St Louis, Kansas City Colorado Railroad Company v. Wabash Railroad Company No 57 St Louis, Kansas City Colorado Railroad Company v. Wabash Railroad Company No 301

• Citation: 54 L.Ed. 752,30 S.Ct. 510,217 U.S. 247
• Decision Date: 11 April 1910
• Docket Number: Nos. 57 and 301,s. 57 and 301
• Parties: ST. LOUIS, KANSAS CITY, & COLORADO RAILROAD COMPANY, Appt., v. WABASH RAILROAD COMPANY and City of St. Louis. NO 57. ST. LOUIS, KANSAS CITY, & COLORADO RAILROAD COMPANY, Petitioner, v. WABASH RAILROAD COMPANY and the City of St. Louis. NO 301
• Court: United States Supreme Court

217 U.S. 247

30 S.Ct. 510

54 L.Ed. 752

ST. LOUIS, KANSAS CITY, & COLORADO RAILROAD COMPANY, Appt.,

v WABASH RAILROAD COMPANY and City of St. Louis.

NO 57.

ST. LOUIS, KANSAS CITY, & COLORADO RAILROAD

COMPANY, Petitioner,

v. WABASH RAILROAD COMPANY and the City of St. Louis.

NO 301.

Nos. 57 and 301.

Argued December 9, 1909.

Decided April 11, 1910.

Messrs. Frank Hagerman, W. F. Evans, and M. A. Low for appellant and petitioner.

Messrs. James L. Minnis and Wells H. Blodgett for appellees and respondents.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court, after reading the following memorandum:

This opinion was prepared by our Brother Brewer, and had been approved before his lamented death. It was then recirculated and is adopted as the opinion of the court.

On January 6, 1886, there was entered in the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Missouri a decree of foreclosure and sale of the Wabash, St. Louis, & Pacific Railway Company, hereinafter called the Wabash Company. In that suit, before the execution of the deeds to the purchasing committee, a railway corporation known as the St. Louis, Kansas City, & Colorado Railroad Company (hereinafter called the Colorado Company) and the city of St. Louis intervened to compel the Wabash Company to give to the Colorado Company the use of its tracks and a right of entrance over them to the Union depot of that city. On that intervention a decree was entered finding the equities in favor of the interveners, and granting the Colorado Company the use of the tracks and right of way. 29 Fed. 546. On appeal to this court the decree of the circuit court on the intervention was, on January 19, 1891, sustained. Joy v. St. Louis, 138 U. S. 1, 34 L. ed. 843, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 243.

A dispute having arisen as to the rights granted by that decree, a petition was filed at the March term, 1902, of the circuit court in the original foreclosure case to enforce those rights as the Colorado Company claimed they existed. A large amount of testimony was taken upon this application, and a decree entered April 2, 1906. Thereupon an appeal was taken to the circuit court of appeals for the eighth circuit, which, on April 3, 1907, reversed the decree and remanded the case 'with directions to enter a decree not inconsistent with the views' expressed in the opinion of the court. 81 C. C. A. 643, 152 Fed. 849. The case went back to the circuit court, and after an amendment to the petition, which was allowed by the court, a decree was entered in obedience to the mandate, from which decree an appeal was again taken to the circuit court of appeals, and also to this court. On the appeal to the circuit court of appeals the record was filed in that court, and thereupon an application for a certiorari was made to this court, so that two cases are before us with records precisely alike, one the appeal from the circuit court directly to this court (being case No. 57) and the other the petition for a certiorari to the court of appeals (being case No. 301). [This petition was filed and presented to the court November 30, 1908, and on December 7, 1908, consideration of the petition was postponed to be heard with No. 57.]

The Wabash Company has filed a motion to dismiss No. 57, the case appealed directly to this court. The jurisdiction of the original foreclosure suit was based solely upon diverse citizenship, and it has been repeatedly decided that the jurisdiction in the case of an intervention is determined by that of the main cause. Rouse v. Letcher, 156 U. S. 47, 39 L. ed. 341, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 266; Gregory v. Van Ee, 160 U. S. 643, 40 L. ed. 566, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 431; Carey v. Houston & T. C. R. Co. 161 U. S. 115, 40 L. ed. 638, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 537; Rouse v. Hornsby, 161 U. S. 588, 40 L. ed. 817, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 610; Pope v. Louisville, N. A. & C. R. Co. 173 U. S. 573, 43 L. ed. 814, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 500.

