Campbell v. Covington County
| Citation | 137 So. 111,161 Miss. 374 |
| Decision Date | 26 October 1931 |
| Docket Number | 29525 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | CAMPBELL v. COVINGTON COUNTY |
1 HIGHWAYS.
Width of highway, during and at end of period of prescription, is its established width.
2 HIGHWAYS.
Prescriptive right to highway carries with it beaten path and whatever is necessary to make beaten path usable highway.
3 HIGHWAYS.
Prescriptive right to highway does not carry with it right in public to construct enlarged highway.
4. HIGHWAYS.
Title to soil, and all profits thereof consistent with existence of easement for highway, remain in original owner.
5. HIGHWAYS.
Landowner has title, subject to easement to land covered by highway and all material within its boundaries, except that needed to build or maintain road.
6. EMINENT DOMAIN.
Owner of land has title to superfluous earth, gravel, or rock not necessary to construction or repair of highway, and to mines. quarries, trees, grass, springs, growing crops, and pasturage upon and above surface of soil covered by highway.
7. HIGHWAYS.
Ownership of trees in highway remains in proprietor of fee, and, unless forbidden by statute, he may remove them.
8. HIGHWAYS.
Where, in construction of new highway, land and trees not part of old highway established by user, were taken, landowner was entitled to damages.
APPEAL from circuit court of Covington county HON. EDGAR N. LANE, Judge.
Action by Ed Campbell against Covington county, commenced in a justice of the peace court. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appealed to the circuit court, where judgment was rendered for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
M. U. Munger, of Collins, for appellant.
The only defense made in this case was the claim that the county got title by prescription or by continuous and constant use of the road and land.
The uncontradicted evidence in this record shows that the county through its engineers and contractors at the time of building the road in 1927 took over in front of appellant's place from appellant's land from eight to twelve feet in width of land which had never before been claimed or used by the county.
M. U. Munger, of Collins, and G. Q. Whitfield, of Jackson, for appellant.
The verdict and judgment is contrary to the law and evidence in the case and the judgment should be set aside.
Copiah County v. Lusk, 24 So. 972; 111 So. 596; 81 So. 796.
W. U. Corley, of Collins, for appellee.
Ten years adverse possession, or the use of a right of way over land for a like period of time, exercised adversely and under color of right, would constitute a good title by prescription to such way.
The question of the real damage was submitted to a jury of appellees own choice and selection, and this court in the ordinary course of trials will not interfere.
No witness gets the two little oaks off the thirty feet right of way, and no witness specifically places the blame of the deeper ditches at the hands of the contractors, or the state highway department, and the jury found for the county, as they had a right to do.
Argued orally by Garland Q. Whitfield, for appellant.
Appellant brought this action against the appellee, Covington county, in a justice of the peace court to recover the sum of one hundred fifty dollars as damages which appellant claimed he had suffered on account of the county taking and damaging, without authority of law, some of his land and trees in the construction of a public highway through his land. The trial in the justice of the peace court resulted in a judgment in the appellant's favor in the sum sued for. From that judgment, the county appealed to the circuit court, where there was a trial resulting in a verdict and judgment for the county. From that judgment the appellant prosecutes this appeal.
The court refused to instruct the jury at appellant's request to return a verdict in his favor on the question of liability.
There was an old road running through appellant's land from Collins to Williamsburg, thence to Mount Carmel, and thence to Prentiss. The right of the public to use this old road through appellant's land was acquired by prescription. There was no evidence that the...
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Pub. Lands Access Ass'n, Inc. v. Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs of Madison Cnty., DA 12-0312
...to the actual beaten path, but the right extends to such width as is reasonably necessary for public travel."); Campbell v. Covington Co., 137 So. 111 (Miss. 1931) (In a highway established by prescription, "the public are not limited to the actual width used by them -the beaten path. The p......
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Pub. Lands Access Ass'n, Inc. v. Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs of Madison Cnty., DA 12–0312.
...the actual beaten path, but the right extends to such width as is reasonably necessary for public travel.”); Campbell v. Covington Co., 161 Miss. 374, 137 So. 111 (1931) (In a highway established by prescription, “the public are not limited to the actual width used by them—the beaten path. ......
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McDonald v. Bd. of Mississippi Levee Com'rs, Civ. A. No. GC 83-256-GD-O.
...owner of any land upon which it has an easement by implication and leave the owner with an empty title. In Campbell v. Covington County, 161 Miss. 374, 378, 137 So. 111, 112 (1931), the Mississippi Supreme Court And, whether the right of way is acquired by condemnation or prescription, the ......
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City of Hattiesburg v. Hillman, 39386
......County, which awarded damages in the sum of $10,000 to Mrs. Clydie Mae Hillman, Administratrix, on account ... Brahan v. Meridian Home Telephone Co., 97 Miss. 326, 52 So. 485; Campbell v. Covington County, 161 Miss. 374, 137 So. 111; Town of Durant v. Castleberry, 106 Miss. 699, 64 ......