United States v. Union Pac Ry Co

• Decision Date: 18 November 1895
• Docket Number: No. 334,334
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. UNION PAC. RY. CO. et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

160 U.S. 1

16 S.Ct. 190

40 L.Ed. 319

UNITED STATES

v UNION PAC. RY. CO. et al.

No. 334.

November 18, 1895.

[Syllabus from pages 1-3 intentionally omitted] Laurence Maxwell, Jr., Sol. Gen., for the United States.

Rush Taggart and John F. Dillon, for appellees.

Mr. Justice HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court.

This suit was brought by the United States against the Union Pacific Railway Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company, under the authority of the act of congress of August 7, 1888 (25 Stat. 382, c. 772), supplementary to the act, commonly known as the 'Pacific Railroad Act,' of July 1, 1862 (12 Stat. 489, c. 120), and to the act of July 2, 1864 (13 Stat. 356, c. 216), and other acts amendatory of the act of 1862.

By the first section of the above act of 1888, it is provided that all railroad and telegraph companies to which the United States have granted any subsidy in lands or bonds or loan of credit for the construction of either railroad or telegraph lines, and which, by the acts incorporating them, or by any amendatory or supplementary act, were required to construct, maintain, or operate telegraph lines, and all companies engaged in operating such railroad or telegraph lines, 'shall forthwith and henceforward, by and through their own respective corporate officers and employees, maintain, and operate, for railroad, governmental, commercial, and all other purposes, telegraph lines, and exercise by themselves alone all the telegraph franchises conferred upon them and obligations assumed by them under the acts making the grants as aforesaid.'

The second section declares that any telegraph company, having accepted the provisions of title 65 ('Telegraphs') of the Revised Statutes, which should extend its line to any station or office of a telegraph line belonging to any one of the railroad or telegraph companies referred to in the first section, shall have the right and shall be allowed 'to connect with the telegraph line of said railroad or telegraph company to which it is extended at the place where their lines may meet, for the prompt and convenient interchange of telegraph business between said companies; and such railroad and telegraph companies, referred to in the first section of this act, shall so operate their respective telegraph lines as to afford equal facilities to all, without discrimination in favor of or against any person, company, or corporation whatever, and shall receive, deliver, and exchange business with connecting telegraph lines on equal terms, and affording equal facilities, and without discrimination for or against any one of such connecting lines; and such exchange of business shall be on terms just and equitable.'

If any railroad or telegraph company referred to in the first section, or any company operating such railroad or telegraph line, refuses or fails, in whole or in part, to maintain and operate a telegraph line as provided in the act of 1888 and the acts to which it is supplementary, 'for the use of the government or the public, for commercial and other purposes, without discrimination,' or refuses or fails to make or continue such arrangements for the interchange of business with any connecting telegraph company, then, by the third section, application for relief may be made to the interstate commerce commission, whose duty it shall be to ascertain the facts, and prescribe such arrangement as will be proper in the particular case.

The fourth section is in these words: 'In order to secure and preserve to the United States the full value and benefit of its liens upon all the telegraph lines required to be constructed by and lawfully belonging to said railroad and telegraph companies referred to in the first section of this act, and to have the same possessed, used, and operated in conformity with the provisions of this act and of the several acts to which this act is supplementary, it is hereby made the duty of the attorney general of the United States, by proper proceedings, to prevent any unlawful interference with the rights and equities of the United States under this act, and under the acts hereinbefore mentioned, and under all acts of congress relating to such railroads and telegraph lines, and to have legally ascertained and finally adjudicated all alleged rights of all persons and corporations whatever claiming in any manner any control or interest of any kind in any telegraph lines or property, or exclusive rights of way upon the lands of said railroad companies, or any of them, and to have all contracts and provisions of contracts set aside and annulled which have been unlawfully and beyond their powers entered into by said railroad or telegraph companies, or any of them, with any other person, company, or corporation.'

The fifth section subjects to fine and imprisonment any officer or agent of a company operating its railroads and telegraph lines who refuses or fails, in such operation and use, to afford and secure equal facilities to the government and the public, or to secure to each of said connecting telegraph lines equal advantages and facilities in the interchange of business, as provided for, without any discrimination whatever for or adverse to the telegraph line of any or either of said connecting companies, or refuses to abide by or perform and carry out within a reasonable time the order or orders of the interstate commerce commission. The party aggrieved may also sue the company whose officer or agent violates the provisions of the act for any damages thereby sustained.

The sixth section makes it the duty of all railroads and telegraph companies to report to the interstate commerce commission in relation to certain matters, and to file with that body copies of all contracts and agreements, of every description, between it and every other person or corporation, in reference to the ownership, possession, maintenance, control, use, or operation of any telegraph lines or property over or upon its rights of way.

The defendant the Union Pacific Railway Company is a corporation formed by the consolidation, under the authority of the above acts of congress of July 1, 1862 (12 Stat. 489, c. 120), and July 2, 1864 (13 Stat. 356, c. 216), of the following companies: The Union Pacific Railroad Company, incorporated by the act of July 1, 1862; the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, formerly known as the Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Division, which latter company succeeded to the rights and powers of the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western Railroad Company, a Kansas corporation, that accepted the aid provided by the act of July 1, 1862; and the Denver Pacific Railway & Telegraph Company, a corporation of Colorado.

The present suit proceeds on the ground that the Union Pacific Railway Company is conducting its business under certain contracts and agreements with the Western Union Telegraph Company that are not only repugnant to the provisions of the above act of 1888, but are inconsistent with the rights of the United States, and in violation of the obligations imposed upon the railway company by other acts of congress. The relief asked was a decree annulling those contracts and agreements, and compelling the railway company to maintain and operate telegraph lines on its roadways, as required by the act of 1888.

By the final decree of the circuit court, it was adjudged, among other things, that the following agreements be annulled and held for naught:

An agreement of October 1, 1866, between the Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Division, and the Western Union Telegraph Company.

Two agreements, one of September 1, 1869, and one of December 14, 1871, between the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company, the rights of the latter company having been acquired, as is claimed, by the Western Union Telegraph Company. And——

An agreement of July 1, 1881, between the Union Pacific Railway Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company. 50 Fed. 28.

It will be well, at this point, to refer to the principal parts of the several agreements that were set aside and annulled by the final decree of the circuit court.

By the agreement of October 1, 1866, between the Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Division, and the Western Union Telegraph Company, the railway company agreed to pay to the telegraph company the cost of the telegraph poles that had been erected by the latter company along the railroad between Wyandotte and Ft. Riley, except for such as have been already furnished and erected by said railway company, and also the cost of the wire and insulators for a telegraph line with one wire, between those points, except for such distance as the railroad company had already provided wires and insulators; to furnish and distribute along their road west of Ft. Riley, as fast as the same was completed, suitable poles for a first-class telegraph line, and wires and insulators for a telegraph line with one wire; to supply and distribute suitable telegraph poles, as required from time to time; to repair and renew the line as might be necessary; to transport, free of charge, for the telegraph company, all persons engaged in and material required for the construction, reconstruction, working, repairing, and maintaining said telegraph line; and to furnish a suitable telegraph office in the depot at Wyandotte, Kan., free of charge, and pay one-half of the salary of the operator in such office, or so much thereof as was necessary to save the telegraph company from loss at that office; such operator to be fully qualified to do the business of the railway company, and to be appointed and his salary fixed by the parties to the contract.

The railway company further stipulated 'not to transport any persons engaged in or property intended for the construction or repair of any other line of telegraph along their railway except at the usual and regular rates charged by said railway company for passengers and...