The Humeston & Shenandoah Railway Company v. The Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railway Company
| Decision Date | 26 May 1888 |
| Citation | 38 N.W. 413,74 Iowa 554 |
| Parties | THE HUMESTON & SHENANDOAH RAILWAY COMPANY v. THE CHICAGO, ST. PAUL & KANSAS CITY RAILWAY COMPANY |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Decided May, 1888
Appeal from Ringgold District Court.--HON. JOHN W. HARVEY, Judge.
PLAINTIFF owns and operates a line of railroad, the termini of which are at Humeston, in Wayne county, and Shenandoah, in Page county. Defendant is engaged in constructing a railroad between Des Moines and Kansas City, which will cross plaintiff's road in the valley of West Grand river, in Ringgold county. It was proceeding to construct a crossing at grade, when plaintiff brought this action for the purpose of compelling it to adopt either an over or under crossing. This appeal is by defendant, from an order made by the judge in vacation allowing a temporary injunction.
AFFIRMED.
Hubbard & Dawley, for appellant.
W. W Morsman, for appellee.
Plaintiff 's complaint, in substance, is that the operation of its road would be unnecessarily and unreasonably impeded, and the dangers incident to its operation greatly increased, by a grade crossing at the point selected by defendant. The track of plaintiff's road is level for a distance of three hundred feet east and nine hundred feet west of the proposed point of crossing. Commencing at a point one thousand feet east of that point, and extending to within three hundred feet of it, there is an ascending grade of thirty-seven feet per mile, and commencing nine hundred feet west of the point there is an ascending grade for seven thousand feet, varying from six feet to seventy feet per mile.
The provision of the statute prescribing and governing the rights of the parties is found in section 1265 of the Code, which is as follows: "Any such corporation may construct and carry its railroad across, over or under any railway, canal or water-course, when it may be necessary in the construction of the same; and, in such cases, said corporation shall so construct its crossing as not unnecessarily to impede the travel, transportation or navigation upon the railway, canal or stream so crossed. * * *" The inquiry in the case is whether the travel and transportation would be unnecessarily impeded by the construction of a grade crossing at the point selected by defendant for crossing its track. Under chapter 163, Acts Twentieth General Assembly, a railroad company whose track intersects or is intersected by other railroad tracks on the same level is required to bring all trains to a stop before reaching the crossing. Under that requirement, grade crossings necessarily have the effect to impede to some extent travel and transportation on the lines. But the right to construct and maintain such crossings under proper conditions is clearly recognized both by that chapter and section 1265, and the inconvenience and delay which arise from their use under such circumstances must be borne by the companies whose business is thus interfered with. But by the latter section the duty is imposed upon the company constructing the intersecting line to so construct the crossing as not unnecessarily to interfere with the...
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