Hope v. Norfolk & Western Railroad
Supreme Court of Virginia
Error to judgment of the circuit court of Washington county, in an action of unlawful detainer brought therein by James O. Hope against the Norfolk and Western railroad company for the recovery of a strip of land in said county, eighty feet in width and containing nine acres, and the same upon which the company’s railroad is located, the possession whereof was alleged to he unlawfully withheld by the said company from the plaintiff.
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Error to judgment of the circuit court of Washington county, in an action of unlawful detainer brought therein by James O. Hope against the Norfolk and Western railroad company for the recovery of a strip of land in said county, eighty feet in width and containing nine acres, and the same upon which the company’s railroad is located, the possession whereof was alleged to he unlawfully withheld by the said company from the plaintiff. The agreed facts are substantially as follows: The defendant company is the successor of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad company, which was the…
1Opinion of the Court
Lewis, P.,
after stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the court:
In Virginia, feudal tenures having been abolished by statute, lands are not held under the commonwealth, but in the language *287of the act of 1779, all lands claimed in fee simple are held “in absolute and unconditional property.” 10 Hen. Stats. 64; 2 Minor’s Insts. (2d ed.) 61. The state, however, possesses the sovereign right of eminent domain, and the legislature has prescribed the manner in which the right may be exercised when land is wanted for works of internal improvement and other public purposes. But in the present…
2Cases cited2 opinions
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- Fulkerson's Adm'x. v. TaylorSupreme Court of Virginia · 1904
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