Detroit & I.R. Co. v. Wahl

• Decision Date: 27 June 1927
• Citation: 27 Ohio App. 9,160 N.E. 638
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals
• Parties: DETROIT & I. R. CO. v. WAHL et al., Board of County Com'rs.

27 Ohio App. 9
160 N.E. 638

DETROIT & I. R. CO.
v.
WAHL et al., Board of County Com'rs.

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Third District, Henry County.

June 27, 1927.

Action by the Detroit & Ironton Railroad Company against Charles Wahl and others, as the Board of County Commissioners of Henry County. Relief prayed denied in part, and plaintiff brings error. Petition in error dismissed.-[By Editorial Staff.]

[160 N.E. 639]

[Ohio App. 90]George S. May, of Napoleon, and Wallace Visscher, of Detroit, Mich., for plaintiff in error.

George A. Meekison, Pros. Atty., of Napoleon, for defendants in error.

[Ohio App. 10]LLOYD, J.

In the court of common pleas plaintiff in error and defendants in error were plaintiff and defendants, respectively, and will be so called here.

Plaintiff has procured a right of way extending from Durban, Mich., to Malinta, Ohio, and is constructing a line of railroad thereon, which, as planned, will cross twelve public highways in Henry county. By its petition filed in the court of common pleas plaintiff seeks the right to cross these highways at grade. The railroad so in process of construction is subsidiary to the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad Company, with which, when completed, it will connect. It is stated in the briefs of counsel that the defendants consented to the crossing by plaintiff of eleven of these highways at grade, and the record shows an order to have been made by the court permitting them to be so constructed. The court refused to permit plaintiff to cross at grade a highway known as the Liberty Center road, and the plaintiff seeks to have this court reverse the order so made.

The state of Ohio is traversed by many lines of railroad, steam and interurban, and many public highways, and there are many grade crossings where these railroads and highways intersect. Each year the state is expending large sums of money to improve these highways, and the travel thereon is increasing yearly, being used, not only for ordinary purposes of travel, but also by many motorbus and truck transportation companies, and it is generally recognized that these crossings are exceedingly dangerous. The white crosses erected at many of them silently testify to the necessity and expediency of eliminating instead of adding to those we now have. [Ohio App. 11]The attitude of the state in relation thereto is most aptly expressed in section 8895 of the General Code, which provides:

‘Except as hereinafter provided, all crossings, hereinafter...