Belzoni Oil Co. v. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad

47 So. 468, 94 Miss. 58
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 47 So. 468 (Belzoni Oil Co. v. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Belzoni Oil Co. v. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, 47 So. 468, 94 Miss. 58 (Mich. 1908).

Opinion

Whitfield, O. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The case made by the facts is as follows: The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company has a line of railroad extending through the town of Belzoni, in Washington county, Miss., and early in the year 1900 S. Castleman applied to it for the construction of certain spur tracks to extend from its main line of railroad to the gin plant of the Belzoni Gin & Seed ■Company, in which he was largely interested, and to connect with the plant of the Belzoni Oil Company and a sawmill and ■other enterprises, all of which were then in contemplation, but not constructed. Accordingly^ in May, 1900, said S. Castle-man and said railroad company entered into a written contract for the construction of said spur tracks, wherein it was agreed, in effect, that said S. Castleman was to furnish the land and ■cross-ties needed therefor, and said railroad company was to furnish and lay the rails, and was to have exclusive possession and control thereof, and that said spur tracks were to be treated .as personal property, and not a part of the real estate or land [68]*68upon which they were placed, with the right in said railroad company to remove the same' at any time on thirty days’ notice. At the time this contract was made said Oastleman had no interest in the land upon which said spur tracks were constructed, and never thereafter acquired any; but at that time said land was owned by the Belzoni Land Company, a corporation, which afterward conveyed the same by deed, together with other surrounding land, to the Belzoni Oil Company, another corporation, which, afterwards constructed a mill plant thereon, contiguous, to said spur tracks. Said Oastleman is the president of said Belzoni Oil Company, and has been its president since its organization, some time in the year 1900, and was also president of said Belzoni Land Company at the time it conveyed said land to the Belzoni Oil Company, and was president of both companies at the time said contract for the spur track ivas made, as well as at the time of his negotiations with said railroad company leading up to said contract; but, notwithstanding the fact that the title to the land on which said spur tracks were constructed was shown by the public records to be in said Belzoni Land Company, and notwithstanding the corporate character of the various enterprises which said Oastleman hoped to foster by the construction of said tracks, said railroad company entered into said contract for the construction thereof with said Oastleman in his individual capacity, without any reference whatever to said Belzoni Oil Company or to any of the other corporate enterprises to bo erected contiguous to said tracks.

In 1906 the Delta Southern Railway, another corporation, was engaged in the construction of a railroad through said county, passing through said town of Belzoni, and acquired by warranty deeds from the Belzoni Oil Company certain rights of way for its main line'and certain spur tracks over the land of the Belzoni Oil Company, which crossed said spur tracks of the Yazoo & Mississippi Yalley Railroad Company, and covered part of the ground occupied by them at or near the mill plant of said Belzoni Oil Company; and when the Delta Southern Railway began to construct a crossing over its road over-[69]*69said spur tracks of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, and to connect its spur tracks therewith at the point where its right of way coincided therewith, leading into the oil mill of the Belzoni Oil Company, the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company interfered and sought to prevent said crossing and connection. The Belzoni Oil Company’s mill was so constructed as to make it impossible for the spur tracks of both of said railroad companies to enter the same without occupying the same space at and within the mill, and it was exceedingly desirable and beneficial to the Belzoni Oil Company to have the spur tracks of the Delta Southern Railway enter its mill, as otherwise the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company would enjoy a monopoly 'in the transportation of the produce of said mill therefrom and commodities thereto, greatly to the injury of said oil company; and when the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company objected to the Delta Southern Railway crossing and connecting with its spur tracks, said Castleman, having failed to induce it to consent to such crossing and connection, offered to take up its spur tracks and place the materials where it might designate, and to have the Belzoni Oil Company lay its own rails and permit it (the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company), to use the same free of charge, and notified it that it was a mere licensee in the use of said tracks, and that, if that offer was not acceptable, said spur tracks would be torn up and removed.

' Thereupon the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company filed its bill in the chancery court of Washington county, based upon said contract with said Castleman, for the construction of said spur tracks, and obtained an injunction against said Castleman and the Delta Southern Railway restraining them from tearing up said tracks. A few days thereafter the Belzoni Oil Company, not being party to that suit, filed its bill in said court, alleging, in substance, that it was the owner of the land occupied by said spur tracks, that said Castleman had no interest in said land and no authority to make said contract for [70]*70the construction of said tracks, and that the same, having been constructed without its consent or authority, became its property as a fixture, and thereupon obtained an injunction restraining the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company from interfering with the crossing of said spur tracks and connecting therewith by the Delta Southern Railway. To that bill of the Belzoni Oil Company the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company filled its answer, and afterwards said railroad company filed an amended and supplemental bill to the. original bill, making said Belzoni Oil Company a party and praying for an injunction against-said oil company and the original defendants, the Delta Southern Railway and said S. Castleman, restraining them froln crossing said spur tracks, or making any connection therewith by the Delta Southern Railway, whereupon the chancellor, being unwilling to grant an injunction, in view of the different injunctions then pending, without notice and a hearing, cited the defendants thereto, said Belzoni Oil Company, the Delta Southern Railway and S. Castleman, to show cause on a given day why the injunction should not be granted as prayed for.

' In the meantime the Belzoni Oil Company asked for and obtained leave of the chancellor to file an amended bill in its suit against the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, praying for a mandatory injunction against said railroad company, restraining it from any further use or occupancy of its land by said spur tracks, and commanding said railroad to remove said tracks within a given time, to be named by the court. This amended bill of the Belzoni Oil Company differed from its original bill, in that in the original bill said oil company claimed to own said spur tracks as fixtures to its land, and sought to enjoin the railroad company from interfering with the oil company in effecting a crossing of its spur tracks and connection therewith by the Delta Southern Railway, whereas in the amended bill the oil company claims that said spur tracks were there under a mere license, which had been revoked, that [71]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 So. 468, 94 Miss. 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/belzoni-oil-co-v-yazoo-mississippi-valley-railroad-miss-1908.