54 Pa. Super. 388 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1913
Opinion by
The plaintiff’s evidence exhibited a clear title to the land on which the telephone poles are located. The burden was therefore shifted to the defendant to show a right to the occupancy of the plaintiff’s property. This it undertook to do by the introduction of evidence tending to establish a parol license. The right asserted lacks the essential quality of an easement that there must be two tenements owned by distinct proprietors, one to which the right is attached and another on which it is imposed: Washburn’s Easements and Servitudes (3d ed.), sec. 3; Grant v. Chase et al., 17 Mass. 443; Dark v. Johnston, 55 Pa. 164; nor can it exist in parol: Huff v. McCauley, 53 Pa. 206. The whole of the defendant’s case, therefore, has its foundation in the allegation of a parol permission to construct the line. The letter of John Q. Denny, the owner of the land, to Mr. Seiler, dated November 19, 1890, cannot be regarded as a grant vesting in the defendant an interest in the land or a right of way over it. It does not on its face purport to confer any right. It was not addressed to the defendant nor to any person representing it, nor does it describe any location by reference to which a right could be maintained. It is a declaration to a friend of the writer’s who lived in the immediate vicinity and was familiar with Mr. Denny’s affairs that he had given permission to some person connected with the "Long Distance Telephone” to place some poles on his property "across from your station.” This communication was handed to Mr. Zimmerman, who had the negotiation with Mr. Denny but was never delivered to Mr. Seiler. Zimmerman delivered it to
The judgment is affirmed.