Henderson Bridge Co v. City of Henderson

• Citation: 12 S.Ct. 114,35 L.Ed. 900,141 U.S. 679
• Parties: HENDERSON BRIDGE CO. et al. v. CITY OF HENDERSON
• Decision Date: 07 December 1891
• Court: United States Supreme Court

141 U.S. 679

12 S.Ct. 114

35 L.Ed. 900

HENDERSON BRIDGE CO. et al. v. CITY OF HENDERSON.

December 7, 1891.

Action in the Henderson circuit court of Kentucky by the city of Henderson, Ky., against the Henderson Bridge Company and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company to recover taxes upon a bridge across the Ohio river. Judgment was rendered for the plaintiff, which was affirmed by the state court of appeals. 14 S. W. Rep. 85. On application for a rehearing, the opinion was withdrawn, and a new one filed, also affirming the judgment below. Id. 493. Defendants bring error. Heard on motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction.

J. G. Carlisle, for the motion.

Wm. Lindsay, opposed.

Mr. Justice BLATCHFORD delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action, brought in the Henderson circuit court of Kentucky by the city of Henderson, Ky., against the Henderson Bridge Company, a Kentucky corporation, to recover for taxes assessed by the city against the company, for the years 1885, 1886, and 1887, under the authority of various acts of the legislature of Kentucky. In the petition of the plaintiff the taxes for 1886 and 1887 are alleged to have been assessed to pay the annual expenses of the city government, the annual expenses of the public schools, interest on railroad aid bonds, interest on school bonds, interest on water-works bonds, and interest on bonds issued for city purposes. The amount claimed for the years 1886 and 1887, for taxes and penalty, is in the aggregate $44,320, with interest. The petition alleges that under an act of the general assembly of Kentucky approved February 9, 1872, the bridge company was incorporated and authorized to build a bridge across the Ohio river within the limits of the city of Henderson; that that act lay dormant until September 21, 1880, when the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company got control of said charter, and a reorganization was effected thereunder; and that the common council of the city of Henderson passed an ordinance, which was accepted in writing by the bridge company on the 11th of February, 1882, a copy of which ordinance is set forth in the margin.¹

The petition alleges that by an act of the general assembly of Kentucky approved February 11, 1867, incorporating the city of Henderson, its north-western boundary was fixed at low-water mark on the Indiana side of the Ohio river, and that the bridge was assessed for taxation to such low-water mark, like other property of the city; and it claims a lien upon the bridge, from the beginning of its approach at Main street, in the city, to low-water mark on the Indiana side of the river, for the taxes and the penalty thereon; and, in addition to a judgment against the bridge company for said taxes and penalty, it prays for the enforcement of the lien, and a sale to pay the debt, with interest and costs, and the appointment of a receiver.

The answer of the bridge company to the petition alleges that the whole of the bridge between the Kentucky shore and the Indiana shore is over the water of the Ohio river, except the piers or pillars which support the bridge, and which are built in and rest upon the bed of the river; that the river is a navigable stream, and the entire jurisdiction over it is vested in congress and the courts of the United States, and the bridge is used only to transport persons and freight in railroad cars between the states of Indiana and Kentucky, and the plaintiff has no jurisdiction over the river or any part thereof, or over the bridge or the persons or freight transported thereon, except in the matter of executing writs from the police authorities of the city; and that for the plaintiff to assume to tax that part of the bridge would violate the constitution of the United States, the laws of congress, and the rights of the bridge company in the premises. The answer also sets up that the bridge derives no benefit or protection from the government of the city; and that to subject the bridge company's property to the payment of the claim made, would be to take private property for public use without compensation, and to violate article 5 of the amendments to the constitution of the United States, and the constitution and laws of Kentucky. It is also averred in the answer that, when the bridge company constructed the bridge, it was the settled law of Kentucky, as decided by its court of appeals in Bridge Co. v. City of Louisville, 81 Ky. 189, that so much of the company's bridge and property as was erected and stood across the Ohio river was not liable to municipal or city taxation; and that, relying on the law of Kentucky as being so settled, the bridge company, on the 27th of February, 1884, entered into a written contract with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company for the maintenance and operation of the bridge. A reply was put in to that answer; and subsequently the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company was made a party defendant, and filed a petition, which was ordered to be taken as its answer to the plaintiff's petition. It alleged that by such contract with the bridge company the railroad company was to maintain and operate the bridge and a connecting railroad on the Indiana side of the river, in consideration that the bridge company would pay to it yearly $10,000, to be expended in maintenance and repair, and would also pay all taxes legally imposed upon the track and bridge structure. It was further alleged that to grant the plaintiff the relief prayed for, or any part thereof, would be a direct impairment of the obligation of the contract between the railroad company and the bridge company, and would violate the right of the railroad company.

A rejoinder was put in to the reply, joining issue, and the case was heard by the court upon the pleadings and evidence. The court dismissed the petition so far as regarded the taxes claimed for 1885, but as to the years 1886 and 1887 adjudged that the bridge and the approach thereto were subject to taxation for all the purposes and for the amounts claimed in the petition, and that the plaintiff had a lien upon the bridge structure and masonry piers, and the approach thereto, situated within the boundary of the city, extending to low-water mark on the Indiana side of the Ohio river, for $17,384 for the year 1886, and $15,810 for the year 1887, with interest on those sums from the date of the judgment, July 18, 1888, and for costs.

The circuit court, in its opinion, held that as the legislature had fixed the limits of the city at low-water mark on the Indiana shore, and had authorized her to tax all property in the city limits which was subject to taxation by the state, the taxable boundary was co-extensive with the statutory boundary; that in Bridge Co. v. City of Louisville, 81 Ky. 189, it was not decided that it was per se unconstitutional for the legislature to authorize cities to tax bridges which crossed the Ohio river; that all that was decided in that case was that the legislature did not intend to embrace the bridge in that case as subject to city taxation; that in several cases the court of appeals of Kentucky had relieved parties from the payment of taxes on agricultural land, where the city limits had been extended without the consent of the owner of the land; but that, in the present case, the bridge company had voluntarily placed its property within the legally established limits of the city, and ought to pay the taxes assessed. Nothing involving a federal question was considered or decided by the court.

The bridge company and the railroad company appealed to the court of appeals, as did also the plaintiff. In June, 1890, the judgment was affirmed by that court, its opinion being reported in 14 S. W. Rep. 85; but, on the application of all parties for a rehearing, the petition of the defendants for a rehearing was overruled and that of the plaintiff was sustained. The former opinion was withdrawn, the mandate was set aside, a new opinion was delivered, (Id. 493,) and an order entered declaring that there was no error in the judgment of the circuit court, and that that judgment was affirmed, with damages. In the second opinion, which was delivered October 7, 1890, it was held that all that was decided in Bridge Co. v. City of Louisville, 81 Ky. 189, was that, in order to authorize a city government to subject real estate situated within its corporate limits to taxation for city or municipal purposes only, there must be actual or presumed benefits to such property by the extension of the city government over it; that the court of appeals had often distinguished between the power of a city to tax real estate situated within its limits for city or municipal purposes only, and for such district purposes as the legislature might authorize; that the legislature might create a city boundary, or designate any other boundary, without reference to existing civil or political districts, into taxing districts, for local purposes; that the city of Henderson, having voted a tax in reference to aiding in building the before-named connecting railroad in Indiana, was...