91 Iowa 312 | Iowa | 1894
The plaintiff is the receiver of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Company, and the defendant is the owner of a farm containing about three hundred and forty-eight acres, through which the railway of that company is constructed. The general-course of the railway across the farm is from the southwest to the northeast. The house, barn, and barn
I. The agreement for an open crossing, upon which the defendant relies, is not established by the evidence. He claims that the general road master of the plaintiff wrote a letter to a “foreman77 named Smith, to tell defendant that, as there was so much trouble about the crossing gates, “we will put him in cattle guards for a fence for one winter — snow fences.77 The letter was not produced, and the road master denies having written it. Furthermore, it is shown that no authority was given to any one to make such an agreement, and that the defendant had given to the plaintiff the privilege of maintaining snow fences on
III. As has been stated, the crossing involved in this litigation is the one west of, and near, the house and other farm buildings of the defendant. The conclusion we have reached is without prejudice to the right of defendant to demand an open crossing at another place. So much of the decree of the district court as is involved in the appeal of the defendant is aeeibmed, and so much as is involved in the appeal of the plaintiff is BEVEBSED.