104 Tenn. 465 | Tenn. | 1900
This bill was filed by complainant company to enjoin the defendant from encroaching upon the railroad’s right of way. The bill alleged that defendant, Donovan, was in the act of fencing up the right of way to a point within fifteen or twenty feet of the center of the track and extending a distance of six hundred and fifty feet parallel with the track. Complainant claims
The defendant answered the bill, in which he asserted title to the strip of land in controversy, first, by. the statute of limitations, and, second by virtue of the decree pronounced in the cause already mentioned, his predecessors in title, as well as the Mobile & Ohio Railroad ' Company, being parties to this suit. Defendant admitted that he was about to fence the strip of land, as alleged in the bill, but claimed that complainant company had no interest in the property, and justified his action under the titles already mentioned.
A large volume of testimony was taken in the cause, and at the January term, 1900, of the Chancery Court at Humboldt the -Chancellor decreed substantially as follows, viz.:
“The Court is of opinion that the rights of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company in and to
“Now, touching the rights of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company and the defendant, Dan Donovan, and his successors in title to said hotel property in and to said strip of land under said deed as set up in said decree, and under said decree, the terms of which are binding upon both, the Court is of opinion that in the description of the west boundary line of said strip of land, wherein the description is in these words, ‘Then southerly to the Memphis & Ohio Railroad,’ that these words mean parallel with said Mobile & Ohio Railroad and fifty feet distant from the center line of the same on the west, but to so run as not to interfere with the said hotel buildings, not only along the line of the Memphis & Ohio Railroad, but along the Mobile & Ohio Railroad as well; and that is to say, that under said deed as set up in. said decree, and under and by terms of said deed and decree, the Mobile
The Chancellor also held that the holding of neither party had been adverse, and that neither party had thereby acquired the dominant estate. From this decree the defendant prayed and perfected a special appeal, assigning sixteen different grounds. The complainant also filed the record for writ of error.
It is assigned as error by complainant that the Chancellor decreed that the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company acquired no title to said property by virtue of its charter, and that its charter rights were abandoned under the Osburn deed and the decree of 1874 in the Lannon case. The facts on this branch of the case are that in August, 1857, one John Osburn was the owner of the tract of land which comprises the four angles at the intersection of the Mobile & Ohio
Turning back to 1870, we find that the Memphis & Ohio Railroad Oompanv filed a bill against Roe & Barnes and the heirs of John Osburn, deceased, for the purpose of establish ing the lost deed executed by John Osburn .in his lifetime, and charging that the deed conveyed to the railroad all the land embraced in the four angles made by the intersection of the two roads and comprising about thirteen acres, reserving, however, sufficient ground for a hotel. Roe & Barnes answered the bill, denying that the deed conveyed all the angles, alleging that the whole northwest angle was expressly reserved. The Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company filed a petition in that case, asking to be made a party, and that its rights be adjudged. It alleged that under its charter it had a right of way one hundred feet wide on each side of its road; that the hotel, then constructed, was only forty feet from its center line and was infringing on its property". It also claimed that Osburn deeded all four of the angles to the two railroads. In 1871 Dunlap, who then owned
It appears at the time that bill was filed the two railroad companies were in possession of the three angles, and have been in possession ever since, occupying them for various railroad pru’' poses.
The Court held in that proceeding that John Osburn did execute a deed to the two railroad companies embracing the three angles contiguous to the crossing, but that the northwest angle was reserved, excepting a strip fifty feet wide from the center of the track on the west side.' The boundaries of the last deed, which was set up and established by the decree of 1S74 in the Lan-non case, are, viz.:
“A lot or parcel of land situated in the Third Civil District of - Gibson County, Tennessee, beginning at a point on the center line of the Memphis & Ohio Railroad 650 feet in a southerly-direction from its intersection with the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, running fifty feet in a soxitherly direction at right angles with said Memphis &
“And it appears to the Court from the testimony '■"in this cause that said lot of three angles of land was . . . conveyed to said Mobile &
We agree with the Chancellor in his holding that the rights of the Mobile & Ohio Eailroad Company in said strip of land are acquired and held under and by virtue of the Osburn deed and 'the decree of 1874 setting up that deed; that whatever its charter rights and its right of way under its charter may have been in and to the same prior to its acceptance of the benefits under the Osburn deed, that by its acceptance of the benefits of said deed and going into
The Chancellor, in deciding the present case, held that the west boundary line in the deed and decree of 1874 ran parallel with the Mobile & Ohio Railroad track and fifty feet from the center line of said track, but so as not to interfere with the hotel building along the side of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, or on the side of the Memphis & Ohio (L. & N.) Railroad.
