Prather v. Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad

52 Ind. 16
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1875
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 52 Ind. 16 (Prather v. Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Prather v. Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, 52 Ind. 16 (Ind. 1875).

Opinions

Buskikk, J.

This was an action by the appellant against the appellees to recover damages for trespass, in forcibly entering on appellant’s lands, without right, destroying growing timber, excavating holes and erecting telegraph poles, with wires thereon, with a view to appropriate said lands, and divesting appellant thereof, without first assessing and tendering compensation therefor. And appellant seeks an injunction to prevent such possession, further use and appropriation, and to abate such structures as may have been placed there, as a nuisance, and to prevent their repetition by injunction, and all proper relief.

The appellees filed a joint answer in two paragraphs. The first a general denial, and the second a special answer. The first paragraph was struck out by appellees, and they stood on the second paragraph of answer.

The appellant filed his reply, and appellees demurred thereto, for the reason that the same did not state facts sufficient to constitute a reply to the answer. Appellant insisted that the demurrer should be carried back to the answer, to which it should be sustained. The court overruled [18]*18the demurrer to the answer, appellant excejrting, and sustained that to the reply, to which exception was taken.

The appellant refusing to plead further, final judgment was rendered for the appellees.

It is indispensably necessary to an intelligible understanding of the questions of law arising in the record, that we should set out the complaint, answers and replies, and they are as follows:

“Reason W. Prather complains of the Western Union Telegraph Company, Martin Eagin, John Brisbin, Horace-' Scott, Dillard Rickets, and the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company, and says that he is the owner’, in fee simple, and is now and was possessed at the time hereinafter mentioned, of the following real estate situated in Bartholomew county, in the State of Indiana, and described as follows, to wit: the east half of the southwest quarter section of section five, in township seven north, of range six east; also the north half of the northwest quarter of section eight, township seven north, of range six east; that said defendants, on the - day of -, 1870, without right, wrongfully and unlawfully entered on the said land of plaintiff, and did then and there, without right, chop down and destroy twelve growing trees on said land for the purpose of clearing the way for planting telegraph poles and placing wires thereon, to be used by said defendants for telegraphing purposes, and then and there dug large holes in said land and placed therein telegraph poles, numbering about two hundred, across the entire length of said land, for the purpose of acquiring a proprietary interest and easement on said lands for telegraphing uses; that plaintiff then and there removed said poles from his said land, and said defendants did then and there again put said poles on plaintiff’s land, as aforesaid, and plaintiff then and there again removed them; and then and there plaintiff removed said poles seven times, and as often as removed defendants then and there followed and replaced the same; and finally then and there defendants placed said poles as aforesaid on plaintiff’s lands, [19]*19and placed their telegraphic wires thereon, for the purpose of using the same for telegraphing, in defiance of plaintiff and against and over his objection; that prior thereto said defendants never assessed or caused to be assessed and tendered his damages, nor have defendants since assessed or tendered his damages, for said attempted usurpation of plaintiff’s land, and said defendants threaten to replace said poles and wires as often as the same may be removed, and threaten to continue said poles on said land, with the wires thereon, for the purpose of acquiring an easement on plaintiff’s said lands, and also threaten to annoy and vex plaintiff with criminal indictments and prosecutions if he shall remove said poles and wires so unlawfully as aforesaid on his lands; that if defendants are permitted to continue their said poles and wires on his said land, plaintiff will suffer great and irreparable injury therefrom; that said poles and wires interrupt him in the cultivation of his said land, and the ingress and egress and regress of his several pieces of land and the different parts thereof, and prevent the free use and enjoyment of said land by plaintiff, and essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of his said property; the continuance of said poles on plaintiff’s land may and will create a multiplicity of suits and continued and repeated litigation. Wherefore plaintiff demands judgment for one thousand dollars, and that defendants be enjoined from continuing their said poles on and said wires over the plaintiff’s said land, or to abate them and enjoin any further erection thereof, and to enjoin them from the use and appropriation of plaintiff’s land, and all proper relief.”

The general denial was struck out, and the only answer was the following:

“2. And for a further and second paragraph of answer herein, defendants say that, in June of the year 1851, theJeffersonville Railroad Company, then locating and constructing her railroad from Jeffersonville, Indiana, to Columbus,.’ Indiana, entered upon, located and constructed her said road over, through and upon said real estate of plaintiff'; and plain[20]*20tiff made no demand for damages for said appropriation of property within two years after the taking of said property, as aforesaid, nor has he since made such a demand; and said railroad was constructed from Jeffersonville to said Columbus; and defendants say that the width of the said Jefferson-ville Railroad and right of way thereof over and through said real estate of said plaintiff was, by virtue of the charter of said company, at the time of said appropriation, and now is, sixty feet, and the track of said road was constructed and • is on and over the center of said right of way.

On the - day of April, 1866, the said Jeffersonville Railroad Company and the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad Company, then owning and operating a railroad from Madison, Indiana, through said Columbus to Indianapolis, Indiana, by proper articles of association, which were recorded in all the counties through which said road ran, consolidated and became one corporation, by the name of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad Company, the defendant; whereby the said last, named corporation became and was and is the owner of all the property, rights and franchises of said two corporations, including said road and right of way through and upon said real estate of plaintiff.

Thereafter, to wit, on the - day of December, 1869, the defendants, the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad Company, entered into an agreement, which is still in force, whereby, in consideration that the said railroad company would furnish the right of way for telegraphic lines along said railroad, over the road and right of way of said railroad company, the said telegraph company would construct and keep in repair telegraph lines along said road, and furnish one wire for the exclusive use of said railroad company; and, in pursuance of said agreement, said telegraph company constructed telegraph lines along the whole length of said roads, over and above said roads and the rights of way thereof, and furnished said wire for said use of [21]*21said railroad company.

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Bluebook (online)
52 Ind. 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prather-v-jeffersonville-madison-indianapolis-railroad-ind-1875.