State ex rel. Allison v. Hannibal & Ralls County Gravel Road Company
| Decision Date | 23 March 1897 |
| Citation | 39 S.W. 910,138 Mo. 332 |
| Parties | The State ex rel. Allison v. Hannibal & Ralls County Gravel Road Company, Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Pike Circuit Court. -- Hon. Reuben F. Roy, Judge.
Affirmed.
George A. Mahan for appellant.
(1) The Hannibal, Ralls County & Paris Plank Road Company was incorporated under an "Act to authorize the formation of associations to construct plank roads and macadamized roads." Session Acts 1851, page 259. (2) When the Hannibal, Ralls County & Paris Plank Road Company appropriated and located its plank road on that part of the old county and State road lying in Ralls county, now in controversy, and the Ralls county court consented such road "became the property of such company." The word property is nomen generalissimum, and extends to every species of valuable right and interest, including real and personal property, easements, franchises, and other incorporeal hereditaments. 19 Am. and Eng. Ency. of Law, 285; Railroad Co. v. Railroad Co., 2 Gray, 35; Anderson's Dictionary of Law, 835; Tripp v Overocker, 7 Colo. 74. And this is true, although the corporate life of the Plank Road Company was limited to thirty years. Nicoll v. Railroad Co., 12 N.Y. 121; Yates v. Van de Bogert, 56 N.Y. 526; In re Cable Co., 109 N.Y. 32; Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch, 137; Railroad v. Casey, 26 Pa. St. 325. (3) Grants similar to the one in question have uniformly been held to vest the grantee with an interest in perpetuity for the purposes named in such grant. Railroad Co. v. Kerr, 72 N.Y. 330; Milhau v. Sharp, 27 N.Y. 611; Mayor v. Railroad, 32 N.Y. 261; Davis v. Mayor of New York, 14 N.Y. 506. (4) It is well settled by authority that such a right or grant constitutes property within the usual and common signification of that word. Railroad v Kerr, 72 N.Y. 330; People v. Sturtevant, 9 N.Y 263; Hovelman v. Railroad Co., 79 Mo. 632. (5) The right to collect toll was a part of the franchise of the Hannibal, Ralls County & Paris Plank Road Company, and that right passed with its tangible property to its grantee, the Hannibal, Ralls County & Monroe Plank Road Company. Gue v. Tide Water Canal Co., 24 How. 257; People v. O'Brien, 7 Am. Rep. 701; Railroad Co. v. Commissioners, 112 U.S. 609; Railroad Co. v. Delamore, 114 U.S. 501; Morgan v. Louisiana, 93 U.S. 223. (6) The legislature of Missouri has completely cured all defects. On the seventeenth of February, 1857, the General Assembly passed a special act, duly incorporating the Hannibal, Ralls & Monroe Plank Road Company, "as such to have perpetual succession." Acts 1856 and 1857, p. 435; Acts 1855, sec. 3, p. 466. (7) The Monroe Plank Road Company on December 10, 1887, by deed conveyed all of its franchises and interests in the gravel road to appellant. Its right to do so at the time can not be questioned. State ex rel. v. Gravel Road Co., 37 Mo.App. 505; Tomlinson v. Branch, 15 Wall. 460; Humphreys v. Pegues, 16 Wall. 244; People v. Plank Road Co., 86 N.Y. 10. (8) It is admitted by the pleadings that appellant was, prior to 1882, duly incorporated under article 4, chapter 21, Revised Statutes of Missouri 1879. This chapter gives appellant full and unreserved powers to collect toll, and maintain, control and own a gravel road. The authority to construct a gravel road gave appellant the right to purchase one. State ex rel. v. Gravel Road Co., 37 Mo.App. 505; Morawetz, Corp., sec. 372; Branch v. Railroad, 3 Woods, 481; Branch v. Jessup, 106 U.S. 468; Stockton v. R. R. Co., 51 Col. 328. (9) The appellant's roadbed could not under the pleadings and evidence in this case "revert to and become vested in the public as an easement." Property rights can not be confiscated by the State or prevented from devolving according to the ordinary rules of equity and law. Morawetz, Private Corporations, secs. 661, 662; Newburgh v. Plank Road Co., 86 N.Y. 9.
