17 Pa. Super. 605 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1901
Opinion by
The agreement between the plaintiff and the Natural Gas Company, Limited, conferred on the latter the right to lay and maintain two lines of pipe across the plaintiff’s farm, to be used in conducting natural gas to places of consumption. No expressed limit of time was set to the exercise of the right. No obligation was incurred to continue its exercise. Upon abandonment, as an incident to their right, the company had the power, within a reasonable time, to enter upon the plaintiff’s farm and remove the pipes. In doing this they were liable for the dam
The defendants having the right, on abandonment, to remove the pipe on payment of damages, was that right lost by delay in its exercise ? It is not denied that the use of the pipe, for the purpose for which it was put in place, was discontinued ten years before the removal which is the cause of this litigation. The pipe, on properties contiguous to that of the plaintiff and on part of the plaintiff’s land, was at that time actually removed. The defendants say that the abandonment of the pipe in dispute was temporary; that they did not remove it when the balance of the pipe was removed because the ground above it was then covered by growing grain; that the temporary abandonment was to save loss to the plaintiff and that through oversight they did not .return for ten years to complete the removal. It is to be observed that the defendants did not allow the pipe to remain at the request of the plaintiff and that their course was not in his relief. The trial judge would probably have, been justified in instructing the jury as matter of law that the facts shown, constituted an abandonment of the use of the pipe line: Aye v. Philadelphia Co., 198 Pa. 456. But the question does not arise, inasmuch as he submitted the question of abandonment to the jury as a question of fact. This left in the case but one other question which is also one of fact, namely did the defendants (or their predecessors in right) lose their right of entry to remove the pipes by failure to exercise it within a reasonable time after the abandonment of the use of the pipe line ? This, the court below submitted to the jury who found in favor of the plaintiff. If the right to enter and remove was gone, the right to the chattels was lost, since the defendants were without power or right to take them from the plaintiff and reduce them to possession.
The defendants contend that the agreement with the plaintiff, followed by entry and the laying of the pipe, was in effect the grant of an easement for an unlimited time. But an ease
We find no reversible error in the record and therefore the judgment is affirmed.