Lake Shore Ry Co v. State of Ohio

• Court: U.S. Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: WHITE
• Citation: Lake Shore Ry Co v. State of Ohio, 165 U.S. 365, 17 S.Ct. 357, 41 L.Ed. 747 (1897)
• Decision Date: 15 February 1897
• Docket Number: No. 156,156
• Parties: LAKE SHORE & M. S. RY. CO. v. STATE OF OHIO

165 U.S. 365

17 S.Ct. 357

41 L.Ed. 747

LAKE SHORE & M. S. RY. CO.

v STATE OF OHIO.

No. 156.

February 15, 1897.

Geo. C. Greene, for plaintiff in error.

T. E. Burton, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the court.

The judgment of the supreme court of the state of Ohio to which this writ of error was prosecuted affirmed a judgment of the trial court rendered in proceedings by quo warranto ordering the defendant below, an Ohio corporation, to absolutely remove a bridge or to modify its structure by creating an adequate draw span therein; the bridge being one by it erected and maintained over the Ashtabula river, a short distance above the point where that stream empties into Lake Erie. The legal conclusions of the lower court were rested upon certain specific findings of fact, viz. that the bridge without a draw had been erected and was maintained without the consent of the state by an abuse, by the corporation, of the franchise held by it from the state, and that it was a public nuisance impeding the navigation of the river, which was wholly within the state of Ohio. Both the pleadings and the errors here assigned deny the jurisdiction of the state of Ohio or its courts to control the subject-matter of the controversy, on the theory that the determination of whether the defendant possessed the right to erect the bridge and to continue it, although constructed without authority, is a federal and not a state question. This contention is predicated on sections 4, 5, and 7 of the act of congress of September 19, 1890 (26 Stat. 453).

The contention is that the statute in question manifests the purpose of congress to deprive the several states of all authority to control and regulate any and every structure over all navigable streams, although they be wholly situated within their territory. That full power resides in the states as to the erection of bridges and other works in navigable streams wholly within their jurisdiction, in the absence of the exercise by congress of authority to the contrary, is conclusively determined. Willson v. March Co., 2 Pet. 245; Withers v. Buckley, 20 How. 84; Cardwell v. Bridge Co., 113 U. S. 205, 5 Sup. Ct. 423; Bridge Co. v. Hatch, 125 U. S. 1, 8 Sup. Ct. 811; Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. 33, 14 Sup. Ct. 548, and authorities there cited. Indeed, the argument at bar does not assail the rule settled by the foregoing cases, but asserts that, as the power which it recognizes as existing in the states is predicated solely upon the failure of congress to exert its paramount authority, therefore the rule no longer obtains, since the act of 1890, relied on, substantially amounts to an express assumption by congress of entire control over all and every navigable stream, whether or not situated wholly within a state.

The correctness of this proposition is the sole question for consideration. The fourth section of the act relied on provides:

'That whenever the secretary of war shall have good reason to believe that any railroad or other bridge now constructed, or which may hereafter be constructed over any of the navigable water-ways of the United States is an unreasonable obstruction to the free navigation of such waters on account of insufficient height, width of span, or otherwise, or where there is difficulty in passing the draw-opening or the draw-span of such bridge by rafts, stamboats, or other water craft, it shall be the duty of the said secretary, first giving the parties reasonable opportunity to be heard, to give notice to the persons or corporations owning or controlling such bridge so to alter the same as to render navigation through or under it reasonably free, easy and unobstructed; and in giving such notice he shall specify the changes required to be made, and shall prescribe in each case a reasonable time in which to make them. If at the end of such time the alteration has not been made, the secretary of war shall forthwith notify the United States district attorney for the district in which such bridge is situated, to the end that the criminal proceedings mentioned in...