Mayor, Etc of City of Baltimore v. Baltimore Trust Guarantee Co

• Decision Date: 26 April 1897
• Docket Number: No. 209,209
• Citation: 41 L.Ed. 1160,166 U.S. 673,17 S.Ct. 696
• Parties: MAYOR, ETC., OF CITY OF BALTIMORE v. BALTIMORE TRUST & GUARANTEE CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

166 U.S. 673

17 S.Ct. 696

41 L.Ed. 1160

MAYOR, ETC., OF CITY OF BALTIMORE

v BALTIMORE TRUST & GUARANTEE CO.

No. 209.

April 26, 1897.

The appellee, being the plaintiff below, brought this action in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Maryland for the purpose of enjoining the city authorities from tearing up or interfering with the railroad track laid down by the Lake Roland Elevated Railroad Company on Lexington street, in the city of Baltimore. The bill and the answer were duly filed in April, 1893, and the following are substantially the facts upon which the case was heard and determined by the court below:

The plaintiff sued as trustee and mortgagee named in a mortgage executed by the Lake Roland Company to secure the payment of certain bonds issued and to be issued by the company for the purpose of raising funds to construct its road. The mortgage was upon all the property of the company, Its railroad, plant, tracks, etc., and was executed on the 1st day of September in the year 1892. The amount of the bonds which the mortgage so secured was a million dollars, the principal payable on the 1st of September in the year 1942. It was on the ground that the proposed action hereafter mentioned on the part of the city authorities would result in a most material impairment of the security of the mortgage that this suit was brought by the trustee and mortgagee for the purpose of restraining such action.

The Lake Roland Company was the result of a consolidation of two railway companies, one of which, called the North Avenue Railway Company of Baltimore City, had the franchise to construct and operate a passenger railway in the city of Baltimore, the whole line of which road was to be located in that city. The Lake Roland Company succeeded to all the rights acquired by the North Avenue Railway Company. The legislature of Maryland, by the act chapter 370 of the Laws of 1890, among other things enacted that 'the mayor and city council of Baltimore shall have the power to regulate the use of the streets, lanes and alleys in said city by railway or other tracks,' etc. On the 8th of April, 1891, the common council of Baltimore passed what is termed 'Ordinance No. 23,' by which it authorized the North Avenue Railway Company of Baltimore City, in connection with its tracks in other streets mentioned in the ordinance, 'to lay down and construct double iron railway tracks for the purposes of its business * * * on Lexington street westwardly to Charles street from North street.' This is a distance of about 1,100 feet. The right was also given to the company to operate its road by electricity supplied from overhead wires, and the tracks, wires, and poles were to be laid and constructed under the supervision and direction of the city commissioner. Various other conditions and regulations were contained in the ordinance, all of which the railroad company accepted. As a portion of the road to be constructed consisted of an elevated road, it became necessary to obtain the sanction of the legislature before the company undertook the execution of the work. Accordingly, chapter 112 of the Laws of 1892 was passed, the first section of which ratified and confirmed ordinance No. 23, with 'the same effect as if the mayor and city council of Baltimore, at the time of the passage of said ordinance, had been fully authorized by the general assembly to pass said ordinance, and to grant each and all of the powers and privileges therein contained; the said mayor and city council to have the same power and control hereafter in reference to the enforcement, amendment or repeal of said ordinance as it has, or would have, in respect to any ordinance passed under its general power.'

Subsequently to the passage of this act of 1892, the Lake Roland Company, in the summer and fall of 1892, commenced to lay its tracks in the city, and to build a portion of its elevated road. Prior to the laying down of any tracks on Lexington street between North and Calvert streets,—the latter being a street which crosses Lexington street between North and Charles streets at a distance of between three and four hundred feet west from North street,—it became known to the railroad company that the mayor and some of the city authorities were opposed to the laying of double tracks in that street between those points. This was a short time prior to the 7th day of November, 1892. On that day the mayor wrote a letter to the president of the railway company, in which he stated that he had noticed the company had commenced laying double tracks on Lexington street, between North and Calvert streets, and that the public interest, in his judgment, required that no more than a single track should be laid on Lexington street at that point, and that the law officers of the city had informed him that it was competent for the city council to prohibit the laying of double tracks there. The mayor also stated that at the next session of the council an ordinance would be introduced prohibiting the company from laying double tracks on the portion of Lexington street above described. He ended by saying: 'I write you this to prevent you from going to the unnecessary expense of laying a system of double tracks, and afterwards being required to remove them.' On the same day the president of the railroad company received from the city solicitor a notice that he was, at the request of the mayor, preparing an ordinance to prohibit the railroad company from laying more than a single track on Lexington street, between North and Calvert, and he offered to permit the president of the railroad company to see the proposed ordinance before it was sent to the council. It is stated, however, on the part of the railroad company, that at no time prior to the 12th day of November, 1892,—two days prior to the passage of the ordinance hereafter spoken of,—was there any intimation given to the officers of the company that there was any opposition to the laying of the company's double tracks on Lexington street between Calvert and Charles streets, which was a distance of between seven and eight hundred feet immediately west of Calvert street, and the portion of Lexington street between Calvert and North streets was immediately east from Calvert street. It is asserted on the part of the company that it laid the double tracks on Lexington street, between Calvert and Charles streets, without opposition on the part of any one, so far as it knew; but it admits that it did lay the double tracks between North and Calvert streets, notwithstanding the receipt of the letters mentioned, and in spite of the known opposition of the mayor. This work was done, between North and Calvert streets, during the night and on election day, so that before the 14th of November 1892, the work of laying the double tracks on Lexington street had been substantially completed the whole distance between North and Charles streets. The common council of the city met on the day last named, and passed 'An ordinance to regulate the use of Lexington street between North street and Charles street by railway tracks, and to prohibit the laying or maintaining or using by North Avenue Railway Company, or any other person or corporation, of more than a single iron railway track upon said portion of Lexington street.' The first section of this ordinance reads as follows:

'Section 1. Be it enacted and ordained by the mayor and city council of Baltimore, that the first section of ordinance No. 23, approved April 8, 1891, so far as the same authorized and empowered the North Avenue Railway Company to lay double iron railway tracks upon the portion of East Lexington street between North street and Charles street, be, and hereby is, repealed, and that the authority and license given to said North Avenue Railway Company by said first section of said ordinance to lay such double iron railway tracks be, and hereby is, revoked.'

(It will be observed that this ordinance, instead of confining the single track to that portion only of Lexington street lying between North and Calvert streets, as spoken of by the mayor, included the whole of Lexington street between North and Charles streets.)

The second section of the same ordinance prohibited any person or corporation from laying down railway tracks on Lexington street except as provided in the succeeding section of the ordinance, and directed that all tracks which had been theretofore placed on Lexington street should be removed by the persons who laid them, within 10 days after they received notice to that effect from the city commissioner.

The third section authorized the railroad company to lay down and maintain one track, and no more, on Lexington street, 'upon the same terms and subject to the same provisions and limitations as were provided by the city ordinance No. 23, of April 8, 1891, in respect to double iron railway tracks there authorized to be laid on said portion of Lexington street.' The third section contained also the following proviso: 'Provided as a condition precedent to the right of the North Avenue Railway Company to exercise the authority or license in this section conferred upon it, the said North Avenue Railway Company shall within twenty days from the passage of this ordinance, at its own expense, remove the whole or such portion of the double iron railway tracks that it has caused to be laid on said portion of Lexington street, as the city commissioner shall designate, and shall also, at its own expense, replace the pavement on the said portion of East Lexington street in a manner satisfactory to the city commissioner.'

After the passage of this ordinance, and...