Louisville & N.R. Co. v. Literary Soc. of St. Rose

• Decision Date: 02 April 1891
• Citation: 91 Ky. 395,15 S.W. 1065
• Parties: LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. LITERARY SOCIETY OF ST. ROSE et al.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

15 S.W. 1065

91 Ky. 395

LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. LITERARY SOCIETY OF ST. ROSE et al.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

April 2, 1891

Appeal from circuit court, Washington county.

W. C McChord, for appellant.

J. W S. Clements, for appellees.

HOLT C.J.

The Literary Society of St. Rose and the Literary Society of St Catharine are corporations for educational purposes existing in or near the town of Springfield in Washington county. They have power to contract and buy and sell real and personal property for the purpose of "sustaining and carrying on said institution of learning, and not otherwise." Each owns and operates a farm of about a thousand acres of very considerable value, thus creating a large industry, in the way of supplies furnished to them, and they in turn furnishing to others. A corporation known as the "Middle Division of the Cumberland & Ohio Railroad Company" existed for the purpose of building a railroad from Bardstown, in an adjoining county, to Springfield. It was a home company,--that is, its officers were citizens of Washington county, and it was at least at the outset a local enterprise. It entered into a contract with the appellant the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, by which it was to build the road, the former furnishing the right of way, and paying the latter a certain sum of money. This had to be raised by donation or taxation in a taxing district that the legislature had created in Washington county, embracing the town of Springfield. The local company had little means, and the appellant, by a secret arrangement with its president, agreed to furnish the money, when necessary, to pay for the right of way. By the contract the road when built was to become a part of the appellant's system, and it is quite evident that it was really "the power behind the throne" and the interested party in the road from the time it agreed to build it. The contract only required it to construct the road to some point within the town limits of Springfield. It did not fix the location of the depot at that place. The people of the taxing district, including the officers of the appellee institutions, supposed the right of way through the county to Springfield had to be furnished either through donation or by their paying for it. The appellant determined to locate the depot at Springfield at the crossing of the Bardstown turnpike, near the western limit of the town. When this became known to the officers of the local company they, and perhaps others, applied to the appellant to extend the road and locate the depot at the crossing of the Lebanon turnpike, which was more convenient to the town, but at least a half mile further from the appellee institutions than the location that had been selected. The appellant finally agreed to the change, provided the right of way through the town and the depot grounds were furnished for the purpose without cost to it. The local company having no means, the appellant agreed to furnish the money therefor, it to be repaid to it by the local company. The latter thereupon went to work to obtain donations. At this time the entire right of way for the road outside of the town had not been obtained. There is evidence showing that some parties who had proposed to donate it through their lands had declined, and the officers of the appellee institutions, together with others, supposed the money would have to be raised in the locality in some way to pay them. The local company appointed a committee of two of its officers to see the officers of the appellee institutions, and if possible get them to make donations to help pay for the right of way through the town and the depot grounds in order to effect the proposed change as to the depot. The committee obtained from St....