If this be true in respect to an intervention, a fortiori must it be true in respect to a petition to enforce rights granted by the decree in the intervention. Nor is this rule changed by the fact that when this case went back from the circuit court of appeals to the circuit court, the latter court authorized an amendment to the petition, alleging that the decree ordered by the court of appeals failed to give full faith and credit to the original decree in the intervention proceedings, for, as said in Pope v. Louisville, N. A. & C. R. Co. supra (p. 578):

'And this is true although another ground of jurisdiction might be developed in the course of the proceedings, as it must appear at the outset that the suit is one of that character of which the circuit court could properly take cognizance at the time its jurisdiction is invoked. Colorado Cent. Consol. Min. Co. v. Turck, 150 U. S. 138, 37 L. ed. 1030, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 35; Ex parte Jones, 164 U. S. 691, 693, 41 L. ed. 601, 602, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 222; Third Street & Suburban R. Co. v. Lewis, 173 U. S. 457, 43 L. ed. 766, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 451.'

Further, the power of the circuit court was limited to the entry of a decree as ordered by the court of appeals, and it could not introduce new questions into the litigation without the permission of that court. Ex parte Dubuque & P. R. Co. 1 Wall. 69, 17 L. ed. 514; Re Sanford Fork & Tool Co. 160 U. S. 247, 40 L. ed. 414, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 291. Still further, the mere construction of a decree in- volves no challenge of its validity. Smithsonian Institution v. St. John, 214 U. S. 19, 29, 53 L. ed. 892, 897, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 601, and cases cited in the opinion.

The motion to dismiss No. 57 must therefore be sustained with costs.

With reference to the application for a certiorari, the power of this court cannot be doubted. As said in Forsyth v. Hammond, 166 U. S. 506, 514, 41 L. ed. 1095, 1098, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 665, 669:

'We reaffirm in this case the propositions heretofore announced; to wit, that the power of this court in certiorari extends to every case pending in the circuit courts of appeal, and may be exercised at any time during such pendency, provided the case is one which, but for this provision of the statute, would be finally determined in that court.'

On the appeal to the circuit court of appeals the case was there pending for consideration and decree, and as, for reasons heretofore stated, an appeal to this court would not lie, the case can be brought here by certiorari.

The question, then, is whether the writ of certiorari ought to be granted. That question involves the construction of a prior decree of a United States circuit court, affirmed by this court. It is not a question of the payment of money, but of the extent of the use belonging to one railroad company in the tracks, right of way, and terminal facilities of another, as well as the rights of access by the one company to industries established along the line of the other. This, in view of the increasing number of industries in a great and growing city like St. Louis, is of constantly enlarging importance, and ought, so far as possible, to be settled. It seems to us that both the private interests of the railroad companies and of the separate industries and the greater interests of the public call for the granting of the writ of certiorari, and it is therefore so ordered.

This brings before us the original decree on the intervention. That decree, and the facts upon which the original controversy arose, as well as those upon which the present dispute rests, will be found fully stated in 29 Fed. 546 138 U. S. 1, and 81 C. C. A. 643, supra, need not be repeated. It is sufficient to say that the decree was founded upon contracts to which the railroad companies, or their predecessors, were parties, by which the Wabash Company agreed to 'permit, under such reasonable regulations and terms as may be agreed upon, other railroads to use its right of way through the park, and up to the terminus of its road in the city of St. Louis, upon such terms, and for such fair and equitable compensation, to be paid to it therefor, as may be agreed upon by such companies.' It provided that the Colorado Company should pay $2,500 a month 'for the use of the right of way, and tracks, side tracks, switches, turn-outs, turntables, and other terminal facilities of the said Wabash, St. Louis, & Pacific Railway at and between the north line of Forest park and Eighteenth street in the city of St. Louis,' and that of these properties it should 'enjoy the equal use and benefit.' It apportioned the expense of maintaining on a wheelage basis this right of way and other property during such joint use.

Two principal questions are presented, each having reference to the existence of the rights granted by the intervention decree. The eastern line of Forest park is about 3 miles west of Eighteenth street, and at the time the decree was entered the Wabash Company owned a strip of land varying in width from 28 to over 200 feet, and extending from Eighteenth street to the east line of the park, and also had an easement for the passage of its trains and engines through the park upon a strip of land 42 feet wide from the east to the north side thereof. The ground owned by the Wabash is not, as stated, of...