Florida Cent. & P.R. Co. v. State

• Decision Date: 18 May 1893
• Citation: 13 So. 103,31 Fla. 482
• Parties: FLORIDA CENT. & P. R. CO. v. STATE ex rel. MAYOR, ETC., OF TOWN OF TAVARES.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

13 So. 103

31 Fla. 482

FLORIDA CENT. & P. R. CO. v. STATE ex rel. MAYOR, ETC., OF TOWN OF TAVARES.

Florida Supreme Court

May 18, 1893

Error to circuit court, Lake county; John D. Brome, Judge.

Petition by the mayor, inhabitants, and town of Tavares, in name of the state, for writ of mandate to the Florida Central &amp Peninsular Railroad Company. Judgment granting the relief. Respondent takes error. Reversed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

1. When mandamus is resorted to for the purpose of enforcing a private right, the person interested in having the right enforced must be the relator. In such case the relator is considered the real party, and his right to the relief must clearly appear; but where the object is the enforcement of a public right the people are regarded as the real party, and the relator need not show that he has any legal interest in the result. It is enough that he is interested as a citizen in having the laws executed and the duty in question enforced.

2. Mandamus never lies to enforce the performance of private contracts.

3. Contracts undertaking to obligate a railroad company to establish its depot exclusively at a particular point are void as against public policy. Such companies should be left free to establish and re-establish their depots wherever the public welfare or wants of the public may require.

4. The courts are not authorized by mandamus to so far control a railroad company's discretion in the matter of the location of its depot buildings as to indicate in any case the exact spot of such location.

5. The mandatory part of an alternative writ of mandamus must conform to the case made by the recitals in such writ, and must not require more to be done than is justified by such recitals.

6. The range of action required of the respondent by an alternative writ of mandamus should be clearly, particularly, and explicitly set forth in the mandatory part of such writ. The duty commanded should not be left to indiscriminate outside ascertainment dehors the writ.

COUNSEL Wall & Knight and John A. Henderson, for plaintiff in error.

Alex. St. Clair-Abrams, for defendants in error.

OPINION

TAYLOR, J.

On the 11th of March, 1891, an alternative writ of mandamus was granted and issued by the judge of the circuit court in and for Lake county, in the seventh judicial circuit, upon the petition of the state on the relation of the mayor inhabitants, and town of Tavares, against the corporate plaintiff in error, the Florida Central &amp Peninsular Railroad Company. Upon the denial of a motion to quash the alternative writ, and the sustaining of a demurrer to the respondent's answer, a peremptory writ was awarded, and from this judgment the respondent takes error.

The alternative writ, which contains all the recitals in the petition making application therefor, is as follows:

