City of Tulsa v. Midland Valley R.

168 F.2d 252, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2037
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 1948
DocketNo. 3538
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 168 F.2d 252 (City of Tulsa v. Midland Valley R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Tulsa v. Midland Valley R., 168 F.2d 252, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2037 (10th Cir. 1948).

Opinion

MURRAH, Circuit Judge.

In April 1946, the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, by appropriate resolution, declared' its 5th street to be an arterial highway and directed the City Engineer to notify the-Midland Valley Railroad Company to restore the crossing at 5th street to the condition existing prior to the time it was closed in 1928 by an order of the State-Corporation Commission. When the Railroad Company refused and the City sent its employees upon the right of way to open the crossing, the Railroad Company brought this action, pursuant to which the trial court permanently enjoined the City [253]*253and its officials from designating, locating and constructing a crossing over the right of way and tracts of the Railroad Company.

By this appeal, the City of Tulsa contends that the trial court erred in holding that the Corporation Commission had exclusive jurisdiction to determine and prescribe the crossings of the tracks of the railroad in Tulsa, and in particular over 5th street; that in any event, the order of the Corporation Commission dosing the 5th street crossing was void for lack of jurisdiction, because the City of Tulsa was a necessary party and was not served; and, that the order abrogated a contract in violation of Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution of the United States.

In 1919 the Oklahoma Legislature gave the Corporation Commission “ * * * full jurisdiction over all public highway crossings, where same cross steam or electric railroads or railways within the state of Oklahoma,” Laws of 1919, Ch. 53, p. 88, Sec. 1, 17 O.S.A. § 81, and “ * * * exclusive jurisdiction to determine and prescribe the particular location of highway crossings, for steam or electric railways * * * ” and “ * * * to alter or abolish any such crossings * * * ”. Laws of 1919, Ch. 53, p. 88, Sec. 4, 17 O.S.A. § 84. And this general power has been consistently sustained in the Oklahoma Courts. Thompson v. State, 196 Okl. 190, 164 P.2d 232; Kansas City So. Ry. Co. v. State, 195 Okl. 424, 158 P.2d 699; Kansas City So. Ry. Co. v. Citizens of Westville, 184 Okl. 100, 89 P.2d 320, certiorari denied 306 U.S. 658, 59 S.Ct. 774, 83 L.Ed. 1055; City of Ardmore v. Chicago R. I. & P. Ry. Co., 172 Okl. 373, 45 P.2d 540.

In 1921, the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Tulsa invoked the jurisdiction of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission by filing an application to require the Railroad Company to construct an underpass at 6th street, and requested the Commission to consider the public crossings in Tulsa. The City of Tulsa was not made a party nor given notice, but when the cause came on for hearing the City Attorney asked that the City be made a party and participated in the lengthy hearing involving the proposed underpass and the closing of 5th street.

The record does not disclose any order or further action until 1926 when the City of Tulsa moved to reopen the cause, resulting in an order providing for the construction of an underpass at 6th street at the equal cost to the Railroad Company and the City, and for the closing of 5th street upon completion of the underpass. Upon application of the City the order was modified to provide for the closing of the 5th street crossing for a trial period of one year after the completion of the 6th street underpass, “the matter thereafter to be reopened upon application of the city of Tulsa, if it is thought desirable for rehearing and action by the Commission”.

In 1930, after the underpass at 6th street had been opened and the crossing at 5th street closed for over one year, the City of Tulsa again applied to the Corporation Commission for an order reopening the crossing at 5th street. In denying this application, the Commission was of the opinion that the public interest could best be served by leaving the crossing at 5th street closed, and denied the application. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma and affirmed. City of Tulsa v. State Corporation Commission, 169 Okl. 455, 37 P.2d 619.

Without denying the exclusive jurisdiction of the Corporation Commission under the 1919 Act, appellants invoke the 1945 Amendment to the Highway Act, Laws of 1945, pp. 284, 285, Secs. 1-8, 69 O.S.A. §§ 11.1-11.8, as repealing or modifying by implication the exclusive provisions of the 1919 Act. The 1945 Act authorizes certain cities, including the City of Tulsa, to “ * * * plan, designate, establish, regulate, vacate, alter, improve, maintain and provide limited access facilities * * * ”, and to that end * * * provide for the elimination of intersections * * * with any highway, road, street, or alley * * or ky ciosing 0£f Such other highway, road, street or alley, or by otherwise protecting such limited access facility :¡< * *

It is said that the two acts are in intolerable conflict; that they cannot stand [254]*254together, and the former must therefore give way to the latter, insofar as is necessary to give full force and effect to the powers granted therein. In other words it is contended that given its reasonable construction, the 1945 Act operates to divest the Corporation Commission of exclusive jurisdiction over the street crossings in the City of Tulsa and to confer such jurisdiction upon that City.

Since repeals by implication are not favored in the law, we should not impute to the Legislature an intent to repeal, modify or supersede the former Act unless such intention is manifestly clear from the context of the legislation. United States v. Burroughs, 289 U.S. 159, 53 S.Ct. 574, 77 L.Ed. 1096; Frost v. Wenie, 157 U.S. 46, 15 S.Ct. 532, 39 L.Ed. 614; United States v. Rollnick, 2 Cir., 91 F.2d 911; Cochran v. Sullivan, 94 Okl. 23, 220 P. 870; Southerland Statutory Construction Section 2012. Furthermore, “Legislative grants to municipal corporations are to be strictly construed, and any reasonable doubt'is to be resolved against the grant. And the enumeration of specific powers operates to exclude those not enumerated.” City of Tulsa v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 10 Cir., 75 F.2d 343, 352.

The 1945 Act specifically authorizes the City to provide for the elimination of intersections with any other “highway, road, street, or alley”, but it does not in specific terms authorize the City to prescribe the particular location of highway crossings fpr steam or electric railways, nor does it authorize it to “alter or abolish” any such crossings. When the two acts are read together with a disposition to harmonize, it seems sufficiently plain that the Legislature did not intend to divest the Corporation Commission of the exclusive jurisdiction over highway crossings for steam or electric railways within the city, exercising the specifically enumerated powers in the later Act.

If the order of the Corporation Commission is void for lack of service or notice to the City of Tulsa, the remedy is not self help by undertaking to open the street on its own initiative; it is to the Corporation Commission for a valid order. Moreover, the City was made a party to the proceedings at its request and apparently assumed the laboring oar. It twice applied for reopening or reconsideration of the order and appealed to the Supreme Court from an adverse ruling without complaining of lack of notice or Service, and it cannot complain of it here.

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Bluebook (online)
168 F.2d 252, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2037, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-tulsa-v-midland-valley-r-ca10-1948.