Forster v. Cumberland Valley Railroad
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Common Pleas of Dauphin county. Petition of John Forster, for the appointment of viewers, under the Act of 2d April, 1831, sect. 15, to estimate the damages done to his land, in the erection of a railroad bridge, report thereon, and appeal to the Court. The plaintiff was the owner of an island opposite to Harrisburg, a portion of which is crossed by the railroad bridge of the defendants.
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Error to the Common Pleas of Dauphin county. Petition of John Forster, for the appointment of viewers, under the Act of 2d April, 1831, sect. 15, to estimate the damages done to his land, in the erection of a railroad bridge, report thereon, and appeal to the Court. The plaintiff was the owner of an island opposite to Harrisburg, a portion of which is crossed by the railroad bridge of the defendants. The bridge was built in 1836 or 1837, burned down in December, 1844, and rebuilt in 1846. As the case turns, however, upon the validity of the plea of the statute of limitations, it is…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Lowrie, J.
Statutes of limitations are mere definitions and limitations of the generality of that principle of the common law which is expressed in the maxim vigilantibus non dormientibus subveniunt leges; and the Courts cannot administer such statutes according to their spirit, unless by regarding them as passed in *372aid of the common law, and therefore as furnishing a general rule for cases'that are analogous, according to their subject-matter, to those expressed by the statute.
And so this subject is regarded: for the limitations are applied by analogy…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Baird v. LivingstonSupreme Court of Louisiana · 1841
3Cited by3 opinions
- Anthony v. Koppers Co., Inc.Superior Court of Pennsylvania · 1980
- Burtch v. Ganz (In Re Mushroom Transportation Co.)United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Pennsylvania · 2007
- Carter v. Ridge Turnpike Co.Superior Court of Pennsylvania · 1903