'Whereas the state of Florida, on the relation of the mayor, inhabitants, and town of Tavares, has filed its petition for mandamus, and it appearing from the allegations of the petition that the Florida Central and Peninsular Railway Company, successors to the Florida Railway and Navigation Company, is a corporation duly chartered under the laws of the state of Florida, and doing business in said state, and within the limits of the town of Tavares, and that said town of Tavares has been a regularly established station of and for said railway for more than six years past, and that, when the said railroad was first constructed, Alex. St. Clair-Abrams, in his own person, gave the said railway the right of way in the said town, and also a block of land known as 'Shore Park,' the consideration for which was that said railway company should cause to be constructed on said block of land a passenger depot, and that all passenger trains of said railway company should stop at such passenger depot; and that the inhabitants and town of Tavares assented to the use and occupancy of the streets and avenues of said town by said railroad upon the understanding and condition that the passenger depot would be constructed on the block known as 'Shore Park,' said block being the best situated and most convenient to the people of Tavares, and that by reason of establishing a station in said town of Tavares, and by reason of its receipt of the land herein described, it became, and was, and still is, the duty of said railway company to construct a passenger depot on said block in said town of Tavares for the proper use and accommodation of the public; that the said Florida Central and Peninsular Railway Comapny has failed to construct any passenger depot whatever in said town, but stops its trains in the public streets in said town, exposing its passengers and the public to great inconvenience and hardship; that in winter, while the public await the trains of said company, the only accommodation they have are bonfires lit in the public streets, around which the public have to cluster to obtain warmth; that, no provision whatever being made for the public, passengers in said town are compelled to go to the water-closets on the cars while they are standing in said streets, to answer the calls of nature, and human feces and urine are deposited on the public streets or public highway in said town, to the great scandal and injury of said town and the inhabitants thereof; that in rainy weather the public are compelled to remain uncovered in the rain, or to seek shelter in adjacent stores and buildings, because of the failure of the said railway company to perform its duty of constructing suitable railroad accommodations; that the Florida Central and Peninsular Railway Company, the successor of the Florida Railway and Navigation Company in the ownership, control, and operation of said railroad, still permits the scandalous and outrageous condition of affairs to exist in said town; that, although repeatedly requested to construct suitable depot accommodations in said town, it has failed and refused to construct any whatever, and, by reason of its failure so to do, great injury, damage, and inconvenience has resulted, to the injury of the inhabitants of said town, and to the town itself; that the Florida Central and Peninsular Railway Company has taken possession of, and uses, controls, and claims the ownership of, the lands deeded to the Florida Railway and Navigation Comapny, including the block of land known as 'Shore Park,' deeded for a passenger depot, said block being bounded on the east by St. Clair-Abrams avenue, and on the north by Tavares boulevard, but that the said railroad company utterly refuses to construct any depot on said block, or to construct any depot whatsoever in said town; that heretofore the said railroad company has stopped its passenger trains at the foot of Joanna avenue, in said town, where no depot accommodations whatsoever exist, and that the trains still stop at the foot of said avenue, but that on the 3d of January, 1891, the agents and employes of said railroad company were engaged in measuring the distance from defendant's railroad track near a large marsh to the post office, and that the petitioner is informed and believes that it is the purpose and intention of said railroad company to hereafter stop its trains near the edge of said marsh; that nearly the entire built-up portion of said town is east and north of said marsh; that the purpose of the defendant is to further annoy and injure the inhabitants of the town of Tavares; that, if the passenger trains of defendant are stopped there, it will not only inconvenience, but will inflict great injury upon, said inhabitants and upon said town; that said marsh is unhealthy, and abounding in malaria; that it presents an unsightly appearance, is forbidding in aspect, and is calculated to impress a stranger most unfavorably of said town and said inhabitants; that it will force said inhabitants and the public to additional inconvenience and expense in going to and from the cars of defendant; that the locality is utterly unfitted for a passenger depot, of which fact the defendant is aware; that the block of land known as 'Shore Park' is the best situated and most convenient for a passenger depot in said town, being only about two hundred and fifty feet from the post office, and less than three hundred feet from the principal hotel, and from ten of the fourteen stores in said town, and the most accessible to nearly all of the residences in said town; that it is the duty of the defendant as a public carrier to construct all needed depot accommodations at every one of its stations; that the town of Tavares is an important station on defendant's road; that said town is the county seat of said Lake county; that it is the junction of five railroads; that the defendant has a large business in said town, both of freight and passengers, and that great wrong and injury has been done to the said town and inhabitants thereof by the failure and refusal of the defendant to construct necessary depots; that by reason thereof the inhabitants of said town and the traveling public have been exposed to sickness and to suffering, and the public health has been endangered: It is therefore ordered that the respondents, the Florida Central and Peninsular Railway Company, proceed immediately to construct, or to have constructed, in the town of Tavares, on the block of land therein formerly known as 'Shore Park,' and bounded on the east by St. Clair-Abrams avenue and on the north by Tavares boulevard, a suitable depot for the accommodation of passengers, said depot to be constructed in conformity with the ordinances of said town, and to be completed by the first Monday in June, 1891, and to stop all their passenger trains at said passenger depot for the reception and delivery of passengers;

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