Louisville Bridge Company v. United States

• Decision Date: 08 January 1917
• Docket Number: No. 540,540
• Citation: 61 L.Ed. 395,242 U.S. 409,37 S.Ct. 158
• Parties: LOUISVILLE BRIDGE COMPANY, Appt., v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

242 U.S. 409

37 S.Ct. 158

61 L.Ed. 395

LOUISVILLE BRIDGE COMPANY, Appt.,

v UNITED STATES.

No. 540.

Argued December 8 and 11, 1916.

Decided January 8, 1917.

Messrs. William W. Crawford, Lawrence Maxwell, and Charles H. Gibson for appellant.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 410-413 intentionally omitted] Assistant Attorney General Wallace for appellee.

Mr. Justice Pitney delivered the opinion of the court:

Appellant is the owner of a bridge across the Ohio river at Louisville, Kentucky, known as the 'Ohio Falls bridge,' which was built under an act of Congress approved February 17, 1865 (chap. 38, 13 Stat. at L. 431), supplementary to an act approved July 14, 1862 (chap. 167, 12 Stat. at L. 569). The 1862 Act, as amended, allowed the bridge to be built under one of several plans detailed, and with a prescribed minimum width for spans and a minimum clearance height above the water. This act, in its 5th section, declared: 'That any bridge or bridges erected under the provisions of this act shall be lawful structures, and shall be recognized and known as post routes, . . . and the officers and crews of all vessels, boats, or rafts navigating the said Ohio river are required to regulate the use of the said vessels and of any pipes or chimneys belonging thereto, so as not to interfere with the elevation, construction, or use of any of the bridges erected or legalized under the provisions of this act.' The 1st section of the 1865 Act contained a proviso 'that said bridge and draws shall be so constructed as not to interrupt the navigation of the Ohio river;' the 2d section declared 'that the bridge erected under the provisions of this act shall be a lawful structure, and shall be recognized and known as a post route.'

The Ohio Falls bridge was built in all respects in ac- cordance with the requirements of these acts, except that, instead of the minimum channel span of 300 feet prescribed, the builders made spans of 380 feet and 352 4/1 feet respectively, and exceeded the clearance height of the highest of the authorized plans, thus expending $150,000 more than was necessary to comply with the letter of the law. The bridge was completed in the year 1870, and since then has been continuously in use as a railroad bridge, furnishing one of the principal thoroughfares across the Ohio river from north to south. Its superstructure now requires renewal, but this can be done without obstructing navigation any further than the bridge does at present and has done ever since its construction.

In the year 1914 the Secretary of War, proceeding under § 18 of an act of Congress approved March 3, 1899 (chap. 425, 30 Stat. at L. 1121, 1153, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 9970), gave notice to appellant that he had good reason to believe the bridge was an obstruction to navigation because of insufficient horizontal clearance of the channel span crossing the main navigable channel of the river, and insufficient width of opening in the existing swing span crossing the Louisville & Portland Canal, and appointed a time and place for a hearing upon this question. Appellant introduced no evidence at the hearing, but filed a protest against any action by the Secretary under the Act of 1899, on the ground that this act did not affect bridges constructed under the Acts of 1862 and 1865, or that, if it attempted to do so, it was unconstitutional. After the hearing the Secretary made an order notifying appellant to alter the bridge within three years, so as to provide an enlarged horizontal opening for the main navigable channel, and to change the swing span across the channel to a lift span having a prescribed horizontal clearance, and a prescribed vertical clearance when open. A further hearing and some correspondence having led to no result, appellant notified the Secretary of War in writing that it insisted on the right to renew its superstructure on the existing masonry without changing the length of any of the existing spans, 'so that when completed it will not interfere with navigation any more than it does now,' and that it intended to commence the of renewal at once. Shortly thereafter the Attorney General filed a bill for an injunction in the district court; appellant answered, setting up its claims as above indicated; and the case was brought to a hearing upon stipulated facts presenting, as the sole question to be determined,—the legality of the order of the Secretary of War as applied to the bridge in question. A final decree was made restraining appellant from reconstructing the superstructure of the bridge in a manner inconsistent with the provisions of the Secretary's order (233 Fed. 270), and the case comes here by direct appeal, as permitted by § 18 of the 1899 Act.

