Delaware & Hudson Co. v. Olyphant Borough

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Delaware & Hudson Co. v. Olyphant Borough, 224 Pa. 387 (Pa. 1909)
73 A. 458; 1909 Pa. LEXIS 802
Brown, Elkin, Fell, Potter, Stewart

Delaware & Hudson Co. v. Olyphant Borough

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam,

The appeal is from a decree awarding a preliminary injunction restraining the defendant from interfering with the plaintiff in the exercise of a right acquired by grant from the owner of the fee, to use the surface in mining and removing coal. As pointedly stated by the learned judge who heard the case: “The right which it asserts here is the' right to the use and enjoyment of certain of its land and tenements in accordance with the terms and purposes of the grant under which they are held. The injury which it seeks to prevent is the taking of some part of the property for public use without due process of law and just compensation.” On an appeal from a decree awarding or refusing a preliminary injunction we do not consider the merits of the case except to determine whether there was reasonable ground for the action of the court. The only claim of right by the defendant that is open for consideration at this time is that by ordinance it has adopted certain streets plotted by the owner of the fee after his grant of surface rights. This ordinance gave it no right as against the plaintiff.

The decree is affirmed at the cost of the appellant.

Reference

Full Case Name
Delaware & Hudson Company v. Olyphant Borough
Cited By
7 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Equity — Injunction—Preliminary injunction — Appeal. 1. On an appeal from a decree awarding or refusing a preliminary injunction, the appellate court does not consider the merits of the case, except to determine whether there was reasonable ground for the action of the court. Equity — Injunction—Mines and mining — Surface rights — Plot of streets. 2. Where an owner of coal leases the same with a right of way over the surface for mining purposes, and thereafter lays out a plan of lots with streets which are subsequently adopted by a borough as public streets, the borough has no right under the ordinance adopting the streets, to interfere with the owner of the coal in its enjoyment of the right of way, and if it attempts to do so it will be restrained by an injunction.