Illinois Central Railroad Company v. City of Chicago

• Decision Date: 12 March 1900
• Docket Number: No. 114,114
• Parties: ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err. , v. CITY OF CHICAGO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

176 U.S. 646

20 S.Ct. 509

44 L.Ed. 622

ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v CITY OF CHICAGO.

No. 114.

Argued January 24, 25, 1900.

Decided March 12, 1900.

This was a bill in equity instituted by the Illinois Central Railroad Company in the superior court of Cook county, to obtain an injunction restraining the city of Chicago from interfering with the exercise of the right of the railroad company to fill in, for railroad purposes, certain lands submerged by the shallow waters of Lake Michigan in front of property owned by the railroad company, in fee, and situated between Twenty-fifth and Twenty-seventh streets in said city. The purpose of the railroad company in reclaiming the land was to erect thereon an engine house and locomotive stalls necessary to the operation of the road.

The case was heard upon bill, answer, cross bill, and demurrer to cross bill, in which were set forth substantially the following facts, as recited in the opinion of the supreme court (173 Ill. 471, 50 N. E. 1104):

By an act of Congress approved September 20, 1850 (9 Stat. at L. 466, chap. 61), 'the right of way through the public lands be . . . granted to the state of Illinois for the construction of a railroad from the southern terminus of the Illinois & Michigan Canal to a point at or near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, with a branch of the same to Chicago, on Lake Michigan, and another via the town of Galena, in said state, to Dubuque, in the state of Iowa, with the right, also, to take the necessary materials, of earth, stones, timber, etc., for the construction' of the railroad. The act also granted to the state of Illinois, for the purpose of aiding and making the railroad and branches above named, every alternate section of land designated by even numbers, for six sections in width, on each side of the railroad and branches. By the act it was further provided that the railroad and branches should be and forever remain a public highway for the use of the government of the United States, free from toll or other charge upon the transportation of any property or troops of the United States.

The company was created, organized under, and now exists by virtue of, an act of the legislature of the state of Illinois approved February 10, 1851, entitled 'An Act to Incorporate the Illinois Central Railroad Company' (Private Laws of 1851, p. 61), and by its charter it was authorized to survey, locate, construct, complete, alter, maintain, and operate a railroad, with one or more tracks or lines of rail, from the southern terminus of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, to a point at or near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, with a branch of the same into Chicago, on Lake Michigan, and also a branch via the city of Galena to a point on the Mississippi river opposite the town of Dubuque, in the state of Iowa. By § 3 of its charter it was provided as follows: 'The said corporation shall have right of way upon, and may appropriate to its sole use and control for the purposes contemplated herein, land not exceeding 200 feet in width through its entire length; may enter upon and take possession of and use all and singular any lands, streams, and materials of every kind, for the location of depots and stopping stages, for the purpose of constructing bridges, dams, embankments, excavations, station grounds, spoil banks, turnouts, engine houses, shops, and other buildings necessary for the construction, completing, altering, maintaining, preserving, and complete operation of said road. All such lands, waters, materials, and privileges belonging to the state are hereby granted to said corporation for said purposes; but when owned or belonging to any person, company, or corporation, and cannot be obtained by voluntary grant or release, the same may be taken and paid for, if any damages are awarded, in the manner provided in 'An Act to Provide for a General System of Railroad Incorporations,' approved November 5, 1849, and the final decision or award shall vest in the corporation hereby created all the rights, franchises, and immunities in said act contemplated and provided; . . . Provided, that nothing in this section contained shall be so construed as to authorize the said corporation to interrupt the navigation of said streams.'

The bill also avers that the company constructed its line of railroad within the then limits of the city of Chicago in the year 1852, and completed its railroad between the termini named in its charter, in the state of Illinois, in the year 1857; that the total number of miles of its railroad in the state, upon completion, was 706; that at the time of the construction of its railroad, in 1852, into the city of Chicago, the southern limits and boundary of the city extended only to Twenty-second street; that in 1852 it constructed its line of railroad immediately along the shore and partly over the shallow waters of Lake Michigan from Fifty-first street to Twenty-second street, then the southern boundary of the city, and that its railroad was constructed into the city of Chicago through the waters of Lake Michigan, pursuant to an ordinance of the city; that its railroad within the limits of the city was constructed on piling set in the open waters of Lake Michigan east of the shore; that between Park Row and Randolph street the distances in a direct east and west line between the shore line and the inner or west line of the piling on which the railroad of the company was constructed through the open waters of Lake Michigan varied from 5 feet at Park Row to 310 feet at Madison street, and that the depth of the water along the line of piling between the points above named varied from 2 1/2 to 9 1/2 feet; that the company now owns or controls by lease, and is now operating under one management, the whole of the trunk line as one continuous line from New Orleans, through the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois, into the city of Chicago; that it controls, by lease or otherwise, under the same management, many other lateral lines in the states above named, and also in the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota, which connect with and are tributary to the parent line of the company; that the number of miles now owned or controlled by the company under one management exceeds 4,600.

It is further alleged in the bill that the city of Chicago is the business center of the various lines which constitute the system owned by the company; that the business carried on over the terminal tracks and facilities of the company within the present limits of the city of Chicago is so great and so constantly increasing that the whole of its right of way and lands contiguous thereto, within said limits, are used to their utmost capacity as yards, shops, depot grounds, side tracks, switching tracks, storage tracks, delivery tracks, team tracks, and other structures, all of which are absolutely necessary as terminal facilities to enable the company to carry on and conduct its business as a common carrier of freight and passengers, and that all the tracks, structures, and appliances of its terminal facilities are necessary and essential to enable the company to carry on its business; that the business of the company as a common carrier greatly increases from year to year, and that it has so continued to increase that its terminal facilities in the city are not wholly adequate for the purposes and uses prescribed and intended by its charter. The bill sets out in detail its business and its increase from year to year, and alleges that its terminal facilities in the city of Chicago have been found to be wholly inadequate to enable the company to carry on its business; that in order to meet the increased business necessities and requirements of the company it is absolutely necessary that the company should construct, operate, and use an engine house 316 feet in diameter, and containing forty stalls, together with a machine shop, turn table, coal chute, and other structures; that it has no engine house whatever at which it is practicable for its engines to be overhauled and fitted for operation; that it has no land whatever unoccupied by other necessary tracks and structures, which is either sufficient in dimensions or suitably located, upon which to locate and construct an engine house of the necessary dimensions and capacity, with the necessary appurtenances thereto, required and necessary for the business of the company, and that in order to build such engine house and the appurtenances it is necessary to construct the same upon land covered by the shallow waters of Lake Michigan, at a point between Fifty-first street and Eighteenth street.

It is also set up in the bill that, in 1852, at the time of the construction of the road within the city of Chicago, it purchased certain lands lying between Twenty-fifth and Twenty-seventh streets, bordering on the shore of Lake Michigan; that in the deeds the shore of Lake Michigan was designated as the east boundary line thereof, and that the company, as owner, was vested with all the riparian rights and privileges incident to the ownership in fee of the shore land; that in the year 1882 it constructed a breakwater or bulkhead in the shallow waters of Lake Michigan, the same being located and constructed in front of the land which the company purchased in 1852, above referred to, the east and west line of the breakwater on the north extending from a point on the shore continuous with the northern boundary of the land conveyed to the company in 1852, and extending to a point 200 feet easterly from the shore line, running thence southerly a distance of 781 feet, and thence westerly to the shore line, a distance of 325 feet; that the breakwater built by the company in 1882 was constructed on two rows of piling driven into the bed of Lake Michigan, and the space between the rows of piling was filled in with stone, in order...