Pennsylvania Co. v. City of Chicago

• Decision Date: 16 October 1899
• Parties: PENNSYLVANIA CO. et al. v. CITY OF CHICAGO et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

181 Ill. 289

54 N.E. 825

PENNSYLVANIA CO. et al.

v.CITY OF CHICAGO et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 16, 1899.

Appeal from circuit court, Cook county; M. F. Tuley, Judge.

Application by the Pennsylvania Company and another against the city of Chicago and others for an injunction restraining defendants from establishing hack stands in front of their property in the city of Chicago. From a decree, complainants appeal. Transferred from appellate court. 73 Ill. App. 345. Affirmed.

Cartwright, C. J., dissenting.

J. J. Brooks and Loesch Bros. & Howell, for appellants.

Stedman & Soelke, for appellees Ownen & Doyle.

Charles S. Thornton, Corp. Counsel, and J. R. Corrigan, Asst. Corp. Counsel, for appellee city of Chicago.

PHILLIPS, J.

The Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railway Company, one of the plaintiffs in error, is the owner, and the Pennsylvania Company, the other plaintiff in error, is the lessee, of the tract of land occupied by the Union Passenger Station in Chicago, bounded by Madison, Van Buren, and Canal streets, and the Chicago river. Several railway companies use this station under an agreement which provides that the Pennsylvania Company shall have control of the station and property. It is alleged that passenger trains to the number of 233 arrive and depart from the station every 24 hours; that the average daily number of passengers arriving and departing is over 31,000; that the pieces of baggage received and delivered daily number over 2,900, and the United States mail received and delivered averages 178 tons per day. The passenger station fronts on Canal street, and the entire length of the building on that street is 1,070 feet, with 30 entrances in constant use in the transaction of business. There are five other stations at different places in Chicago. All tickets beyond the terminus at Chicago, and known as ‘through tickets,’ have attached thereto a coupon for conveyance through the city of Chicago from this station to the station of the connecting line of railway, and each railway company entering the station has a contract for the use of a line of coaches for the performance of this service called for by the coupon. All coaches and wagons leaving the railway station perform this service of carrying passengers and baggage, and stand in front of the station as long as necessary to receive passengers, baggage, and mail. On December 31, 1885, the city council of the city of Chicago passed an ordinance establishing stands, which was approved by the mayor, and which provided that: ‘Any duly licensed hackney coach, cab, or other vehicle for the conveyance of passengers may stand, while waitingfor employment, at any of the following places and for the period of time hereinafter provided: Stand No. 1: The north side of Washington street, between Clark and La Salle streets. Stand No. 2: That portion of the west side of Clark street beginning fifty feet from the southwest corner of Randolph and Clark streets, and running thence to Washington street. Stand No. 3: The east side of La Salle street, between Washington and Randolph streets. Stand No. 4: The east side of Canal street, occupying one hundred and ten feet, between Adams and Madison streets, as the superintendent of police shall direct. Stand No. 5: All theaters and other places of public amusement fifteen minutes before the conclusion of the performance. Stand No. 6: At all railroad depots ten minutes previous to the arrival of all passenger trains. Stand No. 7: On all such street corners, from ten p. m. until sunrise, as the superintendent of police shall designate. Stand No. 8: At such other places where the occupants of the premises in front of which it is desired to stand for employment shall give permission, in writing, to the owner or driver so to do, and it shall be approved in writing by the superintendent of police: provided, it shall not be lawful to stand for employment in front of a hotel where such stand has been established on the opposite side of the street from such hotel.’ On January 20, 1896, the city council passed another ordinance, as follows: ‘That when, at or near any railroad passenger depot in the city of Chicago, a place has been or shall be designated as a licensed carriage stand, it shall be lawful for the driver of the first double and first single vehicle in line to stand in front of such railroad depot and solicit business: provided such driver shall not, in so soliciting business, obstruct the sidewalk or stand thereon at a greater distance than two feet from the curb line.’ Hack stands Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are in front of public property. Hack stand No. 4 is in front of the railroad station. Plaintiffs in error allege in their bill that since the passage of the ordinance this stand in front of the station has had hacks, cabs, and express wagons standing continuously, against the protest of the complainants, in front of the station, for a distance of about 300 feet from the south side of Madison street, and that they occupy this stand continuously from 7 o'clock a. m. until 10 o'clock p. m., and the drivers occupy a part of the sidewalk, soliciting passengers and baggage. It is averred that 15 hacks and coupés and 6 express wagons, and from 18 to 20 men, are at this hack stand continuously during the hours named; that 23 to 25 horses are fed daily at the stand; and that the drivers of the first single and first double vehicles have stood in front of the main entrance of the passenger station soliciting business.

