219 Pa. 568 | Pa. | 1908
Opinion by
Maust, the appellant, an abutting property owner, has filed this bill to enjoin the defendant company from laying down or placing ties and rails or constructing its track upon the township road running through his farm. After a full hearing the preliminary injunction was dissolved, and a decree entered dismissing the bill. The learned court below based its decree upon the ground that appellant by words and deeds, not in express language or specific acts, but in effect, consented to the grading of the line and the laying of the track over the public highway and through the abutting lands of appellant. It is further held that appellant was guilty of laches under all the circumstances of the case, and could not in good conscience ask a court of equity to protect him in the enjoyment of a legal right when he himself had consented to, or acquiesced in, the construction of the line of street railway over the highway through his property. It is true no consent
Again it must not be overlooked, that appellant has come into a court of equity to seek its aid by injunction, which is of grace and not of right. The prayer in every such bill is to the conscience of a chancellor. As a general rule relief will not be granted where the benefit to the complainant is entirely disproportionate to the injury complained of, Becker v. Street Railway Company, 188 Pa. 484; or where there is an adequate remedy at law or where the party seeking redress has placed himself in such a position that to grant his request would work an injustice to the other party whom he has led to believe could do the particular thing which he now undertakes to restrain. An injunction will not be issued when upon a broad consideration of the situation of all the parties in interest, good conscience does not require it: Messner v. Railway
Decree affirmed at cost of appellant.