Meyers v. Chi., Rock Island & Pac. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 19 December 1881
• Citation: 57 Iowa 555,10 N.W. 896
• Parties: MEYERS v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC R. CO.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

57 Iowa 555

10 N.W. 896

MEYERS

v.CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC R. CO.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Filed December 19, 1881.

Appeal from Pottawattamie circuit court.

The plaintiff claims of the defendant $105 for the killing of a cow. The cause was tried to the court on an agreed statement of facts. Judgment was rendered for the defendant. The plaintiff appeals.Sapp & Lyman and Ament & Sims, for appellant.

Wright & Baldwin, for appellee.

DAY, J.

Upon the trial it was agreed that the animal in controversy was killed by a train of the defendant running upon the track of its railroad at a point within the limits of the city of Council Bluffs; that the value of the animal killed was $101; that the train was running at a greater rate of speed than four miles an hour; and that an ordinance of the city of Council Bluffs, in force at the time the animal was killed, prohibited the running of trains at a greater rate of speed than four miles an hour. It was admitted by the plaintiff that the only negligence the defendant had been guilty of, was, as they claim, the violation of the ordinance of Council Bluffs prohibiting trains from running at a greater rate of speed than four miles an hour.

A plat of the city of Council Bluffs is attached to the abstract, which, in connection with the agreed statement of the parties, shows that the defendant's line of railway enters the limits of said city one and one-quarter miles from the laid-out portions of the city, and remains that distance for two and one-quarter miles, running just inside of the city limits; that the railway is fenced on both sides, except at public crossings, from the point where it enters the city limits up to Cassady's addition, which is the first platted addition; that the character of the land where the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad runs through the city of Council Bluffs, up to Cassady's addition, is farm or agricultural lands; that there are no laid-out streets of the city of Council Bluffs crossing said track on said agricultural ground, the only crossing over the track being the public highways laid out by the county, and that the animal was killed upon one of these crossings, one and one-half miles from the laid-out portion of the city. It further appears that the railroad runs three miles within the limits of the city, through farm lands fenced on both sides, before it reaches the first laid-out addition of the city, and that the distance from the point where it first enters the city limits to the Union Pacific depot is more than five miles. The ordinance of the city in question is as follows: “Whoever as engineer, conductor, or other employe of any railroad company shall run any locomotive, with or without cars attached, or any hand-car, at a speed to exceed four miles an hour, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than five nor more than fifty dollars for each offence.”

The city of Council Bluffs is incorporated under a special charter. The plaintiff claims for the city the authority to pass the ordinance in question, under section 26 of its charter, which provides: “The city council is invested with authority to make ordinances to secure the inhabitants against violation of the...