Chicago Dock & Canal Co. v. Garrity

3 N.E. 448, 115 Ill. 155
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 14, 1885
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 3 N.E. 448 (Chicago Dock & Canal Co. v. Garrity) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago Dock & Canal Co. v. Garrity, 3 N.E. 448, 115 Ill. 155 (Ill. 1885).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Scholfield

delivered the opinion of the Court:

The first question discussed in the arguments on behalf of the respective parties relates to the mode of exercising the power by the city council to pass an ordinance authorizing the location of railway tracks in the streets of the city of Chicago. Both sides agree that the city council has power to that end, but they disagree as to the statute by which it is conferred, and, as a consequence, as to the limitations under which it can be exercised. The city of Chicago was organized under the general law in relation to the incorporation of cities, etc., at the time of the passage of the ordinances in controversy here, and plaintiffs in error contend that the ninth and twenty-fifth clauses of section 1 of article 5 of that law (1 Starr & Curtis, 465,) confer the power, and that it is subject only to the limitations contained in clause ninetieth of the same section, and in section 13 of article 3 of the same law, while the defendants in error contend that the power is conferred by the ninth clause of section 1 of article 5 of the amendment to the charter of the city of Chicago, of March 9, 1867, (vol. 1, Private Laws of 1867, p. 771,) and subject to the limitations contained in that section, as well as to those contained in the ninetieth clause of section 1 of article 5 of the general Incorporation law.

It is.provided by section 6 of article 1 of the general Incorporation law, that “from the time of such organization or change of organization, the provisions of this act shall be applicable to such cities and villages, and all laws in conflict therewith shall no longer be applicable; but all laws or parts of laws not inconsistent with the provisions of this act shall com tinue in force, and applicable to any such city or village, the same as if such change of organization had not taken place. ” And it therefore becomes necessary to inquire whether the ninth clause of section 1 of article 5 of the amended charter of 1867 is ineonsistbnt with the provisions of the general law. That clause provides that the city council shall have power “to authorize the use of the streets and alleys in said city by railroad companies, or city railway companies, for the purpose of laying tracks and running cars thereon: Provided, however, permission or authority shall not be given, nor shall any such grant or permission already given be extended, unless by vote at least of three-fourths of all the aldermen elected, such votes to be entered, by ayes and noes, on the records of the council: And provided, further, that no grant, consent, contract or permission heretofore given or made, or hereafter to be made or given, shall in any case be extended until within one year of the expiration of such grant, consent, contract or permission: And provided, further, that in case of a veto by the mayor, any such grant or permission shall receive the votes of tliree-fourths of all the aldermen elected, to take effect as an act or law of the corporation. ” The ninth clause of section 1 of article 5 of the general Incorporation law confers power upon the city council to regulate the use of streets, and the twenty-fifth clause of the same section confers power upon the common council in these words: “To provide for and change the location, grade and crossings of any railroad.” Eliminating all the words not pertinent to the power here in question, .it reads: “To provide for *' * * the location * * * of any railroad. ”

In Moses et al. v. Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad Co. 21 Ill. 522, and Murphy v. Chicago, 29 id. 279, the charter vested the common council with the exclusive control and regulation of the streets of the city, and with power “to direct and control the location of railroad tracks, ” (see Public Laws of second session, 1849—51, “Act to reduce the law incorporating the city of Chicago, and the several acts amendatory thereof, into one act,” etc., pp. 145, 146, clauses thirtieth and forty-ninth, of section 4, chapter 4,) and it was held that this conferred power upon the common council to authorize the location of the railway tracks in the streets. Following that ruling, it must be held there was like power conferred by the ninth and tv'enty-fifth clauses of section 1 of article 5 of the general Incorporation law. The power to regulate the use of the streets, although not so expressly declared, is, in the latter act, as exclusive as in the former, and the word “regulate,” as used in the latter act, embraces everything included within the meaning of “control and regulation,” in the former. “Control” is a necessary incident of “regulation, ” and it is implied in the latter act as clearly as it is expressed in the former. So, also, “to provide for the location of any railroad,” is clearly as comprehensive as “to direct and control the location of railroad tracks.” “To provide for,” implies, of necessity, power" “to direct and control, ” for the location can only be in conformity with the mode provided for,—i. e., in subordination to the direction and control prescribed by the ordinance.

But, in our opinion, this power is subject to the limitation imposed by the ninetieth clause of section 1 of article 5, which declares : “The city council or board of trustees shall have no power to grant the use of, or the right to lay down, any railroad tracks in any street of the city, to any steam or horse railroad company, except upon a petition of the owners of the land representing more than one-half of the frontage of the street, or so much thereof as is sought to be used for railroad purposes.” It is very clear that “natural persons” are here within the intention, although not within the'letter, of the act, for the injury against which protection is intended to be afforded is the laying of railway tracks in the streets. By whom the tracks shall be laid and the cars thereon operated, is, manifestly, of no consequence whatever. The same result, in all respects, will follow the laying of railway tracks in the streets and operating ears thereon by individuals, as will follow the laying of them by corporations. The use of the word “company, ” we have no doubt, was simply because such tracks are almost always laid and operated by companies. The clause should be read as including both corporations and individuals. Perry County v. Jefferson County, 94 Ill. 214; St. Louis, J. and C. Railroad Co. v. Trustees, 43 id. 303.

This, it will be observed, is not a grant of power, but a limitation upon a power assumed to be granted by some other provision of the same statute, for this statute professes to be a complete city charter in and of itself, without reference to other statutes; and since no one claims that any other than the ninth and twenty-fifth clauses can be construed to be a grant of power to lay tracks in the streets for steam railways, the reasonable inference is, that the legislature intended the ninetieth clause as a limitation upon the power granted in those clauses. • Assuming, then, that the common council are vested with this power, subject to this limitation, section 13 of article 3, of the same statute, directs in what manner that body shall exercise it.

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Bluebook (online)
3 N.E. 448, 115 Ill. 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-dock-canal-co-v-garrity-ill-1885.