On February 24, 1896, the plaintiffs in error filed their bill alleging the foregoing facts, and charged that the space in front of the station is necessary for the transaction of the business to which the station is devoted; that said ordinances are illegal and void; that the interference, interruption, and daily damage and inconvenience to complainants and occupants of the station constitute irreparable damage; that the hack stand prevents ingress and egress to and from their property; and that its establishment is a damage and causes an unjust burden upon their property, causes and unjust burden upon their property, without compensation, and gives for a private use a portion of Canal street, in front of their property, which is held in trust by the city of Chicago solely for use as a public street. The city of Chicago and John J. Badenoch, superintendent, were made defendants, and the bill prayed for an injunction restraining them from continuing the stand for hacks and express wagons, and from permitting the drivers of first single and first double vehicles to occupy the sidewalk in front of the station for the purpose of soliciting passengers. On leave granted for that purpose, Thomas J. Doyle and Walter Owen, representing the hackmen occupying this stand, were admitted to the suit, and filed answers denying that the ordinances are illegal, or that the hack stand prevents complainants from the use of, or ingress to and egress from, their property, or that the space in front of the station is necessary for the transaction of the business of the station, or that the portion occupied by the hack stand is necessary or important for such business; alleging that along the entire space occupied there is no public traffic which is interfered with or damaged by the hack stand, and that on the station grounds and premises of the complainants, and at the entrance to the power house, are stationed hacks and cabs belonging to another proprietor, which wait where for passengers by an arrangement with the complainants. No answer was filed by the city of Chicago, but it appeared by its corporate counsel. Replications were filed to the answers of Doyle and Owen, and on the hearing, by agreement, the application for injunction was made a final hearing, and affidavits were filed in support of the bill and answers. On hearing, the circuit court found that the ordinance passed by the city of Chicago on the 20th day of January, 1896, and which went into force on the 28th day of January, 1896, entitled ‘An ordinance regulating the drivers of vehicles at railroad depots,’ was illegal, null, and void, and the enforcement thereof should be restrained, as prayed in complainants' bill of complaint. The court further found that the ordinance passed by the common council of the city of Chicago on the 31st day of December, 1885, entitled ‘An ordinance establishing hack stands,’ published as section 1705 in the laws and ordinances of the city of Chicago published in 1890, is a valid ordinance so far as it establishes stand No. 4, upon the east side of Canal street, occupying 110 feet between Madison and Adams streets, as the superintendent of police shall direct, and that said ordinance is a reasonable and valid exercise of the powers conferred upon the common council of the city of Chicago, to the extent of the frontage of 110 feet named in said ordinance.

The title of the streets is vested in the city, and it has the conservation, control, management, and supervision of such trust property, and it is its duty to defend and protect the title to such trust estate. The city has no power or authority to grant the exclusive use of its streets to any private person or for any private purposes, but must hold and control the possession exclusively for public use, for purposes of travel and the like. Field v. Barling, 149 Ill. 556, 37 N. E. 850; Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. v. City of Chicago, 173 Ill. 91, 50 N. E. 256;Barrows v. City of Sycamore, 150 Ill. 588, 37 N. E. 1096;Ligare v. City of Chicago, 139 Ill. 46, 28 N. E. 934. The rule is that all public highways, from side to side and from end to end, are held for the use of the public, and no other safe rule can be adopted. It does not follow, however, that every obstruction of a street would constitute a purpresture or be illegal. Necessary and temporary obstructions of the streets for the purposes of or incident to their repair, and interruptions caused by the...