Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co. v. Sioux City Stockyards Co.

• Decision Date: 29 June 1916
• Docket Number: 29232
• Citation: 158 N.W. 769,176 Iowa 659
• Parties: CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY et al., Appellees, v. SIOUX CITY STOCKYARDS COMPANY, Appellant
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

158 N.W. 769

176 Iowa 659

CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY et al., Appellees, v. SIOUX CITY STOCKYARDS COMPANY, Appellant

No. 29232

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

June 29, 1916

Appeal from Woodbury District Court.--JOHN F. OLIVER, Judge.

SUIT to quiet title to right of way resulted in a decree as prayed. The defendant appeals.

Reversed.

Milchrist & Scott, for appellant.

W. H Farnsworth, J. C. Cook and James C. Davis, for appellees.

LADD J. EVANS, C. J., WEAVER, GAYNOR and PRESTON, JJ., DEEMER, J concurring. SALINGER, J. (dissenting).

OPINION

LADD, J.

I.

All parties hereto are corporations, each of plaintiffs operating a railway entering into or passing through Sioux City, and the defendant conducting the stockyards at that place. In 1885 or 1886, James E. Booge and four others organized the Booge Packing Company, and acquired the property in controversy, in connection with Block 17 of the annexed plat. Booge, in behalf of this company, requested the Sioux City & Pacific Railway Company (to whose property the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company succeeded in 1901) and plaintiffs, other than the Willmar & Sioux Falls Railway Company, to construct railway tracks over and across Lots 7, 8 and 9 in Block 13; Lot 12 in Block 16; Lots 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 in Block 17; Lots 5 and 8 in Block 18; Lot 4 in Block 19; Lots 9, 5 and 11 in Block 19--all in Floyd City, an addition to Sioux City. The petition alleged that an agreement with said railway companies then was entered into, whereby the Booge Packing Company undertook to dedicate and grant to the railway companies, their successors and assigns, an easement to a strip of ground 16 feet in width across said lots, for the purpose of constructing railway tracks in order to serve the packing house and its business and the stockyards of the Union Stockyards Company, and that the railway companies accepted said dedication and easement, went into actual possession of said strip and constructed permanent embankments and railway tracks thereon, extending the entire length thereof, at a large expense, and, in pursuance of said agreement, have operated and maintained the same continuously up to the present time. The Willmar & Sioux Falls Railway Company subsequently acquired a one-fifth interest in anything acquired by the other companies. The plaintiffs say that they have been in adverse possession of said strip of land for more than 20 years; that the defendant is the successor of the Union Stockyards Company and claims some interest therein; but plaintiffs aver that defendant has acquiesced in plaintiff's maintenance of the tracks, and that whatever interest it has is subject to their claim thereto, and they pray that title to said strip be quieted in them as against any adverse claim on the part of defendant. For answer, the defendant admitted that it claimed an interest in the premises, but denied all other allegations save the organization of the companies.

