The Daily Dispatch: March 13, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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An owner's right to the soil fronting on streets.

--Judge Mellon decided on Wednesday that parties owning ground fronting on streets or alleys are entitled to soil to the middle thereof, and that a city or borough has no other than a right of way therein, and such other acts upon them as may be necessary to keep them in repair; that a city or borough cannot excavate the stone, gravel, sand, or other material therein, for the purpose of making merchandize of it, nor authorize any one to do so; and that the owner of a lot or alley can sustain an action of trespass against any one entering into the street or alley in front of him, between the line of his lot and the middle of the street, for the purpose of taking out material or for disposing thereof to others. Under this decision the jury in the case of Chas. Slipper and David Graham vs. Samuel Hood rendered a verdict of $100. The authorities of Manchester gave defendant the privilege to remove sand from the street fronting plaintiff's property in that borough, and a suit for trespass being brought, it resulted as above stated.-- Pittsburgh Dispatch.