The right of passage or of way is a servitude imposed by law or by convention , and by virtue of which one has a right to pass on foot, or horseback, or in a vehicle, to drive beasts of burden or carts, through the estate of another. When this servitude results from the law, the exercise of it is confined to the wants of the person who has it. When it is the result of a contract, its extent and the mode of using it is regulated by the contract. Civ. Code La. art. 722. “Bight of way,” in its strict meaning, is the right of passage over another man’s ground; and in its legal and generally accepted meaning, in reference to a railway, it is a mere easement in the lands of others, obtained by lawful condemnation to public use or by purchase. It would be using the term in an unusual sense, by applying it to an absolute purchase of the fee-simple of lands to be used for a railway or any other kind of a way. Williams v. Western Union Ry. Co., 50 Wis. 76, 5 N. W. 482. And see Kripp v. Curtis, 71 Cal. 62, 11 Pac. 879; Johnson v. Lewis, 47 Ark. 60. 2 S. W. 329; Bodfish v. Rodlish, 105 Mass. 317; New Mexico v. United States Trust Co., 172 U. S. 171, 19 Sup. Ct. 128. 43 L. Ed. 407; Stuyvesant v. Woodruff, 21 N. J. Law, 130, 57 Am. Dec. 156.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
