Campbell v. Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Co

In Campbell v. Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Co., 108 Ark. 569, 158 S.W. 1085 (1913), a railroad company purchased from an individual owner in 1885 a fifty-foot-wide right of way in order to build a railroad and roadbed, but this deed was not recorded until after the appellant had purchased her land in 1900. The railroad was built and was occupied by the company before 1900. Residents cultivated the lands up to the roadbed without objection from the railroad. In 1903 a telephone company obtained a right of way from the railroad and constructed telephone lines parallel to the railroad. The appellant sued the telephone company to recover damages for poles that were placed on her property. The trial court found that the railroad had been constructed and that the company's occupancy of the roadbed was sufficient to put all persons on inquiry as to the extent of the railroad company's rights. There were only three poles placed on the appellant's property, and the court ordered that those poles be removed within sixty days. The other seven poles that the appellant claimed were on her land were actually in the roadbed and therefore did not have to be removed. The appellate court affirmed the trial court's finding that the occupancy of the railroad and roadbed in this case was sufficient to put the appellant on notice.