Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Co. v. Illinois ex rel. Drainage Commissioners

200 U.S. 561, 50 L. Ed. 596, 26 S. Ct. 341, 1906 U.S. LEXIS 1498
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedMarch 5, 1906
DocketNo. 157
StatusPublished
Cited by361 cases

This text of 200 U.S. 561 (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Co. v. Illinois ex rel. Drainage Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Co. v. Illinois ex rel. Drainage Commissioners, 200 U.S. 561, 50 L. Ed. 596, 26 S. Ct. 341, 1906 U.S. LEXIS 1498 (1906).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Harlan,

after making the foregoing statement, delivered the opinion of the court.

1. The first question is one of the authority of this court to review the judgment below. As we have seen, the railway company insisted in the court of original jurisdiction that the statute .under which the Drainage Commissioners proceeded [580]*580could not be applied in this case without taking its property for public use without compensation, and therefore depriving it of property without due process of law, or without denying to it the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Com-stitution of the United States. The judgment of the trial court was adverse to that view. In the Supreme Court of the State the railway company, by its assignments of error, preserved its objection, based on constitutional grounds. That court did not, in words, refer to the Constitution of the United States, and its opinion concluded: “Entertaining the views above expressed, and founding our conclusion upon the rights and duties of the parties as found in the common law, we deem it unnecessary, to pass upon the constitutionality of section 40J of the'Farm Drainage Act.”

The contention is that as the state court based its judgment on the common law duty of the railway company, and not expressly on any Federal'ground, it cannot be said that there was any denial of the Federal right claimed by the company; consequently, it is argued, this court is without jurisdiction to reexamine the final judgment. Rev. Stat. § 709.

Undoubtedly, the general rule is that where the judgment of the state court rests upon an'independent, separate ground of local or general law, broad enough or sufficient in itself to cover the essential issues and control the rights of the parties, however the Federal question raised on the record might be determined, this court- will affirm or dismiss, as the one course or the other may be appropriate, without considering that question. But it is equally well settled, that the failure of the state court to pass on the Federal right or immunity specially set up, of record, is not conclusive, but this court will decide the Federal question if the necessary effect of the judgment is to deny a Federal right or immunity specially set up or claimed, and which,-if recognized and enforced, would require a judgment different from one resting upon some ground of local or general law. And such plainly was the effect of the judgment., in .this case. , If, as the railway company contended, the pro[581]*581posed action of the Drainage Commissioners would deprive, it of property without due process of law and also deny to it the equal protection of the. laws, then a-judgment should have been rendered for the company. And that result could not be avoided merely by silence on the. Federal question and by placing the judgment on some principle of the common law. The constitutional grounds relied on must, if sustained, displace or supersede any principle of general or local law which, but for such grounds, might be sufficient for the complete determination of the rights of the parties. The claim of a Federal right or immunity specially set up from the outset went to the very root of the case and dominated every part of it. If that claim be valid, then the law is for the railway company; for, the supreme law of the land must alwaj's control. Therefore .a failure to recognize such Federal right or immunity, and the decision of the case on some ground of general or local law, necessarily has the same effect as if the claim.of Federal right or immunity had been expressly denied.' That claim having, then, been distinctly set up by the company, and being broad enough to cpver the entire case, it may not be ignored, and this court cannot refuse to determine whether the alleged Federal right exists and is protected by the Constitution of the United States. If the case had been decided in favor of the railway company on some ground of local or general law, then the claim of a Federal, right would have, become immaterial, and we could not have reexamined the judgment. But the decision was otherwise and was, in law, a denial of the claim of a Federal right.

For .these reasons we are of opinion that this court has jurisdiction to reexamine the final judgment of the state court so far as it involved the Federal right or immunity specially set up by the railway company.

2. The concrete case arising upon the petition and the demurrer is this: A public corporation, charged by law with the duty of causing a large body of lands, principally swamp and slough lands, to be drained and made capable of cultivation, [582]*582has, under direct legislative authority, adopted a reasonable and. suitable plan to accomplish that object. That plan requires the enlarging and deepening of the channel of a natural watercourse running through the District, which is the only natural outlet or way of drainage of the lands of the District— the best and only practicable mode by which the lands can be made tillable. But that plan cannot be carried out unless the .timbers and stones in the creek — placed there by the railway company when it constructed the foundation for its present bridge — are removed. The timber and stones referred to cannot, however, be removed without destroying the foundations of the present bridge and rendering it necessary (if the railway compan)'' continues to operate its road, which w.e ássuine it intends to do) to construct another bridge With an opening underneath wide enough to permit a channel sufficient to carry off the water of the. creek as increased in volume under the drainage system adopted by the Commissioners.

The. contention of the railway company is that, as its present bridge was lawfully constructed, under its general corporate power to build, construct, operate and maintain a railroad, in the county and township aforesaid, and as the depth and width of the channel under it were, sufficient, at the time, to carry off the water of the creek as it then flowed, and now flows — -the foundation of the bridge cannot be removed and its use of the bridge disturbed, unless compensation be first made or secured to it in such amount as will be sufficient to meet the expense of removing the timbers and stones from the creek and of constructing a new bridge of such length and with such opening under it as the plan of the Commissioners requires. The company insists that to require it to meet these expenses out of its own funds will be, within the meaning of the Constitution, a taking of its property for public use without- compensation, and, therefore, without due process of law, as well as a denial to it of the equal protection of the laws.

The importance of these questions will justify av reference to some of the adjudged cases; referring first to those recog-[583]*583nrzing the distinction between an incidental injury to rights of private property resulting from the exercise of governmental powers, lawfully and reasonably exerted for the public good, and the taking, within the meaning of the Constitution, of private property for public use.

In Transportation Co. v. Chicago, 99 U. S. 635, 642, which involved a claim for damages directly resulting from the construction by the city of Chicago of a tunnel under Chicago River, whereby for a very long time the plaintiff was prevented from using its dock and other property for purposes of its business; in Mugler v. Kansas,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
200 U.S. 561, 50 L. Ed. 596, 26 S. Ct. 341, 1906 U.S. LEXIS 1498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-burlington-quincy-railway-co-v-illinois-ex-rel-drainage-scotus-1906.