On hearing, the trial court concluded that plaintiffs were entitled to the relief prayed, but whether because of adverse possession or the acquiescence of defendant in their alleged claim of ownership does not appear. The burden was on plaintiff to prove that it had acquired such title to the strip of ground in controversy as that it was entitled to have the relief prayed. Whether defendant's claim thereto be weak or strong is quite immaterial, save as this may bear on the inquiry as to whether title is in plaintiffs. The main facts are undisputed. The Booge Packing Company was organized in 1884 or 1885 by James E. Booge and four others. Its plant was located on Block 17 of the annexed plat, and it acquired the lots over which the right of way in controversy is claimed. Booge was president and general manager of the company. The Union Stockyards Company had been organized for some time, and its yards were located east of Prospect Street. The railroads of plaintiffs, other than the Sioux City & Pacific Railway Company, connected with the stockyards track at or near the corner of First Street and Chambers Street. The Sioux City & Pacific Railway Company, whose successor is the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, constructed two tracks from near the corner of Dace and Lafayette Streets in a southeasterly direction to Chambers Street, to serve the packing house. In 1886 or 1887, Booge, as representative of the packing company, negotiated with the representative of the several railway companies for the extension of these lines so as to connect with the stockyards tracks on Prospect Street. This resulted in an agreement which was to be reduced to writing by the late J. H. Swan, attorney for one of the companies, and signed; but this was never done. Booge testified that the packing company was to give the right of way over the lots from Dace Street to Prospect Street in consideration of the extension of the tracks; that the tracks were laid and used by the railroad companies over which to haul the products of the packing house and hogs to it; that all companies were to make use of the tracks, but he did not know that obtaining stock from the yards was mentioned, but that was a part of his purpose; that the tracks were not used up to 1892, save to serve the packing company's plant. Towsley, the local superintendent of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, testified, but appears to have known little personally concerning that of which he spoke. Underwood, division superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, confirmed Booge's testimony and swore that the railroad companies had "used--jointly operated--each company operates its own trains over them (tracks). . . . Up to five years ago, they were operating the tracks." Spencer, division superintendent of the Chicago, St. Paul, M. & O. Railway Company, testified that the packing company and the Union Stockyards Company were to furnish the right of way and the companies were to furnish the trackage; that Col. Swan was to prepare the contract; that the tracks were to be owned by the roads jointly and were operated by them until 1900. Haakinson, manager of the stockyards company, stated that the packing company was to furnish the right of way; that its duration was to be inserted in the contract to be drawn by Swan; that he and Booge were to procure ordinances from the city, permitting construction of the track in the streets and alleys; that the railway companies were to haul no live stock over the tracks except from the stockyards; that the railway companies did the switching on these tracks for about two years, each furnishing a crew for three months' rotation; that then the stockyards company procured an engine and did all the hauling on these and the stockyards' tracks in pursuance of a written contract referred to later; that the yards of the Union Stockyards Company were flooded in 1890 and abandoned as stockyards in 1892. Eaton, president and general manager of the Sioux City Stockyards Company, testified that the Sioux City Stockyards Company was organized in 1894 and took over the property of the Union Stockyards Company in 1895; that it succeeded also to the ownership of the lots in controversy; that it established its yards south of the plat on which it laid tracks; that it carried out the agreement as to hauling on the tracks of its assignor, the Union Stockyards Company, until 1900, when it arranged with the Union Terminal Company to do the switching, which company did this for three years, owing to objection by the railway companies when the Sioux City Stockyards Company did the hauling again, and so did until 1907. The stockyards companies and Union Terminal Company had maintained the tracks for five or six years, and at about this time, the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company made some repairs on the west part of the two tracks, but none were made by any company east of Chambers Street; that, in 1907, owing to certain rules of the Interstate Railroad Commission, the Sioux City Terminal was organized by the Sioux City Stockyards Company, and the switching has been done by that company since over these and other tracks in the stockyards district connecting the plaintiff railways with the stockyards, and through this with packing houses; that the terminal and stockyards companies have operated these tracks for the last 17 years; that, during this time, aside from storing and receiving some cars on the west end of tracks by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, the repairs mentioned, and running over the lines once or twice by the several railway companies, in order to advise the defendant of their claims, the plaintiffs have had nothing to do with these tracks during that time; that the only possible use of these tracks, save in connection with the stockyards system, was in the storage of cars by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company; that they do not now reach the packing houses or stockyards; that the tracks are insufficient to handle the business coming to these, and a new system of tracks should be inaugurated; that these tracks reach the packing houses only by connecting with the stockyards tracks, and for these the particular tracks in controversy are used only for a short distance; that the Booge Packing Company ceased to operate its plant in 1895; that the tracks in controversy could be used by plaintiffs in no other way than for the storage of cars by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, and the stockyards company owns the tracks connecting therewith. Ordinances were procured as proposed. There was no evidence tending to show what width the proposed right of way should be, nor was the manner of conveying a right of way spoken of, nor does the record contain anything other than mentioned bearing on the...