Vandalia Railroad Company v. State of Indiana Ex Rel City of South Bend

• Decision Date: 16 December 1907
• Docket Number: No. 26,26
• Citation: 52 L.Ed. 246,28 S.Ct. 130,207 U.S. 359
• Parties: VANDALIA RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF INDIANA EX REL. CITY OF SOUTH BEND
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

207 U.S. 359

28 S.Ct. 130

52 L.Ed. 246

VANDALIA RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v STATE OF INDIANA EX REL. CITY OF SOUTH BEND.

No. 26.

Argued October 18, 1907.

Decided December 16, 1907.

Messrs. Samuel Parker, John G. Williams, liams, and Anderson, Parker, & Crabill for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 360 intentionally omitted] Messrs. L. T. Michener, Harry R. Wair, Frank H. Dunnahoo, and W. W. Dudley for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 361 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the court:

This action was commenced by the defendant in error in the circuit court of St. Joseph county, Indiana, to compel the Terre Haute & Logansport Railway Company to open its tracks and yards within Calvert street in South Bend, to make the roadbed conform to the street grade, to plank the crossing of the same, and to make that crossing safe and convenient for the passage of persons and vehicles. While the action was pending in the state courts the Terre Haute company and certain other companies consolidated and formed a new corporation under the name of the Vandalia Railroad Company, which succeeded to all the rights and duties of the original defendant, carried on the further litigation, and is the plaintiff in error.

Upon the complaint an alternative writ of mandamus was issued. To this writ and the complaint the railroad company demurred, and the demurrer was overruled. The company then filed its return to the alternative writ, and a demurrer of the plaintiff thereto was sustained. The railway company refusing to plead further, a peremptory writ of mandamus was issued as prayed for. On appeal to the supreme court of the state the decision of the circuit court was affirmed. 166 Ind. 219, 76 N. E. 980. Thereupon this writ of error was sued out.

To fully understand the question presented a statement of the matters set forth in the complaint and return is necessary.

The complaint alleges that on November 10, 1884, the city granted a franchise to the railway company to cross the streets and alleys of the city on the express condition that when it did so the roadbed should be made to conform strictly to the grade of the street or alley it crossed, and that the defendant should so construct and maintain its road at such crossing as to cause the least possible obstruction to the passage of persons and vehicles over it; that the railway company accepted said franchise and had ever since acted under it.

It further described that portion of the street whose grade had been established and which was occupied by the defendant, and which it had been notified to plank and improve.

The demurrer to the writ raised the question whether the action was not founded alone upon the contract created by the franchise, and asserted that the duties of a corporation, springing wholly out of contract, cannot be enforced by writs of mandamus; also whether the plaintiff could not of itself have constructed the crossing, and brought an action for the cost thereof and the penalty, as provided in the ordinance, and thereby secured adequate redress without resorting to the extraordinary remedy of mandamus. But obviously these matters are of a local nature, and present no question under the Federal Constitution.

The return of the defendant alleged that at the time the original franchise was granted the place at which the improvement of the crossing was sought to be compelled by this action was outside the limits of the city of South Bend; that in 1887 it was taken into the corporate limits of the town of Myler, and thereafter, in 1892, said town of Myler was annexed to and became a part of the city of South Bend; that before this annexation, and while the town of Myler existed, certain parties filed with the board of trustees of that town a petition for the establishment of a street, at first called Elmira, but afterwards Calvert, street, over the ground where the plaintiff now claims said street is located; that the Terre Haute & Logansport Railroad Company, then the owner of the real estate, had no notice of the proceedings had for the establishment of said street and took no part therin; neither did it receive any compensation on account thereof; that prior thereto that company had placed a trust deed on the property, which, after the attempted establishment of the street, was foreclosed, by suit in the United States circuit court for the state and district of Indiana, and the property purchased by one Joshua T. Brooks, who directed a conveyance to the Terre Haute & Logansport Railway Company, the defendant herein; that neither the trustee in said trust deed nor any holder of bonds secured by it was a party to the proceedings for the establishment of said street, nor was any notice of said proceedings given to said trustee or any bondholder, nor did either have any knowledge thereof; that no damages for the opening of the street were assessed or tendered to either, and that, at the time of the purchase of the property and the payment of the purchase chase price, neither the purchaser nor the railroad company nor the defendant had any knowledge of the proceedings to locate...