Carondelet Canal Navigation Company v. State of Louisiana

Decision Date20 April 1914
Docket NumberNo. 78,78
PartiesCARONDELET CANAL & NAVIGATION COMPANY, Piff. in Err., v. STATE OF LOUISIANA
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Messrs. Edgar H. Farrar, Benjamin T. Waldo, and W. C. Dufour for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 363-366 intentionally omitted] Mr. Ruffin G. Pleasant, Attorney General of Louisiana, and Mr. Daniel Wendling for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 366-370 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Mckenna delivered the opinion of the court.

The state of Louisiana brought this suit in the civil district court of the parish of Orleans, state of Louisiana, against the Carondelet Canal & Navigation Company of New Orleans (herein called the canal company) for the recovery from the company, through its liquidators, of the Carondelet canal, Bayon St. John, and Old Basin, a water way used by vessels for the transportation of freight and merchandise, and for its improvements and appurtenant properties.

The suit was dismissed by the civil district court as premature. On appeal to the supreme court of the state, that court reversed the judgment dismissing the suit, and ordered that a judgment be entered against the canal company, in liquidation, ordering the delivery to the state of the canal and water way in their entirety, as they stood on March 10, 1908, together with all the property and improvements appurtenant thereto, including the roadway or roadways upon the side or sides of the canal.

The claims of the state to a triangular strip of ground hereafter mentioned, or to the proceeds thereof, or to any other property, movable or immovable, not appurtenant to the water way and roadways, were reserved for further adjudication in the proceedings. And an accounting was ordered of the receipts and disbursements in the management of the property since March 10, 1908, and the case was remanded to the district court for further proceedings on all questions reserved as above stated, and 'that the right of the plaintiff to obtain judgment for such amount as may be found due upon defendant's accounting, and to take such further proceedings and obtain such further orders as may be required for the execution of this judgment, be reserved.' 129 La. 279, 56 So. 137.

We refer to the opinion of the supreme court for the history of the canal, which, while interesting, is quite long. There is no question of the source and orgin of the rights of the canal company; no question of the right of the state to take possession of the canal and its appurtenant properties upon complying with the contract alleged to exist between the state and the company. There is a question as to the extent of the rights of the company under the contract, and for what property the state must make compensation, and the factors in the solution of the question require quite an extended discussion.

We are met, however, at the outset, by a motion to dismiss, on the ground that the judgment is not final.

The judgment disposes of and orders the delivery of practically all of the property sued for: (1) The water way in its entirety; (2) all the property and improvements appurtenant to it, including the roadway or roadways upon the sides of it. It reserves property not appurtenant and an accounting of certain disbursements. The reservation concerns only a small piece of ground upon which there was a dispute as to whether it was appurtenant to the canal,—a question the court apparently could not determine, as it was a question of fact. All else will be taken from the canal company and delivered to the state. That is, all was decreed that it was the purpose of the suit to have decreed, and which not only constituted its success, but which involved and disposed of the Federal right asserted by the canal company. The judgment, therefore, has a substantial finality. Is it not as well in form?

Cases are cited which, the state contends, require a negative answer to the question. They are distinguishable from that at bar.

In Haseltine v. Central Nat. Bank, 183 U. S. 130, 46 L. ed. 117, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 49, the action was against a national bank to recover under § 5198 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3493), for usurious interest alleged to have been charged. There was judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the action. It was reversed by the supreme court of the state on the ground that he had neither paid nor tendered the principal sum, and the case was remanded for further proceedings. The case, therefore, was remanded for a new trial in its entirety. It was ruled that the face of the judgment is the test of its finality, and that this court, cannot be called on to inquire whether, when a cause is sent back, the defeated party might or might not make a better case.

This rule was again expressed in Schlosser v. Hemphill, 198 U. S. 173, 49 L. ed. 1000, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 654, in a case where a right to amend the pleadings existed and a new case could have been made.

In Missouri & K. Interurban R. Co. v. Olathe, 222 U. S. 185, 56 L. ed. 155, 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 46, a demurrer was sustained to the plaintiff's pleadings in the trial court and the supreme court, but the latter court did not direct a dismissal of the suit, but left it stand in the court below. We held that the judgment sought to be reviewed was not one which finally determined the cause, and that we were without jurisdiction.

In Louisiana Nav. Co. v. Oyster Commission, 226 U. S. 99, 57 L. ed. 138, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 78, we repeated the test of finality to be the face of the judgment, and expressed the reason to be that this court cannot be called upon to review an action of the state court piecemeal. The language was appropriate to the condition presented by the case, for the pleading in the case was left open for amendment.

In the case at bar there is distinct and explicit finality, and the further proceedings are directed to apply only to the 'questions reserved.' And it is to be assumed this was purposely done to give finality to the questions not reserved, so that the decree could be immediately executed upon the property involved requiring it to be delivered into the possession and administration of the state. This disposition, we can easily conceive, the court considered necessary to the rights which the state was adjudged to have, and the remedy commensurate with them. The decree, therefore, had a definiteness which did not exist in the cited cases, the Federal rights asserted by the canal company were injuriously disposed of. The ground of dismissal of the writ of error based on the judgment is not, therefore, sustained.

There are other grounds urged, to wit, that no Federal question is shown, and that, besides, the decision of the court below was rested on a non-Federal ground sufficient to sustain it. A consideration of this involves the issues in the case and their determination.

The suit involves, as we have said, the right to the canal and its appurtenant properties, and the controversy between the parties turns upon the construction of two acts of the legislature of the state, passed, respectively, in 1857 and 1858. Those acts will be referred to hereafter with some particularity. By virtue of those acts the canal company derived its rights and its corporate existence. The petition of the state presents the following propositions: (1) The act of 1857 gave the canal company a corporate existence of twenty-five years from October 17, 1857, with power in the state to take possession of the canal and appurtenant properties. If the state should not exercise such right at such time, then the company was to have existence for a second term of twenty-five years, at which time the canal and its appurtenant properties were to be surrendered to the state without compensation to be paid to the company. (2) By the act of 1858 the charter existence of the company was extended to fifty years, and at the expiration of such period the property was to be surrendered to the state without the necessity of compensation being made therefor. (3) In 1906, in order that the state should be in a position to assume control and take possession of the property, the legislature passed an act creating a board of control of the canal, to be appointed by the governor. This board was appointed and the property demanded. (4) The company refused to comply with the demand on the ground that the state had not complied with certain alleged contract obligations which the canal company claimed under § 4 of the act of 1858, and which gave it greater rights to the property than did the act of 1857, and until such obligations were performed the company would refuse to deliver the property. (5) If such was the effect of the act of 1858, the act was void as being in violation of the constitution of the state; especially of articles 108 and 109, which prohibited the granting of aid by the state to companies and corporations formed for the purpose of making works of public improvement. And further, if the company have the right to demand compensation, it has no right to claim against the state the property and improvements connected with or which belong to the Carondelet canal, the Bayou St. John, and the Old Basin on Toulouse street, the state being sole owner of that part of the property. (6) The New Orleans Terminal Company, in a suit to expropriate a triangular piece of ground upon which stood the office building of the company, was condemned to pay $3,000, which sum was deposited in bank by agreement to await the determination of whether the state or the company should be entitled thereto. (7) The company has collected tolls through its liquidators since the expiration of its charter.

The state prayed an accounting of the revenues of the property after the expiration of the charter of the company, and that all the property and improvements connected with and appurtenant thereto, including the $3,000, the...

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