Milwaukee N. Ry. Co. v. Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Co. (In re Milwaukee N. Ry. Co.)

• Decision Date: 20 June 1907
• Citation: 112 N.W. 672,132 Wis. 342
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Parties: IN RE MILWAUKEE NORTHERN RY. CO. MILWAUKEE NORTHERN RY. CO. v. MILWAUKEE LIGHT, HEAT & TRACTION CO. IN RE MILWAUKEE LIGHT, HEAT & TRACTION CO. MILWAUKEE LIGHT, HEAT TRACTION CO v. MILWAUKEE NORTHERN RY. CO.

132 Wis. 342

112 N.W. 672

IN RE MILWAUKEE NORTHERN RY. CO. MILWAUKEE NORTHERN RY. CO.

v.MILWAUKEE LIGHT, HEAT & TRACTION CO.

IN RE MILWAUKEE LIGHT, HEAT & TRACTION CO. MILWAUKEE LIGHT, HEAT TRACTION CO

v.MILWAUKEE NORTHERN RY. CO.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

June 20, 1907.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Ozaukee County; James J. Dick, Judge.

Condemnation proceedings to secure a right of way by the Milwaukee Northern Railway Company against the Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company and by the Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company against the Milwaukee Northern Railway Company. From orders granting the petition in the first proceeding and denying the petition in the second, the Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company appeals. Affirmed.

These are two proceedings for condemnation of lands in Ozaukee county for railway purposes by rival railway corporations. The lands involved in the two proceedings constitute a strip about 4 1/2 miles in length immediately east of and adjoining the right of way of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, extending from the south line of Ozaukee county northward to a point between two and three miles south of Cedarburg. This strip forms a continuation of the strip in Milwaukee county involved in the immediately preceding action, and most of the essential facts in these cases are the same as in that case, and will not be here restated. In that case, however, the Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company was the only party seeking to condemn, while the Milwaukee Northern Railway Company claimed priority by survey location, and purchase. In the first of the present cases, the Milwaukee Northern Railway Company filed its petition for condemnation of six parcels of the disputed strip February 21, 1906, and on five of these six parcels the Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company had option contracts of purchase secured in April and May, 1905, running one year, and covering in the aggregate four-fifths of a mile in length of the disputed strip. The other parcels in the disputed strip, some 31 in number, had been conveyed to the Milwaukee Northern Company for electric railway purposes between January 16 and February 21, 1906, in fulfillment of options previously acquired, as will be found more fully stated in the previous case. In the second of the present cases, the Milwaukee Light, Heat & Traction Company filed its petition March 5, 1906, seeking to condemn all the parcels in the disputed strip, as well those upon which it had options as those which had been deeded to the Milwaukee Northern...