Adirondack Railway Co. v. Indian River Co.

50 N.Y.S. 245
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 2, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 50 N.Y.S. 245 (Adirondack Railway Co. v. Indian River Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adirondack Railway Co. v. Indian River Co., 50 N.Y.S. 245 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1898).

Opinion

HERRICK, J.

The forest preserve, the Adirondack park, and what shall be embraced therein, are defined in chapter 395 of the Laws of 1895. By chapter 220 of the Laws of 1897, the governor of the state of New York was authorized to appoint three persons to constitute a board known as the “Forest Preserve Board.” Section 2 of that act provides that it shall be the duty of such board, and it is thereby authorized, “to acquire for the state, by purchase or otherwise, land struc- ' tures, "or waters or such portion thereof in the territory embraced in the Adirondack park, as defined and limited by the fisheries, game and forest law, as may be deemed advisable for the interests of the state.” The act prescribes how lands may be condemned and appropriated, and a method for the owners obtaining damages for such appropriation in the event of the forest preserve board being unable to agree with them as to the value of the property so taken or appropriated. The forest preserve board, then, in making this agreement with the defendants for the purchase of its lands, was in the exercise of the powers, and in the performance of the duties; conferred and imposed upon it by the statute referred to; and the injunction here, while in form one restraining the defendants only, it is evident must also operate to obstruct the forest preserve board in the exercise of its powers and the performance of its duties, because, if the defendants cannot convey title, the forest preserve board cannot receive it. Undoubtedly, an injunction may be granted in proper cases to prevent public officers, under color of official power or duty, from doing some illegal act affecting injuriously individual rights or property. People v. Canal Board of New York, 55 N. Y. 390; Flood v. Van Wormer, 147 N. Y. 284, 41 N. E. 569. But the illegality of the proposed act, and the rights of the persons seeking the injunction, should, however, both be made plainly to appear, and in determining an application for an injunction, which, while in form against private persons only, yet, in effect, restrains or obstructs the action of public officers in the exercise of their powers and the discharge of their official duties, the same consideration, to some extent at least, should be given to the" rights of the state, the power and duties of the public officers, and as to whether their proposed action is illegal or not, as though the injunction applied for was to directly, instead of indirectly, restrain their action. I shall therefore consider the rights of the state and the powers and duties of its officers and representatives, “the forest preserve board,” as well as those of the plaintiff [247]*247and the defendants, in determining whether this injunction should have been granted.

The forest preserve board is exercising in behalf of the state that power known as the “right of eminent domain,” which is ordinarily exercised by first attempting to agree with the owners of the property to be taken upon the purchase price thereof, and’, if an agreement cannot be reached, then taking it by compulsory process, an appropriate tribunal awarding the owners their damages for the same, which is the proceeding authorized by the statute here, under and pursuant to which the forest preserve board and the defendant were acting in making the agreement above referred to. The plaintiff says, however, that the right to exercise this power of eminent domain has been conferred upon it, and as part of the procedure in exercising that power it made maps and filed profiles of its proposed route, served notices upon the property owners, and has thereby acquired a lien upon the land which further procedure will ripen into an absolute right or title; and that, the property having been appropriated for one public use, it cannot be taken for another, without express authority of the legislature. It has been held that where a railroad corporation has made and filed a map and survey of the line of route it intends to adopt for the construction of its road, and has given the required notice to all persons affected thereby, it has acquired a right to construct and operate its road upon said line, and by these proceedings has impressed upon the land a lien in favor of its rights to construct, which ripens into title through purchase or condemnation proceedings. Rochester, H. & L. R. Co. v. New York, L. E. & W. R. Co., 110 N. Y. 128,17 N. E. 680; Suburban Rapid-Transit Co. v. City of New York, 128 N. Y. 510, 28 N. E. 525. It will be observed that both these cases—and, I think, all others of similar purport—are cases where the contention was between corporations claiming to exercise the right of eminent domain. In no case that I have seen has the contention arisen between a corporation and the state. It is a power that cannot be asserted against or in opposition to the state. That it cannot be so asserted or exercised will be further discussed in another connection. The plaintiff, claiming that it has thus acquired a right to the route in question,—has, so to speak, appropriated it,—further relies upon the rule that has been repeatedly stated by the courts, that, where land has been once appropriated for a public purpose, it cannot be appropriated for another, unless such authority is conferred in express terms or by necessary implication. In re Boston & A. R. Co., 53 N. Y. 574; In re Rochester Water Commissioners, 66 N. Y. 413-418; In re New York C. & H. R. R. Co., 77 N. Y. 248-256; In re Boston, H. T. & W. Ry. Co., 79 N. Y. 64-68. The above cases, as well as numerous others to the same effect, are cases where the power was attempted to be exercised by public corporations, some of them municipal, and none of them were cases where the state itself had or was attempting to exercise its power. It is a rule of construction, not a definition of the power itself, for it is conceded that “the legislature may interfere with property held by a corporation for one public use, and apply it to another; and without compensation, where no private interests [248]*248are involved or invaded. The legislature may delegate this power to public officers or to corporate bodies, municipal or other. It is a rule, however, that such delegation of power must be in express terms, or must arise from a necessary implication.” In re City of Buffalo, 68 N. Y. 167. The reason of the rule is stated to be “because it could not be intended that the state, having authorized one taking, whereby the lands became impressed, under authority of the sovereign, with a public use, meant to nullify its own grant by authority to another corporation to take them again for another public use, unless it so specifically decreed, it has been ruled that lands so held and impressed with a public trust were not embraced in words of general authority. Were the rule otherwise, this evil would result: A corporation number one, having the right of eminent domain, takes land from a similar corporation number two, having the same right. Number two thereupon proceeds again to condemn it for its own use, and number one retaliates, and so the absurd process goes on. It is clear that the legislature never meant any such result, and hence, from any general grant containing in its terms no word of exception, there is necessarily excepted property already held upon a public trust by the authority and under the ward and control of the state.” In re New York, L. & W. Ry. Co., 99 N. Y. 12-23, 1 N. E. .27. The mile only applies to cases where authority has been conferred upon others to exercise the power, and neither the rule nor the reason for it applies where the state itself is exercising the right for its own immediate purposes. The right or power of eminent domain is one inherent in and incident to sovereignty.

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Related

People v. Adirondack Railway Co.
56 N.Y.S. 869 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1899)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 N.Y.S. 245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adirondack-railway-co-v-indian-river-co-nyappdiv-1898.