Miss. & Rum River Boom Co. v. Prince

• Decision Date: 10 August 1885
• Citation: 34 Minn. 79,24 N.W. 361
• Parties: MISSISSIPPI & RUM RIVER BOOM CO. v PRINCE AND ANOTHER, COPARTNERS, ETC.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

34 Minn. 79

24 N.W. 361

MISSISSIPPI & RUM RIVER BOOM CO.vPRINCE AND ANOTHER, COPARTNERS, ETC.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Filed August 10, 1885.

Appeal from an order of the district court, Ramsey county.

J. B. Gilfillan and J. M. Shaw, for respondent, Mississippi & Rum River Boom Co.

J. M. Gilman and C. D. Kerr, for appellants, John S. Prince and another, copartners, etc.

VANDERBURGH, J.

The principal questions in the case arise upon the construction of certain sections in the respective charters of the “Mississippi & Rum River Boom Company” and of the “Mississippi Boom Corporation.”

1. Sp. Laws 1867, c. 134, § 10, as amended by Sp. Laws 1877, c. 175, authorized the plaintiff boom company to maintain a boom or booms on the Mississippi river, from the head of Nicollet island above the Falls of St. Anthony, to a certain point above, therein described, and authorized and required such corporation “to receive and take the entire control of all logs which are to be conveyed to any point on the Mississippi river below the main sorting boom of said corporation above the head of said Nicollet island,” and “the said corporation shall drive and convey all such logs to the main boom above the head of Nicollet island,” “and, when requested by the owners thereof, on sufficient notice being given, to turn the same out of the main boom into ponds below said main boom on either side of the river above, at, or opposite the head of Nicollet island, or over the Falls of St. Anthony.”

Section 14 provides that “in case any owner shall notify said company to turn his logs over the falls, said company shall, upon the payment of his boomage and charges thereon, as hereinbefore established, turn such logs loose; and it shall construct and maintain a sheer-boom, so that said logs will run west of the pier at the head of the present dam in the middle of the Mississippi river below the suspension bridge, but said company shall do no other act or thing in respect thereto.” By section 11 “said corporation is entitled to the following compensation or boomage: *** For all logs or other timber turned over the Falls of St. Anthony, the sum of fifty cents each thousand feet.”

The court charged the jury in this case, under the exception of the defendants, that, in respect to logs which were to go over the falls, “the plaintiff was only required to arrest and turn them loose in the river, and conduct them west of the pier at the head of the dam below the suspension bridge referred to in section 14 of its charter, and was entitled to boomage under its charter on logs so turned out to go over the falls.”

We think the court correctly construed these provisions of the charter as to the nature of the duty of the plaintiff to be performed below the head of Nicollet island. The charge for boomage, however, was not alone for turning the logs over the falls, but to compensate the company for its outlay in maintaining booms, and for its quasi public services in receiving, handling, driving, and assorting logs coming within its jurisdiction, which extends for a long distance upon the river. Osborne v. Knife Falls Boom Co. 21 N. W. REP. 709. The only duty which was required to be performed by the plaintiff below the head of Nicollet island was to conduct such logs as were going below, west of the pier at the head of the dam, so as to float in the current outside the ponds, and not to be run into or remain within the same. The fact that in 1879, and long subsequent to plaintiff's charter, it became necessary, in consequence of the action of the United States government, that such logs should pass over the falls through a sluice provided for such purpose, did not impose any additional duty upon the plaintiff in respect to such logs.

2. The act conferring certain powers upon the Mississippi Boom Corporation, (chapter 316, Sp. Laws 1879,)is entitled “An act relating to the Mississippi Boom Corporation.” The first five sections relate to the powers and duties of such corporation, which is given jurisdiction upon the river from the point where the southern line of Ramsey county, extended westerly, intersects the river to the Falls of St. Anthony. And section 6 of the act provides that “owners of logs, timber, or other material, desiring that the same shall go over the Falls of St. Anthony, may give notice, in writing, to the Mississippi & Rum River Boom Company, ten days before such logs, timber, or material shall reach the boom limits of said last-named company that they desire the same to go over said falls, specifying in such notice the log-marks of such logs, timber, or material, and thereupon the Mississippi & Rum River Boom Company shall, as soon as practicable after said logs shall reach their booms, assort and turn the same to the upper end of the sluice-way above the falls. *** and shall for such services be entitled to receive the sum of thirty cents per thousand feet, and shall have the same lien therefor as is provided for in its charter.”

The trial court held this section invalid and...