Kopka v. Bell Telephone Co. of Pa.

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Horace Stern,

This litigation involves the question of the right of a possessor of land to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by him in consequence of a trespasser’s invasion of his property.

At the request of residents of a township in Indiana County for telephone service the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, defendant in this suit, had its engineers stake out a line along a road bordering the farm of the plaintiff, Walter V. Kopka.1 It then proceeded to obtain rights-of-way from property owners along the road upon which the line was to be constructed,…