Concisely stated, the position of appellant is that the Ohio Falls bridge was constructed under an irrevocable franchise, and became upon its completion a lawful structure and the private property of appellant; that Congress had no power to require its removal except in the exercise of the Federal authority to regulate commerce, and subject to the provision of the 5th Amendment that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation; and that the Act of 1899, being a general act, does not, by fair construction, operate to repeal the special franchise conferred by the Acts of 1862 and 1865, and, if it does, it is unconstitutional because it fails to make provision for compensation.

The first and fundamental contention is rested in part upon facts of which we may take judicial notice, that when the Acts of 1862 and 1865 were passed the Civil War was in progress, and there was urgent need of a bridge over the Ohio river west of the Big Sandy (the eastern boundary of Kentucky) to provide for the transfer of troops and supplies from the North to the South; that there were no bridges crossing the Ohio at either of the cities of Cincinnati or Louisville, or at any point west of them, and that the movement of troops and supplies was thereby greatly hampered; that the river at Louisville is approximately a mile wide, the current quite rapid on account of the Falls, and in winter frequently filled with ice, so as to render a bridge a pressing necessity; and that the war had disturbed somewhat the finances of the country, and capital for large undertakings was difficult to secure. But the argument lays especial stress upon the declaration that the bridge in question should be a lawful structure and recognized and known as a post route, and the fact that neither the original nor the supplemental acts contained any reservation of the right to alter, or amend, or revoke the franchise.

These are no doubt weighty considerations, and raise a grave question, but they do not necessarily dispose of it. Clearly, the acts were passed under the power of Congress to regulate commerce. That power is a very great power, and in its nature continuing, not being exhausted by any particular exercise. We need not go so far as to say that Congress could not in any case, by contract or estoppel, prevent itself from modifying or revoking a regulation once made and substituting another in its place without compensation. But when private rights of an indefeasible nature are sought to be derived from regulatory provisions established in the exercise of this power, the case is peculiarly one for the application of the universal rule that grants of special franchises and privileges are to be strictly construed in favor of the public right, and nothing is to be taken as granted concerning which any reasonable doubt may be raised. As this court, speaking through Mr. Chief Justice Waite, declared in Newport & C. Bridge Co. v. United States, 105 U. S. 470, 480, 26 L. ed. 1143, 1147: 'Congress, which alone exercises the legislative power of the government, is the constitutional protector of foreign and interstate commerce. Its supervision of this subject is continuing in its nature, and all grants of special privileges, affecting so important a branch of governmental power, ought certainly to be strictly construed. Nothing will be presumed to have been surrendered unless it was manifestly so intended. Every doubt should be resolved in favor of the government.'

The absence of an express reservation of the right to alter or amend is not conclusive. As is well understood, reservations of this kind have a peculiar fitness in state legislation, being traceable historically to the decision of this court in Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheat. 518, 4 L. ed. 629, that a corporate charter is a contract within the meaning of that clause of art. 1, § 10, of the Constitution, which declares that no state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts, so that a state law altering such a charter in a material respect without the consent of the corporation is unconstitutional and void; and the suggestion in the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Story (p. 675) that the reservation of a power to alter or amend the charter would leave the state free to enact subsequent amendatory legislation. Miller v. New York, 15 Wall. 478, 494, 21 L. ed. 98, 103; Greenwood v. Union Freight R. Co. 105 U. S. 13, 20, 26 L. ed. 961, 964; Spring Valley Waterworks v. Schottler, 110 U. S. 347, 352, 28 L. ed. 173, 175, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 48. Congress is not prevented by the Constitution from passing laws that impair the obligation of contracts, and in its enactments the presence or absence of such a reservation has not the same peculiar significance that it has in state legislation. It is no doubt a circumstance, but not by any means conclusive.

At the time the Acts of 1862 and 1865 were passed, it was not customary for Congress to include in legislation of this character an express reservation of a power of future control or repeal. In an Act of August 31, 1852 (chap. 111, 10 Stat. at L. 112, §§ 6 and 7), certain bridges already in existence across the Ohio river were declared to be lawful structures. The...