Atkinson v. Philadelphia & T. R.

2 F. Cas. 105
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1802
StatusPublished

This text of 2 F. Cas. 105 (Atkinson v. Philadelphia & T. R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atkinson v. Philadelphia & T. R., 2 F. Cas. 105 (uscirct 1802).

Opinion

BALDWIN, Circuit Justice.

Chalkley Atkinson vs. John Savage, president, Simon Gratz and others, citizens of Pennsylvania, and Edmund Carlis, and Jesse Oakley, citizens of New York, directors of an incorporated company called the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad Company. Timothy Field vs. The Same Defendants.

The complainants having filed their respective bills on the equity side of this court, praying for injunctions to restrain the defendants from erecting a bridge across the Neshaminy creek on the route of a railroad from Philadelphia to Trenton, which they are about constructing under order of an act of assembly, but as is alleged without any authority in law, to the great injury of the complainants, now move that one be granted till answer and the further order of the court. Due notice has been given to the defendants, who accordingly appeared by their counsel; affidavits have been taken on both sides, and the cases fully and ably argued; they are the same in their leading features, the principal difference between them being that Mr. Atkinson is under a contract for delivering lime in vessels navigating the Neshaminy, while Mr. Field is employed in transporting stone thereon from places on said river above the site of the contemplated bridge. As they both depend on the same facts and principles of law, it is unnecessary to recite the allegations of both bills.

The bill of Mr. Atkinson states that he is a citizen of New Jersey, employed in transporting articles by water to and from different places, for which purpose he is the owner of five schooners; that he has recently in the course of such business, made a contract with Anthony Taylor, who resides on the Neshaminy river, in Bucks county, in this state, to deliver to him one thousand bushels of lime at his wharf about two miles from the mouth of said river, which is by law a public navigable river or highway for the free passage of vessels up and down the same. That the defendants, under color of an act of assembly of this state for incorporating the Philadelphia and Trenton Rail Road Company, passed in February 1832, are about constructing a permanent bridge over and across said stream, near its mouth, where it is navigable for sea vessels, and thence to the farm of said Taylor, which bridge is intended to be a fiat structure, without an elevated arch, span, draw, or other contrivance for permitting masted vessels to pass up and down the river, freely without interruption, hindrance, delay, or unnecessary, expense as heretofore. That neither by the laws of Pennsylvania, or the constitution of the United States, can any obstruction be placed across the said stream; that it is contrary to law, to impede or interfere with the full and free navigation, thereof, for the accommodation of the inhabitants on said river, as well as all the citizens of the United States who may have occasion to pass and-repass on the same with any masted vessel. That the act of incorporation gives no authority to erect such a bridge as is contemplated, which the defendants have begun to-construct, or any bridge which shall in any way impede the full and free navigation of said river. The prayer of the bill, is for an. injunction to restrain the said president and directors, their agents, workmen, laborers, and all other persons employed about said railroad, from constructing any bridge whatever over and across said river, and for further relief. The complainant asserts no-right of property on the bank or in the bed of the river; his claim to the interposition of this court rests on his contract with Mr. Taylor for the delivery of one thousand bushels of lime at his wharf above the site-of the contemplated bridge, and oh the common right of navigation resulting from the-act of assembly declaring the Neshaminy a public navigable river. In this position, he-asks us to arrest the completion of a public-improvement now in rapid progress under an authority claimed in virtue of a law especially directed to this object; on such an application, it was our plain duty to pause and inquire whether this was a case in which an injunction should be granted on the usual allegations of ordinary bills, and the common affidavit of their truth.

That the matters involved are of deep concern to the parties and the public at large, cannot be denied, or that the consequences of our interference would be most serious; the.injunction asked is not a matter of right, but rests in the discretion of the court to be exercised according to certain well known rules of equity from which we cannot depart. It is perhaps the highest, most delicate, and dangerous power which can be confided to any judicial tribunal, yet it is one which is indispensable for the purposes of preventive justice; the nature of the cases w’hich call for its exercise is such too, as often to require a prompt and decisive action, on an ex parte application without a hearing of the adverse party, and sometimes without even notice, as that might lead to the immediate commission of an irremediable injury, in order to avoid the effect of the injunction, as the transfer of* stock, the negotiation of a bill of exchange or promissory note, the transfer of a chattel of peculiar value, &c. On the other hand, as the erroneous exercise of this power may operate to the irretrievable injury of the party enjoined, and for which, as it is the act of the court, he can have no legal redress in damages, while the complainant may have his remedy at law, though the relief in equity is refused; too much caution cannot be used by the court in satisfying themselves that the case presented for their [107]*107summary action is one which admits of neither doubt or delay. Hence the complainant must show in himself an apparent prima facie right of property or action to the subject matter of the injunction, as well as an injury intended or threatened by the defendant, which if done cannot be compensated by damages or adequate legal remedies, and can be effectually averted only by the protecting preventing power of a court of equity. [Osborn v. Bank,] 9 Wheat. [22 U. S.] 840, 846; Bonaparte v. Camden & A. R. Co., [Case No. 1,617.] It is never exercised in a doubtful case, or in a new one, which does not come within the established rules of equity, (2 Dickens, 600; Coop. 77; 7 Johns. Ch. 334;) and if the courts of the United States can be at liberty to depart at all from the settled course of proceeding in chancery, it would seem to be their duty to proceed with more caution than its ordinary rules require. In England it is in the discretion of the chancellor, to proceed without notice, it is directed or not, according to the nature of the case; if the effect of the injunction would be to suspend the operations of a man-ufactory established and carried on at great expense, he would not proceed one step without notice of the motion for-an injunction, (18 Ves. 217;) but this is merely a matter of discretion. The act of congress however makes notice indispensable before any proceedings had by the court—“Nor shall such writ be granted in any case without reasonable notice to the adverse party, or his attorney of the time and place of moving .for the same.” [Albers v. Whitney, Case No. 137.] The spirit of this requisition is not merely to give the notice in fact, the party is entitled to all the benefits resulting from notice; to be heard by his counsel on all matters appearing in the bill or disclosed in the affidavits of' the complainant, not as amici curiae, but as representing the party in interest who may be affected by the motion as to whom it becomes an adversary suit, even before demurrer, plea, or answer.

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Bluebook (online)
2 F. Cas. 105, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atkinson-v-philadelphia-t-r-uscirct-1802.