Cleveland, C. C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Urbana, B. & N. Ry. Co.

16 Ohio C.C. Dec. 180
CourtLogan Circuit Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1903
StatusPublished

This text of 16 Ohio C.C. Dec. 180 (Cleveland, C. C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Urbana, B. & N. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Logan Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cleveland, C. C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Urbana, B. & N. Ry. Co., 16 Ohio C.C. Dec. 180 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1903).

Opinion

MOONEY, J.

It will be convenient to consider the asserted grounds for an injunction in this case in the order heretofore stated.

I. “ More than fifty years ” before the commencement of this action, general power was conferred upon cities and villages to lay off and establish streets. 50 O. L. 223. This power has ever since existed. Land held by a railroad corporation, whether acquired by it by purchase or appropriation, which is not employed in nor needed for the proper exercise of its corporate franchises, can be taken for a public use, the same as the lands of any other owner. Railway Co. v. Belle Centre (Vil.), 48 Ohio St. 273 [27 N. E. Rep. 464].

Under the general authority to establish streets, a city or village may establish streets across lands which are subject to the franchise of a railroad corporation, provided the second use for which the land is so taken is, in the circumstances of the particular case, reasonably consistent with the former use. The land may, in such case, be subjected to the additional use, but the former use may not thereby be wholly defeated. Little Miami Ry. Co. v. Dayton, 23 Ohio St. 510.

By the extension of the street, the land is subjected to an additional use, but the former use is not superseded; and, in so far as it is interfered with, the question becomes one simply of compensation.” Little Miami Ry. Co. v. Dayton, supra, p. 519.

Columbus avenue has been established as a public street across lands owned by plaintiff, some of which land then was and some was not used [187]*187or needed for railroad purposes. Plaintiff’s title in the land not so used or needed was absolutely extinguished by establishing the street. In the proceeding to establish the street, the consistency of the use of the lands occupied and used by the tracks for both railroad and ordinary street purposes was determined, and any interference with the railroad company’s use of the land for railroad purposes, by reason of the use of the land for ■ordinary street purposes being “ simply a question of compensation ” must be deemed to have been adjusted in that proceeding. This compensation, while including all use of the land for street purposes, would not ■cover new servitudes upon the land taken. The construction of a line of street railway along a street is an ordinary street use and is not a new servitude entitling the owner of abutting property, or of the fee of the street subject to the street easement, to further compensation.

“ So far as the carrying of passengers by this mode is concerned, it differs in nothing from the exercise of the common right of carrying them by coaches and omnibuses; and everything needing a grant, or the further authority of law, is the right to place and maintain in the highway, the necessary conveniences for this new description of carriages.” Cincinnati & S. G. Ave St. Ry. Co. v. Cumminsville, 14 Ohio St. 523, 545.

Moreover, plaintiff expressly states in its petition that its asserted title and ownership is subject to the “right and use of persons, animals and vehicles traveling upon or passing along the said avenue as a public street and highway.” A street car, propelled by electricity is, within this admission, a vehicle. Cincinnati St. Ry. Co. v. Snell, 54 Ohio St. 197 [43 N. E. Rep. 207; 32 L. R. A. 276]. See generally as a full and correct statement of the law of this branch of the case, Cincinnati & H. Elec. St. Ry. Co. v. Railway Co. 12 Circ. Dec. 113 (21 R. 391); affirmed, no report, Railway Co. v. Railway Co. 64 Ohio St. 550 [61 N. E. Rep. 1147]. Plaintiff, then, has no such ownership of, or title to, the lands in question as requires defendant to proceed by appropriation, or otherwise acquire the right from plaintiff as a condition precedent to the construction of the proposed line of street railway.

II. The ordinance of October 21, 1902, depends for its validity upon Sec. 2505 Rev. Stat. This section refers to Secs. 3437 to 3443, Rev. Stat., inclusive, and requires proceedings thereunder. Sections -3438 and 3439 Rev. Stat. were last amended and in the present form enacted April 18, 1883 (80 O. E- 173). It is asserted by plaintiff that the act is unconstitutionl and void, and the ordinance in question is therefore invalid. By Sec. 26, Art. 2, of the constitution “ all laws of a general nature are required to have a uniform operation throughout the state.”

[188]*188“Whenever a law of a general nature having-a uniform operation throughout the state,- can be made fully to cover and provide for any given subject matter, the legislation, as to such subject matter, must be by general laws, and local or special- laws cannot be constitutionally enacted as to such subject matter.” State v. Spellmire, 67 Ohio St. 77 [65 N. E. Rep. 619].

The grant of street railway franchises by municipalities or other public agencies, and the establishment of street railway routes by them, can be covered and provided for by general laws. The possibility is demonstrated by the fact that it has been done. It is provided in the act of April 18, 1883, “ that this act shall not apply to any county containing a city of the. second grade of the second class.” This proviso excepts Montgomery .county from the operation of the amended sections. If the proviso is to be taken as an integral part pf the act, there can be, we think, no doubt that,this enactment of a general nature is not valid law, because it does not have uniform operation throughout the state. Now the proviso equally with the other terms of the act is expressive of the legislative will. On the one hand the legislature wills and declares that the existing statutes shall be altered and amended so far as eighty-seven counties of the state are concerned, and on the other hand it wills and declares that the existing statutes shall remain in force unaltered and unamended so far as Montgomery county is concerned. The act voted upon was intended no less to accomplish one purpose than the other, and both purposes were intended to be carried into effect by the act. The constitution prevents not only the accomplishment of the one purpose, but also of the other and of both together.

In. State v. Buckley, 60 Ohio St. 273, it was held:

“1. When an act of the general assembly, required to have uniform operation throughout the state, expressly excepts from its operation one or more cities or counties, such act by reason of such exception is unconstitutional and void.
“ 2. • Such an exception cannot be held invalid and thereby extend the act over the excepted territory, because in such case the general assembly never enacted the statute in such territory, and the court has no power to enact it therein.”

What is true of Sec. 1 of the act referred to is equally true of Sec. 2 thereof — the repealing section. The legislature never declared its intention to repeal said-sections as to the whole state, but only as to certain counties ('less than all), leaving the former statutes in force in one county.

To permit such partial repeal would indirectly accomplish the very purpose which the constitutional provisions -were designated" absolutely [189]*189to prevent. The repealing section is therefore void, also.

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Related

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167 U.S. 88 (Supreme Court, 1897)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
16 Ohio C.C. Dec. 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-c-c-st-l-ry-co-v-urbana-b-n-ry-co-ohcirctlogan-1903.