Union Lime Company v. Chicago Northwestern Railway Company

Decision Date06 April 1914
Docket NumberNo. 529,529
Citation34 S.Ct. 522,233 U.S. 211,58 L.Ed. 924
PartiesUNION LIME COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY and Eden Independent Lime & Stone Company
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Messrs. George Lines, Willet M. Spooner, Fred C. Ellis, and Louis Quarles for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 211-216 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Walter Drew, Edward M. Smart, Edward M. Hyzer, L. E. Lurvey, and Mr. W. C. Owen, attorney general of the state of Wisconsin, for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice Hughes delivered the opinion of the court:

This proceeding was instituted by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company to take land for a spur, the construction of which had been ordered by the Railroad Commission of the state. The land was owned by the Union Lime Company, the plaintiff in error, and the application was resisted upon the ground that it was sought to be taken for a private, and not a public, use, and therefore that its taking would operate as a deprivation of the property of the plaintiff in error without due process of law, and a denial to it of the equal protection of the laws, contrary to the 14th Amendment. This contention was overruled by the supreme court of the state, which affirmed the judgment in condemnation (152 Wis. 633, 140 N. W. 346), and this writ of error was sued out.

The proposed track was to form an extension of an existing spur, owned and operated by the railway company, which leads from its main line to the quarries and kilns of two lime companies; one of these companies is the plaintiff in error, at whose works the spur now terminates. Beyond these works lie those of the Eden Independent Lime & Stone Company, which applied to the Railroad Commission for an order requiring the railway company to extend the spur to its plant. It is provided by § 1797-11m of the Wisconsin Statutes that every railroad shall acquire the necessary right of way and shall construct and operate a 'reasonably adequate and suitable spur track' whenever it does not necessarily exceed 3 miles in length, is 'practically indispensable to the successful operation' of any existing or proposed manufacturing establishment, and is not 'unusually unsafe' or 'unreasonably harmful.' The railroad may require the person, firm, or corporation primarily to be served thereby to pay the legitimate cost of acquiring, by condemnation or purchase, the necessary right of way for the spur and of its construction, as determined by the Railroad Commission. By § 1797-12n, the Commission is authorized to receive complaints, in case of the failure or refusal of railroads to perform the prescribed duty, and to make appropriate orders. Acting under these sections, the

These sections, enacted by chapter 352 of the Laws of 1907, as amended by chapter 481 of the Laws of 1909 and chapters 193, 663 of the Laws of 1911, are as follows:

'Section 1797-11m. 1. Every railroad shall acquire the necessary rights of way for, and shall construct, connect, maintain, and operate a reasonably adequate and suitable spur track, whenever such spur track does not necessarily exceed 3 miles in length, is practically indispensable to the successful operation of any existing or proposed mill, elevator, storehouse, warehouse, dock, wharf, pier, manufacturing establishment, lumber yard, coal dock, or other industry or enterprise, and its construction and operation is not unusually unsafe and dangerous and is not unreasonably harmful to public interest.

'2. Such railroad may require the person or persons, firm, corporations, or association primarily to be served thereby, to pay the legitimate cost and expense of acquiring, by condemnation or purchase, the necessary rights of way for such spur track, and of constructing the same, as shall be determined in separate items by the commission, in which case the total estimated cost thereof shall be deposited with the railroad before the railroad shall be required to incur any expense whatever therefor; provided, however, that when any such person, firm, or corporation, or association shall be required by the commission to deposit with the railroad the total estimated cost, as herein provided, such person, firm, corporation, or association may offer or cause to be offered a proposition in writing to such railroad, to construct such spur track, such proposition to be accompanied by a surety company bond, running to such railroad, and conditioned upon the construction of such spur track in a good and workmanlike manner, according to the plans and specifications provided by such railroad, and approved by the commission, and deposit with such railroad the estimated cost of the necessary right of way for such spur track; and whenever such proposition and security company bond shall be offered, the person, firm, corporation, or association primarily to be served thereby shall not be required to deposit as herein provided, as the total estimated cost of such construction, an amount in excess of the estimated cost of the right of way, and the total amount stated in such written proposition. Provided further that before the railroad shall be required to incur any Commission directed the railway company to extend the spur as desired by the Eden Company, and thereupon this proceeding was brought to condemn the land for the right of way.

The assignments of error come to the single point,—as to the character of the use. The state, through its highest court, declares the use to be a public one, and we should accept its judgment unless it is clearly without ground. Fallbrook Irrig. Dist. v. Bradley, 164 U. S. 112, 160, 41 L. ed. 369, 389, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 56; Clark v. Nash, 198 U. S. 361, 369, 49 L. ed. 1085, 1088, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 676, 4 Ann. Cas. 1171; Strickley v. Highland Boy Gold Min. Co. 200 U. S. 527, 531, 50 L. ed. 581, 583, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 301, 4 Ann. Cas. 1174; Offield v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co. 203 U. S. 372, 377, 51 L. ed. 231, 236, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 72; Hairston v. Danville & W. R. Co. 208 U. S. 598, 607, 52 L. ed. 637, 641, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 331, 13 Ann. Cas. 1008. The general authority to exercise the power of eminent domain for the construction of spurs is found in § 1831a, Stat. (Wis.), which provides: 'Every railway company . . . may build, maintain, and operate branches and spur tracks from its road or any branch thereof to and upon the grounds of any mill, elevator, storehouse, warehouse, dock, wharf, pier, manufacturing establishment, lumber yard, coal dock, or other industry or enterprise, . . . ; and every such company may acquire by purchase or condemnation in the manner provided in this chapter for the acquisition of real estate for railway purposes, other than for its main track, all necessary roadways and rights of way for such branches, spur tracks,' etc. The supreme court of the state sustained the validity of this provision in Chicago & N. W. R. Co. v. Morehouse, 112 Wis. 1, 56 L.R.A. 240, 88 Am. St. Rep. 918, 87 N. W. 849, holding (p. 11) that 'the fact that a spur track may run...

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