190 Mass. 314 | Mass. | 1906
This is an action of trespass quare clausum, and the matter in dispute relates to the title of the locus. The plaintiff claims title through one Lebo who entered and took possession of the premises in July, 1903, and a few days after executed a warranty deed of them to the plaintiff. One Caswell
It does not appear on what ground the judge ordered the verdict for the defendant, but we think that the ruling was right. The abandonment of the location for railroad purposes by the railroad company and its successors did not divest it or them of the fee. The case would have stood very differently if the interest of the railroad company had been limited to a right of way acquired by the location of its road under the statute. In that case the fee would have remained in the landowner and an abandonment of the location would have operated as an extinguishment of the easement. But in this case the fee was in the railroad company, and still remained in it notwithstanding the abandonment of the location for railroad purposes by it and its successor, the Central Massachusetts Railroad Company, and passed under the deed of the latter to the Boston and Maine Railroad and from it, by deed of release and quitclaim, to the defendant. Whether there could be an abandonment by the owner of the fee that would operate to divest him of his title short of possession continued for such a length of time as to bar an action by him for the recovery of the premises we need not consider. We think that there was no evidence of such an abandonment in this case. Abandonment is, in part at least, a
Exceptions overruled.