Elijah Robinson and G. W. Whitecotton for respondent.
(1) By the provisions of the act of February 27, 1851, as well as by the tenure of its articles of association, the corporate existence, and all powers and franchises of the Hannibal, Ralls County & Paris Plank Road Company expired on the fifth day of May, 1882, that being thirty years from the date said company was incorporated. Acts 1850, 1851, sec. 2, page 259. (2) The Hannibal, Ralls County & Paris Plank Road Company could not use the public road without the consent of the county court. Acts 1850, 1851, sec. 6, page 259. The county court could not confer on said company the right to use the public road for any other purpose than that set forth in said act under which said company was organized; and could not confer that right for any longer period than said company was authorized by its charter. (3) The deed of trust to Payne and Hawes, and their deed to the purchasers at their sale conveyed no more than the original corporation possessed, if that much. The purchasers under said trustees' sale, if they acquired the franchise, acquired it for no longer period than that for which it was originally created, and it expired in their hands just as it would have expired in the hands of the original corporation. (4) The Hannibal, Ralls & Monroe Plank Road Company did not by the act of 1857 and 1866, acquire any greater rights than the Hannibal, Ralls County & Paris Plank Road Company acquired by its incorporation under the act of 1851. The act of 1857 and the act of 1866 conferred on the Hannibal, Ralls & Monroe Plank Road Company the same rights and privileges, and subjected it to the same liabilities and restrictions as the old company. The meaning of the word "perpetual succession" in the act of 1857, is limited and explained by what follows. The whole act must be considered to ascertain the legislative intent. Scanlan v. Crawshaw, 5 Mo.App. 337; Fairchild v. Masonic Hall Ass'n, 71 Mo. 526. (5) The roadbed in question was a public highway, established by public authority for public use, and is to be regarded as a public easement, and not as private property. The right to travel over the road was an easement vested in the public, and when the charter expired, this easement continued, disburdened of tolls, but otherwise unaffected. Angell on Highways, sec. 8, p. 8, and note; and sec. 14, p. 11; State v. Wilkerson, 16 Pick. 175; Benedict v. Gait, 3 Barb. 469; Davis v. Mayor of N. Y., 14 N.Y. 516. (6) After the expiration of the charter of the Hannibal, Ralls & Monroe Plank Road Company, the board of directors of said company as trustees for the stockholders, could transfer the toll houses, shovels, scrapers, wagons, horses, etc., of said company but could not transfer the roadbed, because that was not vested in said company, but in the public.
On the fifth day of May, 1852, a corporation under the name of "Hannibal, Ralls County & Paris Plank Road Company" was organized and articles of incorporation filed with the recorder of deeds of Ralls county in pursuance of an act of the legislature of Missouri approved February 27, 1851. Laws of Mo. 1850, 1851, p. 259.
Section 2 of said act required that the articles of any corporation formed under said act should state "the term of years to which the existence of the association shall be limited, which shall not exceed thirty." The articles of association of the "Hannibal, Ralls County & Paris Plank Road Company" provided that said corporation "is limited to thirty years."
The purpose of said corporation was to build a plank road, and by section 6 of the act under which it was formed it was authorized to locate its road on any public road provided it first secured the consent of the county court of the county in which such public road was located. Section 6 of said act is in these words:
On the seventh day of July, 1852, the county court of Ralls county by order entered of record, authorized said company to locate its said road "on so much of the State and county roads between Hannibal and Paris as lies in Ralls county." On October 5, 1852, a similar order was made by said county court as to a certain other road known as the Bear Creek road.
Said plank road company had appointed a committee to procure the consent of said county court to the use of said public road, and after the aforesaid orders had been made, said committee reported to said company that such consent had been procured. Said company thereupon built a road about thirteen miles in length, which was located substantially on the public roads which said county court had relinquished to its use as above stated. At some points the track of the public road was departed from, either on account of bad location or to save distance. However, the location of the plank road was substantially along the line of the public road and the former practically took the place of the latter, because those portions of the public road not actually occupied by the plank road were abandoned, and the plank road became in fact the public road.
On the fourth day of March, 1854, the said plank road...
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