Jay v. Co. Commr's. Harford

Stockbridge, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Hannie D. Jay filed a bill in the Circuit Court for Harford County against the County Commissioners of that county and the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company in which she asked the issuance of an injunction against the defendants to prevent the closing of a portion of a public road in that'county, known as the Mill road. A demurrer was filed by both of the defendants named in the bill, and upon hearing the demurrer was sustained and the bill dismissed. It is from that action of the Court that the present appeal is taken.

The allegations of the bill are in substance, that the plaintiff has been residing upon a certain tract of land in Harford county for many years, and that the title to it was conveyed to her in November, 1896; that she has been accustomed to use the Mill road, upon which her tract of land bounds, as her means of ingress and egress in going from her home to and from Aberdeen and that “she has no other route upon which she can travel to and from said points.” That the portion of the road which she apprehends is about to be closed is that portion extending from the northernmost side ⁵¹ of the right of way of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to the southernmost side of the right of way of the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad a distance of 618.8 feet, and that the plaintiff is the owner of the strip of land lying between the two rights of way, and that the Mill road is the only public road upon which this strip abuts. The bill further alleges a conspiracy between the two defendants, having for its object the closing of the said road, bui apart from the mere allegation of conspiracy nothing is set out in the bill tending to support the charge. She does allege that Alfred H. Wilson, one of the County Commissioners has been zealously active in seeking to bring about the closing of the road, but there is no allegation that he is the representative or acting on behalf of the railroad company, defendant, or that his activity is by direction or at the request or even with the knowledge of the other members of the Board of County Commissioners. The bill further sets out that proceedings have been begun looking to the closing of the road in question, and there is filed as Exhibit Ho. 8, a notice bearing the names of fifteen persons, in the form prescribed by law, that an application will be made to the County Commissioners for the