Westerman v. Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co.
Westerman v. Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This is a bill in equity for an injunction and accounting. Defendant has been engaged in manufacturing in Allegheny County since 1850, with its plant located on the bank of the Allegheny river, where it owned a tract of land underlaid with coal from which is secured fuel. This supply was gradually exhausted and about 1897 defendant purchased the coal in a block of approximately twenty-five hundred acres of land, located conveniently
The bill seeks to enjoin defendant from using the passageway in question in transporting coal from other lands, and also to account and pay for such use theretofore had of the same. The court below overruled the exceptions filed to the chancellor’s finding of facts and legal conclusions and made absolute the decree dismissing the bill; from which plaintiff took this appeal. In our opinion the decree of the court below was right. The deed vested in the defendant a corporeal estate in fee in the coal; and until that estate is terminated by the exhaustion of the coal, or lost by abandonment, the vendee is entitled to the possession of the coal, and also of the space made by its removal, and may use such space in transporting coal from other lands. In the case of Lillibridge v. Lackawanna Coal Co., 143 Pa. 293, this court held that the owner of the coal also owned the chamber or space enclosing it, and, so long as such ownership continued, could use such space for the transportation of other coal. That case Avas expressly reaffirmed, and held to be a settled rule of property in the great mining regions of the Commonwealth, in the case of Webber v. Vogel, 189 Pa. 156. Both of the above cited cases are quoted with approval and followed in the opinion of this court by present Chief Justice Broavn in New York & Pittston Coal Company v. Hillside Coal & Iron Co., 225 Pa. 211, 214; and it is there held that, “A lessee of coal cannot be charged for rental for the use of gangways on the demised premises in transporting coal from other properties.” The rule stated by our Brother Potter in delivering the opinion of this court in Weisfield v. Beale, 231 Pa. 39, 43, is applicable here, that, “When the defendant bought the coal in the Donley tract, he took a fee simple estate in the coal, and so long as that estate existed, he could haul through the gangways coal from other land. In so doing, he was using his own' property.” While á tract that is in open workable condition, is being
Our conclusion as above stated being fatal to plaintiff’s case, we deem it unnecessary to consider in detail the several assignments of error or the other questions presented in the record.
The assignments of error are overruled and the appeal is dismissed at the costs of appellant.
Reference
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- Westerman v. Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company
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- Syllabus
- Mines and mining — Sale of underlying coal — Passageway— Suspension of mining operations — Exhaustion of coal — Abandonment —Bill in equity■ — Grantee’s right to transport coal from other mines —Injunction—Refusal. 1. The owner of the coal underlying the surface of land also owns the chamber or space enclosing it, and so long as such ownership continues can use such space for the transportation of other coal, and cannot he charged rental for so doing. 2. While'a tract is being mined, that is in op.en workable condition, tbe fact that there may be a temporary suspension of operations therein will not deprive the mine owner of the right to use the driveways for transportation of other coal, where he is acting in good faith and mining in the customary manner. 3. The owner of the coal has no perpetual right of way through the land, and the right will cease when the coal therein is exhausted or abandoned. 4. Upon a bill in equity for an injunction to restrain the use of a passageway, under plaintiff’s land, for the transportation of coal from other lands owned by defendant, and for an accounting, it appeared that defendant had purchased the coal underlying approximately 2,500 acres of land for mining purposes, including 80 acres purchased from the plaintiff; that defendant had driven a main passageway into the block and through plaintiff’s farm, and thence on into other lands. The coal underneath plaintiff’s land had béen mined except twenty-five or thirty per cent., which was left in place to support the surface. For several years no mining had been done but defendant was still in possession of the mine and might at any time remove the ribs of coal by second mining, which would destroy the supports and let down the surface. Defendant had for a number of years used the main entry or driveway through plaintiff’s farm as the means of transporting coal from the lands in the rear thereof, this being the only practicable way of mining such coal. Such use had done the plaintiff no damage. The conveyance by which plaintiff had sold the coal underlying his property was a general warranty deed with right of ingress and egress for the purpose of mining and transporting said coal, without limitation as to time or the right of surface support; and there was no provision regarding the transportation of other coal. Reid, the lower court properly dismissed the bill. New York & Pittston Coal Co. v. Hillsdale Coal & Iron Co., 225 Pa. 211, followed.