Minnesota Canal & Power Co. v. Pratt
| Decision Date | 07 June 1907 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 14,917-(148).<SMALL><SUP>2</SUP></SMALL>,s. 14,917-(148).<SMALL><SUP>2</SUP></SMALL> |
| Citation | 101 Minn. 197 |
| Parties | MINNESOTA CANAL & POWER COMPANY v. ISAIAH PRATT and Others.<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL> |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
On the return day of the notice different defendants appeared and moved that the petition be dismissed. From an order of Cant, J., dismissing the petition, in which it was stated that the motions were treated by all the attorneys as in effect demurrers to the petition on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, petitioner appealed. Affirmed.
O. H. Simonds, C. O. Baldwin and W. L. Penfield, for appellant.
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H. J. Grannis and J. N. Searles, for respondent St. Croix Lumber Co.
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Jaques & Hudson and Wilson G. Crosby, for other respondents.
Washburn, Bailey & Mitchell filed by consent a brief on behalf of Great Northern Power Co., which appellant adopted as a reply brief.
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In this proceeding the Minnesota Canal & Power Company seeks to condemn certain lands necessary for the construction of works designated and intended for the generation of electric power for distribution to the public for the purposes of light, heat, and power. The respondents moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The motions were treated as in the nature of demurrers, and for the purposes of the hearing the allegations of the petition must be treated as true. The trial court granted the motions to dismiss, and the petitioner appealed from a judgment entered on the order of dismissal.
In the recent case of Minnesota Canal & Power Co. v. Koochiching Co., 97 Minn. 429, 107 N. W. 405, this petitioner was denied the right to exercise the power of eminent domain in aid of the construction of its proposed works, because the purposes stated in the petition in that action were in part private, and upon the further ground that the statutes of this state as they then stood did not authorize the construction of the canal and the diversion of the waters as proposed. The present proceeding is for the condemnation of other lands belonging to private persons in aid of the same enterprise which was somewhat fully described in the opinion in the Koochiching case. Since that action was determined the petitioner has amended its charter, and now contends that the objections which proved fatal in that case have been eliminated, because it now seeks to divert only so much water as may be diverted without injury to any present or possible future public use thereof, and to use the land which it proposes to take for a public use only. It is also claimed that certain statutes which were considered in the Koochiching case were repealed by R. L. 1905, and new statutes were enacted which grant larger powers with reference to the diversion of waters.
According to this petition the work of internal improvement which the petitioner now proposes to undertake involves
The construction and maintenance of a continuous navigable watercourse from and within the territory hereinafter described and designated as the Birch lake drainage basin, in St. Louis and Lake counties, Minnesota, to a point * * * in West Duluth, which shall include the construction and maintenance of a navigable canal connecting said Birch lake drainage basin with the Embarrass river, thence along said Embarrass river to a point in the northerly end of Sabin lake, * * * and the improvement of the Embarrass river and the lakes along the course thereof, and the St. Louis river below the outlet of the Embarrass river, down to [a designated point] in St. Louis county, Minnesota, the construction and maintenance of a navigable canal from said last-mentioned point on the St. Louis river easterly to said point in the city of Duluth, * * * and the construction and maintenance in connection therewith of a suitable device or chute for delivering logs, lumber, timber, forest and other products from the east end of said canal at the point last described to and into the said bay of St. Louis, which canal shall be of such size, dimensions, and capacity as to allow the floating of canal boats and barges and other water craft thereon for the transportation of merchandise, and to allow the floating of logs, lumber, timber and forest products thereon, which watercourse shall be capable of delivering the logs, lumber, timber, forest, and other products from said Birch lake drainage basin and from said St. Louis river and its tributaries to and into the bay of St. Louis at the said city of Duluth and the water tributary to the St. Louis river canal hereinafter described
This work involves and will require
The diversion into said watercourse of such portions of the waters of the said Birch lake drainage basin as may be required to carry out the purposes of this corporation, and the diversion of which will not interfere with the navigation, navigable capacity, or public use of the waters of the said Birch lake drainage basin and the various lakes and streams to which they are tributary and the diversion into said St. Louis river canal of the waters tributary thereto.
The object and purpose of the enterprise is described as
The furnishing and distribution, by means of such watercourse and said work, of water to municipalities, persons, and corporations for public use; the generation of electricity by means of the water power hereinafter described, and the supplying of such electricity for public use to all municipalities, persons, and corporations desiring the same for light, heat, and power purposes, which water power shall be created by conducting in pipes and conduits the waters so diverted from the east end of said St. Louis river canal to the power plant of your petitioner, which will be located at or near the level of the bay of St. Louis, at said city of Duluth, under a head of six hundred feet or thereabouts.
The Birch lake drainage basin and the waters tributary thereto are described in the opinion in the Koochiching case, and what is there said will not be repeated. The detailed description of the petitioner's work will be found in the petition herein. It would require too much space to describe the projected works, although it is necessary to have the designs clearly in mind in order to clearly understand the issues.
1. The petitioner is met at the threshold with the assertion that it is not a public service corporation, and cannot, therefore, under any circumstances at present exercise the power of eminent domain. This contention seems to be the result of an inversion of ideas. It would be more nearly correct to say that the appellant is a public service corporation, because it has been granted the power of eminent domain in aid of the purposes for which it was incorporated. The power of eminent domain is not given to public service corporations eo nomine. Certain corporations organized to serve the public are given the right to exercise this sovereign power as the agent of the state. What have become known as "public service corporations" are organized and exist under the authority of the state to serve the public, by supplying the people on equal terms and for a reasonable compensation with services or commodities and articles which, because of their nature, location, or manner of production and distribution, can be best produced and distributed by some organized form of enterprise operating under state control.
The statutes do not define public service corporations, although the Revised Laws of 1905 carry the name as the heading of section 2841, which authorizes the organization of corporations for the specific purposes therein enumerated. The power of eminent domain is specifically granted to the corporations which may be organized under this section of the statute, and in that statute the state reserves a power of control which it would unquestionably have by the common law, because of the nature of the business in which such corporations are authorized to engage. That business is such that the property of all corporations organized thereunder becomes affected with a public use, and is therefore subject to public regulation and control. The corporations which may be authorized under section 2841, R. L. 1905, are such as fall within the ordinary conception of a public service corporation. The "business" of such a corporation is determined by its charter statement of purposes, which must be within the scope and limits of the statutory authorization. Every such corporation is by the same statute (R. L. 1905, § 2842) expressly authorized to condemn "such private property as may be necessary or convenient for the transaction of the public business for which it was formed." This "public business" includes the construction of works for supplying the...
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