73 Miss. 34 | Miss. | 1895
delivered the opinion of the court.
The Alabama & Vicksburg Railroad Company became the purchasers of the property and franchises of the Vicksburg & Meridian Railroad Company, under foreclosure sale ordered by the federal court, in 1889, and reorganized under the provisions of the act of the legislature of this state, approved March 9, 1882 (Laws 1882, p. 17). The act of March 13, 1881, relative to farm crossings, was then in force, and was therefore integrated into its charter upon organization, and under said
So, here it was a question of fact for the jury, and the verdict must be accepted as a finding that the crossing here was necessary, and was a crossing for a necessary plantation road.” The word “ necessary” means not “ indispensable, ” but “reasonably convenient.” This construction is approved in Thornt. on Cross., § 268, and in Chalcraft v. Railroad Co., 113 Ill., 86, and we think it as good a practical definition as can be given.
The second instruction for plaintiff is a very clear and accurate expression of the law upon this subject, and the appellant’s fourth instruction, in connection with it, certainly put the law on this point to the jury as favorably to appellant as could reasonably be asked. Dubbs v. Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co., 148 Pa. St., 66 (32 Atl., 883), is a case strikingly in point, and in support of our view. There, as here, it was
The case at bar falls within the principle of these decisions, and the instructions of the court are in harmony with them. The word ‘ plantation, ’ ’ too, should not be narrowed here to its mere etymological signification. It should be understood in the sense which usage in the state in whose legislation it occurs has attached to it. And the word, thus understood, would certainly cover a stock farm as well as a cotton farm. In this case, however, it is shown that the plantation is not only a stock farm, but is used also otherwise for agricultural purposes. Other errors assigned are without merit.
Affirmed.