Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. Murphy
| Decision Date | 15 December 1950 |
| Citation | 234 S.W.2d 969,314 Ky. 309 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
| Parties | CHESAPEAKE & O. RY. CO. v. MURPHY, Judge. |
LeWright Browning, Ashland, Browning & Gray, Ashland, Odis W. Bertelsman, Newport, for petitioner.
Benton, Benton & Luedeke, Newport, for respondent.
This is an original action in this court wherein petitioner, Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company, hereinafter referred to as the Company, is seeking a writ of prohibition against Hon. Ray L. Murphy, Judge of the Campbell Circuit Court, to restrain him from entering a judgment he has indicated he will enter in a suit to incorporate the town of Silver Grove in which will be included the Stevens railroad yards of the Company, which yards petitioner avers are unsuitable and unfit for municipal purposes.
Silver Grove is a community in Campbell County where some 598 inhabitants reside, of whom 253 are voters. Of this number of voters 213 signed and filed a petition in the Campbell Circuit Court to incorporate an area one-half mile square into the town of Silver Grove, as is provided in KRS 81.040 et seq. There was but one remonstrant, the Company, and its pleading avers that of the 160 acres proposed to be incorporated into the town, 64 acres constitute the railroad yards of the Company. Filed with the Company's pleading is a map showing the part of its yards sought to be included in the town. This map shows all residences and buildings of the town, as well as all city lots, lie south of the railroad yards, which latter extend northwardly practically to the Ohio River. South of the proposed town there is ample land suited for municipal purposes which could be incorporated within the town's boundaries.
The remonstrance of the Company avers these yards are used solely for railroad purposes in connection with the interchange of freight traffic among the various railroads entering the Cincinnati area; that no dwelling or business house can ever be erected in its yards, nor can streets or sidewalks be constructed therein and its yards are not adaptable to and can never be put to any municipal use. Three large pictures filed with the Company's pleading substantiate the foregoing allegations. This pleading further alleges the Company maintains its own lighting, water and sewage systems in these yards, as well as its police and fire departments; that the yards are located in a graded school district and the Company pays school taxes thereon; that no benefit will result to the Company from having its yards included within the town, and the only purpose for so including them is to have the Company pay the principal portion of the town's taxes; that the Company will be deprived of its property without due process of law in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution, and the inclusion of its yards within the town will constitute the exercise of arbitrary powers by the incorporators contrary to section 2 of the Constitution of Kentucky.
A general demurrer was sustained to the remonstrance of the Company, it refused to plead...
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Bach v. Keith
...of the General Assembly which is 'independent in its nature, strictly judicial and one of great consequence." Chesapeake & O. Ry. Co. v. Murphy, 314 Ky. 309, 234 S.W.2d 969, 971. See also Engle v. Miller, 303 Ky. 731, 199 S.W.2d 123. The familiar bases for granting prohibition have been dis......
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Chesapeake & O. Ry. Co. v. City of Silver Grove
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