218 Pa. 641 | Pa. | 1907
Opinion by
The one question in the case was, whether the strip of land in dispute was included in the right of way which defendant’s predecessor in title had conveyed to the plaintiff. The deed of release, executed and delivered in 1869, contained only a general description of the premises, and the exact boundaries can now only be determined as the center line of the railroad as then constructed can be ascertained. If located as contended for by the plaintiff, then the disputed ground was embraced in the release, and the right to the same is npw in the plaintiff. The plaintiff offered in support of its contention nothing except the deed of release, and the testimony of its engineer, who testified simply as an expert from data obtained in the office of the plaintiff’s company in Philadelphia, and the information which he derived upon inquiry of others supposed from long residence to be familiar with conditions as they had
The case calls for no expression from us as to the strength of defendant’s case. He and those under whom he claimed, had been in the exclusive occupancy of the disputed strip since 1869, when the deed and release were executed. Permanent structures had been built on the premises, the defendant at the time of suit maintaining thereon a large brick bakery which he had erected in 1898. If the plaintiff was entitled to recover it was because its own title had been established. Whether it had been established depended entirely 'upon the sufficiency and accuracy of the data employed by the witness, the engineer, Panning, in determining where the center line of the company’s track was at the time of the making of the release, and the accuracy of the result he reached. It is not for us to question either ; no more was it for the learned judge of the court below to determine their conclusiveness; that could only be done by the jury. It was
It is only necessary to say with respect to the remaining assignments, that the doctrine of estoppel is without application here. No error was therefore committed in striking from the record the testimony as to the declarations made and directions given by certain of the officers — in this case subordinates — of the railroad company with respect to the extent of the right of way and the occupancy of the disputed ground. None of these parties could have given away or conveyed any part of the company’s property; and what could not pass by their direct act, could not pass by way of estoppel through their conduct: Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s Appeal, 80 Pa. 265.
We see no error in the record except as above indicated ; but for this the case must go back.
Judgment reversed and venire facias de novo awarded.