Great Northern Ry. Co. v. Town of Viborg
Great Northern Ry. Co. v. Town of Viborg
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from a judgment dismissing the complaint in an action by the Great Northern Railway Company to restrain the incorporated town of Viborg from placing a street crossing over the company’s right of way within corporate limits, and the right of respondent to thus proceed without paying damages is the question that controls the case. The disputed ground extends entirely across the right of way, 350 feet in width, and includes 33 feet on each side of a north and south section line upon which is located a thoroughfare 66 feet wide, designated “Main Street” on the village plat, and obstructed only by appellant’s roadbed and -railway tracks. -This section line highway having been kept in repair and constantly used as such for fully 20 years before appellant constructed its railway at the point above mentioned, it is needless to determine the legal effect of certain proceedings by the county commissioners instituted for the purpose of establishing such highway during the month of February, 1872.
The judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- 1. The rule that a highway cannot be established by prescription as against the government does not apply to any of the land_ within the , grant by Act Cong. July 26, 1866, c. 263, 14 Stat. 253, of the right to construct highways over public lands. 2. The right to use a section line highway is not taken away at the point of intersection by construction of a railroad track across it. 3. Interest in the fee of a highway where a railroad crosses it is not given the railroad company, by its construction of an overhead crossing at one side thereof, and temporary use thereof by the public, so as to entitle the railroad company to compensation for the placing of a street by a town along such highway over the tracks. 4. The right of the public to use a section line highway is not impaired by incorporation of a town according to a plat, a street on which departed from the highway where it crossed a railroad.