80 Miss. 730 | Miss. | 1902
delivered, the opinion of the court.
Samuel W. Hoskins brought an action of ejectment in the circuit court of Lincoln county against the Illinois Central Railroad Company for the N. half of the S. W. quarter of section 6, township 7 N., range 9 E. Two thousand five hundred dollars was demanded for the use and occupation of it by defendant. The defendant pleaded the general issue, ami gave notice of valuable improvements put upon the land by it to the amount of $100,000. These improvements constitute the roadbed and track of about 1,000 feet across said land, being a part of its spur line from Brookhaven to a gravel pit beyond the same. The plaintiff had a recovery for his land, and also for $1,800 for the use and occupation of it for six years, with an allowance of $300 to defendant for its improvements. From a judgment entered in conformity with this verdict the Illinois Central Railroad Company appeals. The $1,800 allowed for rent to plaintiff arose, as it is claimed, by reason of the freights which the .company should have received from hauling gravel and lumber taken at the east end of the spur road over the spur line and over its main line, whithersoever carried; one-third of which freights, it is asserted, should be paid to plaintiff, and which third was estimated, or rather guessed, to be $1,800. The $300 allowed to defendant for valuable improvements is the outcome of this 1,000 feet of railroad on plaintiff’s land, which the evidence of a witness for the plaintiff showed it must have cost the defendant $2,000 to construct, while that of a witness for the defendant showed its building to have cost more than $3,100. This statement, considered in connection with the verdict, demonstrates, we think, the impropriety of the result here reached. The plaintiff should not have recovered $1,800 for the use and occupation, because no part of that sum arose from any use of the land to which the defendant could have devoted it, nor should the defendant have been allowed $300 for the value of the structures put by it upon the land, which structures it is en
Reversed and remanded.