This last clause ■ raises the principal controversy in the present case — namely, What are the rights
The former proprietor of the soil still retains the fee of the land for any purpose not incompatible with the purposes of the railroad company.
“The paramount right is with the railroad company, and the landowner can do nothing which will interfere with the safety of its road, appurtenances, trains, passengers, or workmen.” Railroad Company v. Telford, 5 Pickle, 293, 298, 299; Railroad v. French, 16 Pickle, 209, 212; Railroad v. McReynolds, 48 Southwestern Reporter, 258, Ch. App.
The question then remains whether the defend
When this bill was filed, in July, 1893, Donovan was proceeding to build a fence and was digging holes along the line of the east edge of his hotel platform, which, he claimed, was the line of the original fence. Donovan claims all of this strip, excepting about eighteen feet from the railroad track. In constructing the new hotel it was claimed by the roadmaster of the complainant company that the southeast corner would encroach upon the fifty-foot strip about two feet. Donovan was notified of this fact, and, after making measurements, moved back his foundation from this strip. Said hotel building, at all points, was built more than fifty feet from the center line of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, its southeast corner being about fifty-one feet from said center line and its northeast corner being about fifty-five feet from the same.
It appears from the proof that the several
It is next assigned as error by both complainant and defendant that the Chancellor held that the west boundary line, as established in the decree of January, ISTé, ran parallel with the Mobile & Ohio Railroad track and fifty feet west from the center of said line of said road, but so as not . to interfere with the hotel building fronting on the Mobile & Ohio side, as well as on the Memphis & Ohio side. The complainant insists that the Chancellor was correct in holding that the line ran parallel with the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, but he was in error in holding that it must be run so as not to interfere with the hotel and other buildings. The defendant insists that this line was an error in the decree of
It is a sufficient answer to the contentions of both parties that this line was established by the decree of 1874, in which canse they were both parties, and they are of course bound by it. It was the manifest purpose and intention of the grantors in said deed, as declared" by the decree of 1874, that the line should be run so as not to interfere with said hotel and other buildings, the object of the grantor being to render this northwest angle ■ valuable for hotel purposes. It would wholly defeat the expressed intention of the grantors if the west boundary line should be ran so as to destroy or impair the value of the hotel property.
But it is said on behalf of complainant that the decree of the Chancellor leaves the parties in the dark as to their respective rights in this fifty-foot strip; that it declares the Mobile & Ohio Bailroad Company has an easement, in this strip, but it is not to be used so as to interfere with the rights of the hotel company; and, on the other hand, that the defendant, Donovan, also has a right to this strip, but it shall not be used so as to endanger the running of trains. We think the decree of the Chancellor is perfectly clear, and its own language furnishes a complete answer to the assignment of error. It is as follows :
“The Court is further of the opinion that the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company has no right to use said strip or parcel of land in any manner that will materially lessen or injure the value of said hotel property, it being the evident intention and purpose of said deed, as set up in said decree, to render the northwest angle, in which said hotel is and was located, valuable for hotel purposes, and the same is so adjudged and decreed.
“The Court is- further of the opinion that the owners of said hotel 'property, in the use of said strip of land, as hereinbefore decreed, have the right to erect proper fences in said plot of ground and to inclose grass plots and flower plots and beautify the same, provided such fences are not of such a character and so located as to inter
We think the difficulties suggested by counsel in the interpretation of this decree are unsubstantial. It is not shown that the railroad company is demanding this right of way for any reasonable railroad purj>ose or that it is' needed at this time. It is not shown that the shade trees planted out by the owners of the hotel or ihe .fence inclosing the grass plot are at all harmful to the railroad or dangerous in its operation. When such an emergency arises, the company will have its remedy. We cannot anticipate such trouble or determine in advance what particular use may be made by the railroad of this strip of land further than is defined by the deed and the decree of 1814.
The decree of the Chancellor is affirmed.