Chicago Co v. Wiggins Ferry Co

• Decision Date: 10 January 1887
• Citation: 7 S.Ct. 398,30 L.Ed. 519,119 U.S. 615
• Parties: CHICAGO & A. R. CO. v. WIGGINS FERRY CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

119 U.S. 615

7 S.Ct. 398

30 L.Ed. 519

CHICAGO & A. R. CO. v. WIGGINS FERRY CO.

January 10, 1887.

C. Beckwith, for plaintiff in error.

Henry Hitchcock and G. A. Finkelnburg, for defendant in error.

WAITE, C. J.

The federal question which it is claimed arises on this record is whether the supreme court of Missouri in its judgment gave 'full faith and credit' 'to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings' of Illinois.

The facts are these:

The Wiggins Ferry Company was incorporated by the state of Illinois in 1853, and given the exclusive and perpetual right of maintaining and operating a ferry across the Mississippi river between its own lands, in East St. Louis, on the Illinois side, and St. Louis, in Missouri. It owned Bloody island, and substantially controlled two miles and a half of ferry landing on the Illinois shore. The Chicago & Alton Railroad Company is likewise an Illinois corporation, having authority to own and operate a railroad between Chicago and Bloody island, opposite the city of St. Louis, and to 'take, use, and make arrangements for the transportation of freight and passengers carried, or to be carried, upon said railroad, or otherwise, * * * to St. Louis, Missouri, and for this purpose to construct, own, and use such boat or boats as may be necessary.' The Alton & St. Louis Railroad Company was also an Illinois railroad corporation, authorized to construct and operate a railroad from Alton, Illinois, to any point opposite St. Louis. On the twenty-eighth of April, 1864, this company entered into a contract with the Wiggins Ferry Company, by which, among other things, the ferry company agreed 'to furnish and maintain good and convenient wharf-boats and steam ferry-boats to do with promptness and dispatch all the ferrying required for the transit of passengers and freight coming from or going to said railroad (or the assignee hereinafter mentioned) over the river,' at reasonable rates of ferriage; and the railroad company covenanted and agreed that it would 'always employ the said ferry to transport across the said river all persons and property which may be taken across the said river, either way, to or from the Illinois shore, either for the purpose of being transported on said railroad, or having been brought to the said River Mississippi upon said railroad; so that the said ferry company, its legal representatives or assigns, owners of the said ferry, shall have the profits of the transportation of all such passengers, persons, and property taken across said river either way by said railroad company; and that no other than the Wiggins Ferry shall ever, at any time, be employed by the said party of the second part, or the assignee herein mentioned, to cross any passengers or freight coming or going on said road.'

And it was also agreed and understood that the Alton & St. Louis Company should have the right to transfer and assign the agreement to the Chicago & Alton Company, in which event all the covenants, stipulations, and agreements therein contained should be as binding on the said Chicago & Alton Company as on the Alton & St. Louis Company. On the same day that the contract was entered into the Alton & St. Louis Company transferred to the Chicago & Alton Company all its right, title, and interest in and to the lands, tenements, and easements mentioned therein, and the Chicago & Alton Company became bound to the ferry company in all respects the same as the Alton & St. Louis Company was.

This suit was brought by the ferry company in a state court of Missouri, against the Chicago & Alton Company, to recover damages for not employing the ferry company for the transportation of persons and property across the river, as by the contract it was bound to do. The railroad company set up, by way of defense, among other things, that 'it had no power or authority to make or enter into any agreement whatever, perpetually obliging itself * * * not to cross persons and property, nor not to employ others to do so, in the manner alleged in the petition; and that, if the provisions of said articles of agreement contain, by construction, any such provision, the same were and are in violation of the laws of the state of Illinois, and contrary to the public policy thereof, and are void and of no effect.' The answer further alleged that the railroad company, at the time of the transfer of the contract to it, 'was a public common carrier as a railroad company, duly incorporated by law, with power and right to construct and operate its railroad, and to transport persons, passengers, freight, and property to and from the city of St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, across and over said river, and on or over its railroad, as the public interest required; that it was and still is the legal right and duty of defendant to furnish and supply the mode and means of transportation needed and required, from time to time, by the public welfare, for passengers and property to and from said city over said river, and to, on, and over defendant's rail oad; that the public welfare, and the necessities of shippers of property and freight to and over said railroad, and to and from said city, required that certain freights and property, to be transported by defendant to and from said city, should be transported by it to and from said city across said river, and to and from and along defendant's railroad, in the cars in which it might be, and over and across said river, without breaking bulk, and without being removed from such cars, and without being taken by hand or by wagons, or other appliances, in packages, from or to the cars, from or to ferry-boats, to be ferried across said river; and that since said assignment other and improved modes of transportation across said river, without breaking bulk, and at other points on said river opposite the city of St. Louis, were and have heen provided and established, and it was and became the duty of defendant, as such common carrier, to accommodate the public by the use of such other modes of transportation; and that any provision of said contract which would prohibit defendant from using the same for the benefit and convenience of the public was and is against public policy, and void, and defendant was not and is not bound thereby.'

Upon the trial the statutes under which the railroad company was incorporated, and from which it derived its corporate powers, were offered in evidence. They confer upon the company all the usual powers of railroad corporations, and, either expressly or by implication, subject it to corresponding obligations to the public. No testimony was offered, so far as the record discloses, to show that the courts of Illinois had decided, or that it had been established by law or usage in that state, that this corporation, or any other having similar powers, could not make such a contract as had been entered into.

After the evidence was all in, the railroad company asked the court to rule, among other things, as follows: 'If, at the time the contract sued on was made and was assigned to defendant, the plaintiff was a common ferry, incorporated under the laws of Illinois, with power to have and use a ferry within limits opposite to a portion only of the city of St. Louis, and the Alton & St. Louis Railroad Company was a common carrier, incorporated under the laws of Illinois, in evidence, with authority and franchise to have and to use a railroad in said state to a point opposite to the city of...