Dunn v. North Missouri R.R.

• Decision Date: 31 March 1857
• Parties: DUNN, Appellant, v. NORTH MISSOURI RAILROAD et al., Respondents.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

24 Mo. 493

DUNN, Appellant,

v.NORTH MISSOURI RAILROAD et al., Respondents.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1857.

1. Where work and labor are performed upon, or material furnished for, the construction of bridges and culverts upon the line of a public railroad authorized by an act of the State Legislature, no lien upon said bridges and culverts is conferred upon the materialman or laborer by the act of February 24th, 1843 (Sess. Acts, 1843, p. 83), “for the better security of mechanics and others erecting buildings, or furnishing materials for the same, in the city and county of St. Louis.”

Appeal from St. Louis Land Court.

This was an action by scire facias to enforce a lien alleged by plaintiff to exist upon certain culverts belonging to the North Missouri Railroad Company, for the construction of which plaintiff had furnished materials, and upon which he had performed work and labor. The defendants demurred to the writ on the ground that there was “no law authorizing a lien on the culverts of a railroad.” The demurrer was sustained.

Bland & Colman, for appellant, cited Sess. Acts, 1843, p. 83; 5 Rawle, 313; Sess. Acts, 1857, p. 668.

McClelland & Hillyer, for respondents.

SCOTT, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The question in this case does not turn on the signification of the words, ““buildings or other improvements,” in the first section of the act of February 24th, 1843, for the security of mechanics and others erecting buildings or furnishing materials in St. Louis county. It might be conceded that those words are sufficiently comprehensive to include bridges and culverts, and still the question would recur, whether a materialman or laborer, under the above mentioned act, has a lien for material furnished or services rendered in the construction of a public railway authorized by an act of the general assembly.

Although railroad companies, in some respects, resemble private corporations, yet, as they are organized for the public benefit, the state takes a deep interest in them, and regards them as matters of public concern. They are looked upon by the laws as corporations endowed with capacities for the promotion of the public good and for the diffusion of advantages to the state as a body politic. Our Constitution requires that internal improvements shall be forever encouraged by the government of the state, and it is her right and duty to advance the commerce and promote the welfare of the people by making or causing them to be made. The establishment of the North Missouri Railroad is regarded as a public work, established by public authority, intended for the public use and benefit, the use of which is secured to the whole community; and an injury to it is a public injury; and the public benefit...