184 Pa. 28 | Pa. | 1898
Opinion by
This case presents a somewhat novel question. The defendant company is engaged in the production and transportation of natural gas. In 1888 it acquired, by proceedings under the act of May 29, 1885, the right to lay its line of pipe by means of which its gas was transported to consumers, in and upon the lands of the plaintiffs, and damages were duly assessed and paid to them for the injury sustained by reason of the appropriation of the easement to the uses of the company. In 1893 the wells supplying this pipe line ceased to produce natural gas in marketable quantity, and the line became useless. It was abandoned as a line of transportation, and the pipe composing it became useless where it was, and was taken up and removed.
. It had been buried as “ the law required ” not less than two ■feet below the surface, and its removal required the opening of
The act of 1885 confers the right of eminent domain “for the laying of pipe lines for the transportation and .distribution of natural gas,” to be exercised in the manner pointed out. If the line is laid “ upon or over lands cleared and used for agricultural purposes the line of pipe shall be buried at least twenty-four inches below the surface; and if any line of pipe shall be laid over or through any waste or wood land, which shall be changed to farming land, then it shall be the duty of the corporation to immediately bury the said pipe to the depth of at least twenty-four inches as aforesaid.” The easement acquired by the company is for the laying of the gas pipe beneath the surface of cleared land, or, as expressed by the act itself, for “ burying ” the pipe at least twenty-four inches below the surface in all such lands. The company does not require, nor is it to the interest of the landowner, that it should appropriate a definite strip of surface of twelve feet in width as suggested by the learned judge of the court below, or of any other width, to which it shall have an exclusive right of possession as against the landowner. What is needed is the space under the surface in which the pipe may rest, together with the right to deposit or “bury” it out of the landowner’s way, and the right of access to it for purposes of maintenance and repairs. Subject to the easement so defined, the landower continues in the possession and use of the entire surface as freely as before the “ burial ” of the pipe took place; and if the burial of the pipe is properly done, and the joints are made secure, the presence of the pipe line under the soil will in no way interfere with its cultivation or use.
The judgment is reversed that the proper measure of damages may be given to the jury, and a venire facas de novo is awarded.