Tantalas v. Commonwealth
Tantalas v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
It is the position of the appellant Commonwealth in this case, which involves eminent domain proceedings, that once it has introduced in evidence a highway plan approved by the Governor — which plan reveals that no ground was taken from the person whose property adjoins the highway under construction or improvement- — no further factual inquiry is in order. Thus, the Commonwealth contends that the verdict which was awarded the property owners by the jury should be reversed and judgment n.o.v. entered, because the highway plan shows that the highway was confined within the existing right-of-way. The contention must fail. A highway plan, even approved by the Governor of the Commonwealth, is still only a piece of evidence subject to every inquiry and testing which the laboratory of a court room affords.
A plan is a paper containing words, sketches, and lines. If the person or persons who write the words, produce the sketches, and draw the lines, make mental errors, those errors do not cure themselves by being transferred to paper. A mathematical or engineering inaccuracy gains no purging impeccability because repeated several times in different forms. The Commonwealth declares in its brief that “the ‘placing’ of ground, soil or fill to the extent of three and a half feet, outside of the undisputed right-of-way line, as to plaintiffs’ property was not a taking arising out of an eminent domain proceeding but a mere trespass for which recóvéry cannot be' had in this proceeding.”
Thus, it became a question for the jury as to whether the Commonwealth’s or the plaintiffs’ witnesses were more correct in appraisal of the physical facts. And the jury found for the plaintiffs in a trial free from error.
The Commonwealth cites the case of Koontz v. Commonwealth, 364 Pa. 145, in assumed support of its argument, but that case is authority for the plaintiffs’ position. This Court said there: “Obviously, the official plan was not conclusively self-revealing. It required interpretation by qualified engineers or surveyors as to the precise situation, which its drawings portended, on the ground. . .”
It is to be noted that the plan in this case, which the Commonwealth presents as a shining course of incon-trovertibility, is itself beset by some shadows which throw the course into a bog or two of uncertainty. Under the heading: “General Notes” we find what could scarcely be regarded as an unerring guiding hand, namely: “The Legal Right-of-Way between Stations 151 plus 87 and 227 plus 68 is assumed to be 33 feet in width being unable to find a specified Right-of-way on the plan. ."
Judgment affirmed.
Mr. Justice Benjamin R. Jones concurs in the result.
The plaintiffs’ property is located between stations 178 pins 50 and 180 plus 65.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.