City Council of Montgomery v. Louisville & N.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 09 July 1888
• Citation: 84 Ala. 127,4 So. 626
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court
• Parties: CITY COUNCIL OF MONTGOMERY v. LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO.

4 So. 626

84 Ala. 127

CITY COUNCIL OF MONTGOMERY v. LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO.

Supreme Court of Alabama

July 9, 1888

Appeal from chancery court, Montgomery county; JOHN A. FOSTER Chancellor.

This is an action for an injunction by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company against the city council of Montgomery. Prelimnary injunction issued, and from an order refusing to dissolve the same defendant appeals. The Louisville &amp Nashville Railroad Company, operating the South & North Alabama Railroad Company, and in charge of the Union passenger depot of the last-named company in the city of Montgomery, undertook to make an addition, demanded by the public convenience, and necessary for the proper transaction of the business of said companies, to the said depot, which depot is a brick building, and within the fire limits of the city of Montgomery. This addition, one side of which is an end side of said depot building, was to be 30 by 42 feet long and wide, and 24 feet high, cased on the outside with corrugated iron, and covered on the top with sheet-iron roofing; the structure to rest upon a solid brick foundation 3 or 4 feet deep, and raised several inches from the ground. The wood to be used was to be pieces of studding 14 inches apart, a sill resting on the brick foundation, and a plate at the top, with floors in the lower and upper story, and a stairway. The doors, sashes, and blinds were to be of wood as is usual in all buildings. The addition was to be plastered on the inside. While engaged in the erection of this structure, the workmen were stopped, and the railroad superintendent was arrested and fined, by the city authorities. A resolution in reference to this building was passed by the city council of Montgomery in these words "Resolved, that the chief of police be directed to take steps at once to enforce the city ordinance against all persons in any manner concerned in erecting the two-story wooden building near the Union depot in this city, and to arrest and bring before the recorder all parties engaged in working on said structure, or connected therewith, including the superintendent of the L. & N. R. R. Company." The city authorities threatened to arrest and fine any person engaged in the erection of the said addition, or any part thereof, if erected, and to remove the whole, if erected. The railroad companies filed this bill in the chancery court, seeking to enjoin any interference on the part of the city authorities in the erection and completion of said addition, and any attempt to remove the same after completion, and to enjoin the enforcement of the above-copied ordinances.

W. S. Thorington, for appellant.

Thos G. Jones, for appellee.

SOMERVILLE J.

The principles settled in the case of Port of Mobile v. Railroad Co., 4 South. Rep. 106 (decided at the present term), may be fairly considered as settling the right of a court of chancery to assume jurisdiction of the present case, the purpose of which is to protect an alleged corporate franchise from repeated and embarrassing disturbances, resulting from the threatened enforcement of a municipal ordinance of the city of Montgomery, which is asserted either to be void, or else to have no application to the case of the complainants, although the recorder's court of said city has construed it otherwise, and the city council have announced their intention to execute its penalties against the complainant, and its authorized agents. It is obvious that, upon the facts stated in the bill, which are to be taken as true, so far as well pleaded, on the motion to dissolve the injunction, the enforcement of the ordinance in question, with or without the demolition of the new extension of the depot in process of construction, presents a strong case of complicated and irreparable injury to the complainant, followed by a grave interference with...