remove it. The real estate abutting on the road on which the street-railway is constructed belonged to William L. Scott, deceased, who devised it to the appellants in trust. In 1889, when the appellees constructed
The “Blacksmith” or “Cemetery” switch was constructed in pursuance of authority expressly given the defendants to construct it by the property owner and the township authorities, and but for the proceeding instituted by the latter in 1893, resulting in the decree stated, the appellants would not be raising the question of the right to continue to use it. In 1889 the owner of the property, whom they represented in 1902, when they filed this bill, had, in writing, granted to the appellees the right “ to occupy and extend their line of railway and the necessary turn-outs ” in front of his premises. This switch is one of these turn-outs. When the appellees, in 1893, were so lengthening their sidings as to practically construct a second track on the public road, the commissioners of Mill Creek township, to prevent the danger of traveling over the road with a second track constructed on it under the guise of sidings, filed a bill to enjoin their construction, and, after a full hearing a decree was made directing that five new ones could be constructed, and that as soon as any of them were relocated and constructed, those which they supplied should be removed. To that proceeding by the township commissioners these appellants were not parties, and they are not in a position to ask for the enforcement of the decree. They allege that the
Defendants’ seventh request for a legal finding by the court below was that, as the road commissioners of Mill Creek township, by resolution duly passed June 23, 1899, had given their consent to the continued use of the “ Blacksmith ” switch by the defendants, the construction of which had been duly authorized in writing by William L. Scott, the owner of the adjoining property, and as it had been constructed and remained in the use of the company without objection on the part of the heirs and representatives of Scott from 1889 until this bill was filed, the defendants were entitled to continue to use it in the operation of their railway. In this request the whole situation is presented. The learned judge properly found as requested, and the decree which logically followed his finding is affirmed at appellant’s costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Taylor v. Erie City Passenger Railway Company
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Street railways—Consent of owner—Estoppel—Equity. Where a street railway company has secured the consent of an abutting owner to the location of its railway on a public road, and has constructed its railway, but several years afterwards has been restrained at the instance of the township from unduly extending its switch in front of the consenting owner’s property, the testamentary trustee of the consenting owner cannot, thirteen years after the consent was -given, and nine years after the decree was entered, and several years after the township had waived its right to enforce it, maintain a bill in equity to compel the railway company to remove the switch in question which might have been removed by the' township authorities under the decree in their favor before they waived their right to enforce it.