State ex rel. City of Duluth v. Northern Pacific Railway Company
| Decision Date | 29 June 1906 |
| Docket Number | 14,836 - (197) |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. CITY OF DULUTH v. NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the district court for St Louis county, entered pursuant to the findings and order of Cant, J. Affirmed.
Railway -- Street Crossings.
State v. St. Paul, M. & M. Ry. Co., supra, page 380, and State v. Minnesota Transfer Ry. Co., 80 Minn. 108 to the effect (1) that the obligation to construct and maintain in suitable repair for public use safe crossings at streets and highways laid out over a railroad right of way after the construction of the road rests on the railroad company, and (2) that contracts with municipalities, by which the company is relieved from that obligation and the municipality deprived of the right of enforcing it as a police regulation, are ultra vires and void, followed and applied.
C. W. Bunn, Emerson Hadley, J. L. Washburn, and W. D. Bailey, for appellant.
Bert Fesler, for respondent.
Proceedings instituted by the city of Duluth to compel appellant, the Northern Pacific Railway Company, to repair and thereafter maintain in suitable condition for public use a viaduct now existing over its tracks at Lake avenue in that city. Judgment was ordered and entered against the company, awarding the relief demanded, from which it appealed.
1. The material facts, so far as the obligation of appellant to keep and maintain the viaduct in repair is concerned, are substantially like those presented in the case of State v. St. Paul, M. & M. Ry. Co., supra, page 380, 108 N.W. 261. The Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad Company, a corporation, laid its tracks upon the land over which the viaduct in question now extends in 1869. Thereafter Lake avenue was laid out and established over and across its right of way, and at all times since has been used continuously as one of the principal thoroughfares of the city of Duluth. In 1892 travel upon the same had so increased that it became necessary in order to render the street safe for public use to construct a viaduct thereon over the tracks and right of way of the railroad company. Prior to that date the St. Paul & Duluth Railway Company had succeeded to all the rights and liabilities of the Lake Superior & Mississippi Company, and was operating its cars and trains over the tracks so crossing that street. The city demanded of the company that it construct and maintain a viaduct or bridge over its tracks at this point, but it refused to comply with the demand, insisting that it was not legally bound to do so. Subsequent negotiations resulted in a contract between the city and the company by which the former undertook to, and did, construct the viaduct, in conformity with plans and specifications agreed upon between the parties, and by which contract the company agreed to, and did, pay toward the expense of the same the sum of $50,000; the balance, $23,000, being paid by the city. It was further provided that the city should, after the construction of the viaduct, forever maintain and keep in repair the approaches thereto, and for the period of fifteen years keep in repair that portion which extends over the railroad right of way. The latter portion of the structure being out of repair at the time of and before the commencement of this proceeding, the city repudiated the contract and demanded of appellant, successor of the St. Paul & Duluth Company, that it make the same at its own cost and expense. This proceeding was brought to enforce compliance with that demand.
The principal question involved is whether appellant is under legal duty and obligation to keep the viaduct in repair. It is insisted that, because of the fact that the street in question was established subsequent to the construction of the railroad, the railway company is under no statutory or common-law duty to make the...
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