Turnpike Company v. Illinois

• Decision Date: 01 October 1877
• Citation: 24 L.Ed. 651,96 U.S. 63
• Parties: TURNPIKE COMPANY v. ILLINOIS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

96 U.S. 63

24 L.Ed. 651

TURNPIKE COMPANY v. ILLINOIS.

October Term, 1877

ERROR to the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois.

This was a proceeding by information in the nature of a quo warranto, instituted on the 13th of October, 1873, in the St. Clair County Circuit Court, Illinois, by the people of the State of Illinois, on the relation of one Bowman, against the St. Clair County Turnpike Company, charging it with unlawfully holding and exercising, without warrant therefor, the franchise of maintaining a toll-gate near Cahokia Creek, upon a street in the city of East St. Louis, called Dyke Avenue, and collecting tolls for passing through the same on said street. The company justified under its charter, or act of incorporation, and several supplements thereto. The plaintiff replied that the land occupied by Dyke Avenue had been dedicated by the owners thereof to the city of East St. Louis, as a public street, and that the legislature, by an act passed March 26, 1869, had granted to the said city exclusive power and control over said Dyke Avenue, and imposed upon it the sole right and duty of granding, filling up, paving, sewering, and otherwise improving and keeping said street in repair, and the right to abate and remove obstructions therefrom. The company demurred, and insisted that this last-mentioned act of the legislature impaired the obligation of the contract made with itself in and by its said charter and the supplements thereto. The County Court, and the Supreme Court of the State, on appeal, held the justification of the company to be insufficient, and gave judgment of ouster.

The company then sued out this writ of error.

The statutes of Illinois bearing upon the question are set forth in the opinion of the court.

Mr. John W. Noble and Mr. John C. Orrick for the plaintiff in error.

The object of the supplement to the charter was to confer a benefit on the company, and, upon the same terms, to add to the franchises previously existing. Pruffett et al. v. Great Western Railroad Co., 25 Ill. 353; Commonwealth v. Hancock Free Bridge Co., 2 Gray (Mass.), 58; Attorney-General v. Germantown, &c. Turnpike Co., 55 Pa. St. 466; Canal Bridge v. Gordon, 1 Pick. (Mass.) 297; Willink v. Morris Canal, 3 Green (N J.), Ch. 377.

Admitting that the right granted to the corporation by the supplement of 1861 was that of the toll-gate on Dyke Avenue, that right, by virtue of the seventeenth section of the charter, continued as long as the corporation; and its purchase by the State was as much a condition precedent to its extinguishment as is the purchase of any other right conferred by the charter. An attempt to extinguish it in any other manner impairs the obligation of the contract contained in the charter, and is unconstitutional and void.

Mr. James K. Edsall, Attorney-General of Illinois, contra.

If the Supreme Court of Illinois was correct in its construction of the act of 1847, and that of 1861, the franchise to collect tolls on Dyke Avenue expired in 1872; and this court will not inquire whether that construction was correct or not. Insurance Company v. The Treasurer, 11 Wall. 204; Kennebec Railroad v. Portland Railroad, 14 id. 23.

The construction given to those acts was the true one. Sedgwick, Const. Law, 338, 339, 342; Angell, Highways, 358; Angell & Ames, Corp. 66; 2 Kent, Com. 276, 298; Pennsylvania Railroad Co. v. Canal Com'rs, 21 Pa. 9; Canisius v. Merril, 65 Ill. 67; Chesnutwood v. Hood, 68 id. 132; Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge et al., 11 Pet. 420; Dubuque & Pacific Railroad Co. v. Litchfield, 23 How. 66; Stormfellz v. Turnpike Company, 13 Pa. St. 555.

MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the court.

The question before us is, whether any contract was set up by the defendant company, now plaintiff in error, in its justification, which has been impaired by the subsequent legislation of the State.

The charter of the company, as set out in its plea of justification, was an act of the legislature of Illinois, approved Feb. 13, 1847, entitled 'An Act to incorporate the Saint Clair County Turnpike Company.'

By the first section of this act it was enacted as follows:——

'That all such persons as shall become stockholders, agreeably to the provisions of this act, in the corporation hereby created, shall, and for the term of twenty-five years from and after the passage of this act, continue to be a body corporate and politic, by the name of 'St. Clair County Turnpike Company,' and by that name shall have succession for the term of years above specified; may sue and be sued, complain and defend, in any court of law or equity; may make and use a common seal,' &c., conferring the usual corporate powers.

By the second section it was enacted as follows:——

'The said corporation shall have the right to construct and maintain a turnpike road from the bank of the Mississippi River opposite the city of St. Louis, to High Street, in Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois; said road to be made on the great western mail route.'

Provision was then made for erecting certain toll-gates on the line of the road, and a schedule of tolls was prescribed.

The fifteenth section of the charter is in the following words:——

'The State reserves the right to purchase said road at the expiration of said charter, by paying to said corporation the original cost of said road, laid out and expended in constructing the same, to be ascertained by examination of the books of said corporation, by commissioners to be appointed by the legislature; and, in case of non-payment or redemption by the State at the expiration of the charter, the said road, with all its appendages, shall remain in the possession of said corporation, to be used, controlled, and possessed under the rights and restrictions in this charter contained, and may demand and receive tolls as herein stated, until such time as the State shall refund said sum of money, the original...