Corporation Commission v. Southern Ry. Co.

• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: CONNOR, J.
• Citation: Corporation Commission v. Southern Ry. Co., 145 S.E. 19, 196 N.C. 190 (N.C. 1928)
• Decision Date: 17 October 1928
• Docket Number: 256.
• Parties: CORPORATION COMMISSION v. SOUTHERN RY. CO. et al.

145 S.E. 19

196 N.C. 190

CORPORATION COMMISSION v. SOUTHERN RY. CO. et al.

No. 256.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

October 17, 1928

Appeal from Superior Court, Wake County; Cranmer, Judge.

Petition by the City of Raleigh and others to the Corporation Commission, to require the Southern Railway Company and others to construct and equip an adequate union passenger station in such city. From an order of the superior court that the North Carolina Railroad Company be made a party defendant on appeal from an order of the Corporation Commission overruling defendants' exceptions to an order to file plans for such a station, defendants appeal. Appeal dismissed. This proceeding was begun by petition filed with the Corporation Commission of North Carolina, on November 15 1926. The petitioners were the city of Raleigh and others the respondents are Southern Railway Company, Seabord Air Line Railway Company, and Norfolk Southern Railroad Company. Each of the respondents is engaged in business in North Carolina as a common carrier of passengers and freight. Each enters the city of Raleigh with its railroad. The respondents maintain and use, in the conduct of their business as common carriers of passengers, a union passenger station in the city of Raleigh.

It is alleged in the petition in this proceeding that said union passenger station and its facilities are "totally inadequate, unsafe, unsanitary, and unsightly." Petitioners pray that respondents be required by the order of the Corporation Commission to construct and equip an adequate union passenger station in the city of Raleigh.

After a hearing, upon facts found by the Corporation Commission, from evidence offered by both petitioners and respondents, the following order was made by the commission, on August 31 1927:

"It is ordered that the Southern Railway Company, the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, and the Norfolk Southern Railroad Company file with the Corporation Commission within 90 days from this date plans for a new and adequate union passenger station to be erected in the city of Raleigh, upon either of the sites indicated in its findings herein made."

Exceptions to this order were duly filed by the respondents. Thereafter, upon a further hearing of this proceeding, the following order was made by the Corporation Commission, on January 6, 1928:

"It is ordered that the exceptions filed by the respondents in this proceeding be, and they are hereby, overruled, and that the order of the commission of August 31, 1927, be and it is hereby amended by extending the time fixed therein for the filing of plans and specifications for a new and adequate union passenger station in Raleigh to 90 days from the date of this order."

Each of the respondents appealed from this order to the superior court of Wake county, and thereafter filed exceptions to said order in accordance with the provisions of C. S. § 1097 et seq. The appeal came on for hearing in said superior court at second April civil term, 1928, before Cranmer, J., and a jury. At said hearing, the petition of the city of Raleigh and others to the Corporation Commission, the answers of the respondents to said petition, and the orders of the Corporation Commission, together with the exceptions and assignments of error based thereon, were read to the court and jury.

The court found as a fact, from admissions made at the hearing by counsel for the state of North Carolina on the relation of the Corporation Commission, that the title to the present union passenger station and appurtenant properties in Raleigh is held one-third undivided interest therein by the Southern Railway Company, one-third undivided interest therein by the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, and one-third undivided interest therein by the North Carolina Railroad Company, and that the one-third undivided interest in said union passenger station of the said North Carolina Railroad Company is leased by said company to defendants herein, the Southern Railway Company and the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company. The defendant Norfolk Southern Railroad enters the said union passenger station at Raleigh, and uses the same and its facilities under a rental agreement with its codefendants.

Upon the above findings, defendants moved that this proceeding be dismissed, for want of jurisdiction, in that the North Carolina Railroad Company was a necessary and indispensable party to the proceeding before the Corporation Commission; that, in the absence of said North Carolina Railroad Company as a respondent, the Corporation Commission was without jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the petition in this proceeding, which is now in the superior court upon appeal, as provided by statute, from the order of said commission. The motion was denied, and defendants excepted. Thereupon the following order was made by Judge Cranmer:

"This cause coming on to be heard before his honor, E. H. Cranmer, and a jury, and it appearing to the court that the North Carolina Railroad Company is a necessary party defendant to this action, it is hereby ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the North Carolina Railroad Company be and is hereby made a party defendant and service of this order is hereby directed to be made upon said North Carolina Railroad Company, together with a copy of original petition and copy of order of Corporation Commission, dated August 31, 1927, and the said North Carolina Railroad Company is to have 30 days from the service of this order in which to answer."

Defendants excepted to this order. From the foregoing order of Judge Cranmer, defendants appealed to the Supreme Court.

John B. Hyde, of Washington, D. C., Smith & Joyner, of Raleigh, Sidney S. Alderman, of Greensboro, C. P. Reynolds and W. B. Rodman, both of Norfolk, Va., and R. N. Simms and Murray Allen, both of Raleigh, for appellants.

Dennis G. Brummitt, Atty. Gen., Walter D. Siler, Asst. Atty. Gen., and I. M. Bailey, of Raleigh, for Corporation Commission.

Albert L. Cox and J. M. Broughton, both of Raleigh, for City of Raleigh.

CONNOR J.

The sole question presented for decision by this appeal is whether or not the superior court of Wake county had jurisdiction of this proceeding, which was pending therein on appeal of defendants from the order of the Corporation Commission of North Carolina. For the purposes of this decision, it is conceded that the Corporation Commission has the power, by virtue of the provisions of C. S. §§ 1041 and 1042, to require railroad companies, subject to its...