Brogger v. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Co.

163 N.W. 662, 137 Minn. 338, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 732
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJune 29, 1917
DocketNos. 20,451 — (231)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 163 N.W. 662 (Brogger v. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brogger v. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Co., 163 N.W. 662, 137 Minn. 338, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 732 (Mich. 1917).

Opinion

Taylor, C.

For many years, the Omaha Bailway Company has operated a line of railroad running in an easterly and westerly direction through the village of Butterfield in Watonwan county. Prior to 1899, it maintained a passenger and freight station near the center of that village which is designated in the record as the old depot. In that year, the NorthWestern Bailway Company constructed a line of railway running in a northerly and southerly direction which intersected the line, of the Omaha Company at a point about 2,400 feet east of the old depot of the latter company, and slightly more than 1,000'feet east of the [340]*340easterly boundary line of the village. A union station was constructed at this junction which has ever since been used by both companies for receiving and discharging passengers. The Omaha Company continued the use of the old depot for freight purposes, but discontinued its use for passenger purposes, and stops none of its passepger trains thereat. A joint agent at the new station attends to the business of both companies at Butterfield. In 1915, a petition was filed with the Railroad and Warehouse Commission by residents of Butterfield, asking that the Omaha Company be required to provide and maintain a ticket office and passenger depot within the village and to stop its passenger trains thereat for the purpose of receiving and discharging passengers. A hearing was duly held by the commission, and as a result thereof, the commission among other things found it “to be reasonable to require respondent to stop its passenger trains at the location of the old depot and provide for the sale of tickets, proper shelter for passengers, and checking and care of baggage, and that it will be reasonable to stop at the Union depot on flag;” and made an order requiring the company to do so. The company appealed to the district court. At the trial in district court a considerable quantity of evidence was presented in addition to that submitted at the hearing before the commission. The district court made findings of fact and conclusions of law, and rendered judgment, “that said appellant, Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway Company shall at the village of Butterfield in Watonwan county, Minnesota, and at the so-called 'old depot/ within the corporate limits of said village of Butterfield, stop such of its passenger trains as are now required by law to stop at way stations in said •state for the convenience of the traveling public, and provide for the sale of tickets, the checking of baggage and the reasonable convenience of passengers thereat.” An appeal from this judgment brings the .matter before this court.

The legislature has authorized the Railroad and Warehouse Commission to determine what transportation facilities are reasonably necessary for the accommodation of the public, and to require railroad companies to furnish such facilities; and also has authorized it to require, from time to time, any reasonable change in such facilities which “will promote the security or convenience of the public.” This power is legis[341]*341lative and administrative in its nature, and, in reviewing the orders of the commission issued thereunder, the courts cannot substitute their own judgment, as to the necessity or propriety of a proposed change, for that of the commission, but must confine themselves to a determination of the judicial questions committed to them. State v. Great Northern Ry. Co. 130 Minn. 57, 153 N. W. 247; State v. Great Northern Ry. Co. 123 Minn. 463, 144 N. W. 155.

Section 4193, G. S. 1913, prescribing the effect to be given by the courts to the findings and order of the commission in such matters and the duty of the courts in respect thereto, provides: “Such findings of fact shall be prima facie evidence of the matters therein stated, and the order shall be prima facie reasonable, and the burden of proof upon all issues raised by the appeal shall be on the appellant. If said court shall determine that the order appealed from is lawful and reasonable, it shall be affirmed and the order enforced as provided by law. If it shall be determined that the order is unlawful or unreasonable it shall be vacated and set aside.”

The company contends that the changes required are unreasonable and unlawful, in that they require additional service, and will impose an unlawful burden upon it by necessitating large expenditures which will produce no additional revenue.

There is only one public road from the village to the new or union ■station. This road is wholly unimproved outside the village, runs over low, wet ground, and at certain seasons of the year is impassable. The railway companies have provided a cinder path from the village limits to the new station for pedestrians; but the commission found that this path “was a foot under water for at least three weeks” in the spring 'preceding the heáring. Passenger trains stop at this station both in the daytime and in the night-time; some stop regularly; others only under certain conditions. The companies have an agent and helper at the new station during the daytime, but have no one there at night. The waiting rooms remain open during the night, and before leaving the agent lights a lamp and in the winter also replenishes the fire. The towerman stationed in a tower located across both railroad tracks from the station building is supposed to keep up the fire, but the evidence shows that passengers arriving on night trains frequently find neither [342]*342light nor fire. The house. of the section boss, which is located on the opposite side of the station building from the public road, is the only house in the vicinity, and travelers arriving on night trains have lost their way while trying to go from the depot to the village. “Hoboes” congregate at the depot and pass the night in it, and the commission found: “There is no police protection at the Union station and it is a dangerous place for passengers to alight on dark nights. Although the station building is kept open for the arrival of trains, it has not been kept lighted and there have been some hold-ups and robberies there. Conditions have been so bad that traveling men are afraid to make the station on night trains on account of its not being safe.”

The company insists that the commission erred as'a matter of law in taking these conditions into consideration in making its order; that if the public road is defective, and the place unsafe for lack of police protection, these conditions result from the neglect of the public authorities, and should be given no weight in determining whether a change ought to be made in the location of the station. We think this position not well taken. This station is intended for the accommodation of the residents o£ the village and of others who have occasion to travel to or from the village. The defective road is outside the village, and no duty rests upon the village to improve it; the station is also outside the village and beyond its policing jurisdiction. In view of these facts, we think that the conditions actually found to exist at this station may be taken into account in determining whether it affords reasonably safe and convenient accommodations for the traveling public at this village.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
163 N.W. 662, 137 Minn. 338, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brogger-v-chicago-st-paul-minneapolis-omaha-railway-co-minn-1917.