Attorney General v. Erie & K.R. Co.
| Decision Date | 08 October 1884 |
| Citation | 20 N.W. 696,55 Mich. 15 |
| Parties | ATTORNEY GENERAL v. ERIE & K.R. CO. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
This is an application by the attorney general for leave to file an information in the nature of a quo warranto against the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company. Notice was given to the respondent, and it has been heard in opposition to the application. The Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company was chartered by an act of the territorial legislature of Michigan, approved April 22, 1833, (3 Terr.Laws, 1125.) The charter was perpetual, but was amended in 1846 so as to authorize the legislature at any time to alter, amend, or repeal it. As originally granted, the charter authorized the company to construct a railroad from Port Lawrence through or as near as practicable to, the village of Adrian, and thence on the most eligible route to such point on the Kalamazoo river as they may deem most proper and useful. Important additional franchises were conferred upon the company by an amendment of its charter by an act approved March 26, 1835, (3 Terr.Laws, 1392.) And by another amendment, made in 1846, they were prohibited from constructing their road beyond the village of Adrian. The charter empowers the company to transport property and persons over their road by the force of steam or other power and to charge and collect tolls for the same. Under the grant of power conferred by this charter, the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company located and constructed its road from Port Lawrence (now Toledo) to Adrian. As located and constructed, the road passed through the village of Palmyra at which a regular passenger and freight depot was established. In 1849 the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company leased its road and franchises to the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, in perpetuity. The Palmyra & Jacksonburg Railroad Company was chartered by the territorial legislature when the township of Port Lawrence constituted a portion of Monroe county. After the loss of the "disputed ground" by the act of congress defining the northern boundary of the state of Ohio and admitting the state of Michigan into the Union, and the assent of Michigan thereto, the legislature of this state passed an act by which the state agreed to release certain securities against the Palmyra & Jacksonburg Railroad Company, in consideration that it would release so much of its road as laid between the Michigan Southern road then owned by the state and the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, and it was enacted that it should not be lawful for the Palmyra & Jacksonburg Company or its assignees ever to construct its road southerly beyond the Southern Railroad so as to connect with the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad. Sess.Laws 1846, p. 288. This legislation on the part of the state was in the interest of its own enterprise, in building the Michigan Southern from Monroe to New Buffalo, by preventing the traffic which would pass over the Jacksonburg road from going to Toledo over the Erie & Kalamazoo road.
In 1840 the Michigan Southern Railroad Company was incorporated, and the state sold to this corporation the Michigan Southern Railroad, and it undertook the completion of the project which had been commenced by the state as part of her scheme of internal improvements. By the act of incorporation, the Michigan Southern Railroad Company were bound to build the Tecumseh branch from the village of Tecumseh by way of the village of Clinton, and of Manchester to the village of Jackson, along the line formerly authorized to be constructed by the Jacksonburg & Palmyra Railroad Company. The road from Tecumseh to Manchester was completed in 1855, and from there to Jackson in 1857. In 1856 the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company, which was the successor of the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, constructed a road from a junction with the track of the Erie & Kalamazoo Company about 5,000 feet east from the station at Palmyra village to a connection with the road of the Michigan Southern Company at Lenawee Junction, so called; said Lenawee Junction, being the point at which the Jackson branch road of the Michigan Southern Company connects with its main line of road between Adrian and Monroe. The main object of constructing this piece of road was to save the necessity of transporting passengers and freight coming from the direction of Toledo, destined over the Jackson branch or over the main line, towards Monroe, or coming from the Jackson branch or from Monroe, destined towards Toledo, around by the way of Adrian, thus saving a distance of about eight miles. Another object was to avoid the heavy grades and reverse curves which existed on the line of the Erie & Kalamazoo Company's road between Palmyra and Adrian.
There are several affidavits filed by the attorney general in support of his application, from which it appears that the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company, as early as 1835 or 1836, constructed its road between Adrian and the village of Palmyra substantially upon the line at present occupied by it, and that a general freight and passenger station was then established, and has ever since, until recently, been maintained, at Palmyra village; that this village contains about two hundred and twenty-five inhabitants, three stores, three blacksmith shops, one wagon shop, three halls, a graded school-house, two churches, one steam saw-mill, and one paper-mill; that it is the only village in a township containing about 2,000 inhabitants; that soon after the completion of the road between Lenawee Junction and the Erie & Kalamazoo road, east of Palmyra village, the company controlling and operating said Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad commenced gradually to withdraw the business which had been previously carried on over the Erie & Kalamazoo road between Palmyra and Adrian, and to transfer it to the road to Lenawee Junction; but they still maintained depot facilities at Palmyra station, and afforded the people all the usual accommodations at such station until 1867, when, from that date to 1873, the railroad facilities at Palmyra station were still further diminished, and from 1873 the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company (who succeeded the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana in 1869) has ceased and refused to deliver at said village freight in quantities less than car-loads; and since December 1, 1882, they have ceased to maintain any depot or station at Palmyra village, and have ceased to run freight and passenger trains over that portion of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad lying between the cut-off about a mile east of Palmyra village, and the point of junction of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad with the Michigan Southern Railroad near the city of Adrian, being a piece of road five and seventy one-hundredths miles in length; that instead of using said piece of road for the transportation of freight and passengers, it is used as a place for the storage of cars, some of which are stock cars, which are left in a filthy condition near to the residences of farmers, and constitute, by reason of the stench arising therefrom, a nuisance; that they have suffered this portion of the road to become out of repair and unfit for use in transporting passengers and freight; that a bridge has become so dilapidated that it is unsafe for engines or cars to pass over the same, and that none have passed over the same since December, 1882; that since that date no freight has been brought into the village, except from eastward, and in car-loads; and that the company has continually refused to receive or deliver freight in quantities less than car-loads, except as a special concession in favor of a paper-mill firm; that in 1877 they sold all the station buildings, water-tanks, sheds, platforms, and appurtenances previously in use by the company in the village, and the same have been removed; that in 1881 they took up and removed all the side tracks, except about seven rods. These several acts are alleged to be a great public wrong, and to have a blighting effect upon the village, transforming this modern Palmyra, like the ancient, into a Tadmor in the desert.
Affidavits have been filed and arguments made in opposition to this application, not denying that the station at Palmyra village has been practically discontinued, and the portion of the track above described wholly abandoned for the purpose of running and operating freight and passenger cars over the same, but excusing such non-user on economical grounds. Whether such a justification can be made to appear as will excuse the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company from performing its charter obligations I do not think it proper to pass upon at this stage of the case. Upon general principles of law, the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company were bound to construct their road between the termini named in their charter; and, having so constructed it, to run and operate the whole and every material part thereof until relieved therefrom by the legislature. Whether there are exceptions to this general principle, and whether the company may be able to bring itself within such exceptions, I shall not attempt here to decide. The question does not appear to me to be presented in such shape as to call for an expression of opinion upon it.
So far as the affidavits produced in support of the application set out the grievances of the residents of Palmyra in relation to being deprived of railroad facilities at Palmyra station although of vital consequence to them, they do not appear to me to affect the general public. If to the greatest number of the patrons of the road increased facilities are afforded, time is saved, and expense of transportation lessened, it would seem that the greater number interested would be benefited by the...
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