Clyde Telephone Co. v. Parmenter

8 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 147, 19 Ohio Dec. 471, 1908 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 95
CourtSandusky County Court of Common Pleas
DecidedDecember 23, 1908
StatusPublished

This text of 8 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 147 (Clyde Telephone Co. v. Parmenter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Sandusky County Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clyde Telephone Co. v. Parmenter, 8 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 147, 19 Ohio Dec. 471, 1908 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 95 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1908).

Opinion

Richards, J.

This ease is an injunction suit involving a controversy arising from the location of the plaintiff’s wires, poles and cross-arms on certain streets in the village of Clyde, and the removal of a house belonging to the defendant through those same streets. The plaintiff brought the action for the purpose of preventing the defendant from interfering with its telephone poles, wires, cables, etc., in the removal of this house. The plaintiff Operates a general telephone business in the village of Clyde and vicinity.

The defendant began the removal of the house, and had gotten the house out from the lot onto Buckeye street, and was moving it northeast when it came into collision with and broke a pole and cross-arm belonging to the plaintiff company, and disarranged some of the plaintiff’s wires, and thereupon this injunction suit was brought.

[148]*148The ease came up in this court upon a motion to dissolve the injunction, and as a result of that hearing the injunction was so modified as to order the defendant to cut off a section of the gable of his house sufficiently -to allow its removal in the streets, and requiring the p’aintiff to put in the hands of the clerk of this court an amount of money reasonably sufficient to pay that expense, the court reserving the right thereafter to determine who ought to stand the expense.

After the modification of the injunction, the defendant altered the house so that it-might be removed along the streets, and it was removed and placed in -the location desired by the defendant, and this case comes on for. hearing upon the merits, to determine who ought to stand this expense ,and pay the costs of the action.

The statutes of Ohio, Revised Statutes, 3454 to 3471-8, give certain rights to telephone companies for the construction of lines of poles in the streets of municipalities and upon the highways, with the provision that they shall not be so built as to incommode the public. The plaintiff company, in addition to this statutory right, had a franchise in the village of 'Clyde, pro - viding for the specific location of its lines within the municipality. The general statutory rights are discussed in the case of Farmer et al v. The Columbiana County Telephone Co., 72 Ohio St., 526.

The primary use of the streets, of course, is for the purpose of travel, and in the judgment of this court neither the moving of a house nor the operation of a telephone line is an original or primary purpose of the street. Neither one of them subserves the purposes of travel, but each of them is an allowable use of the street, provided it is used under proper restrictions, and with due regard to the rights of others.

It has been held that the use of a street by an electric railroad is a primary use of the street, as it subserves the purposes of travel. See Railway Company v. Telegraph Association, 48 Ohio St., 390.

That case also decides -that it could not be held that a telephone company, the business of which is to transmit intelligence, is using the streets for the purpose of travel, the primary use to which the streets are dedicated.

[149]*149Nevertheless, the telephone company, by obtaining a location, and accepting it, and constructing its line upon the location granted, does acquire property rights, provided it does not violate the statute which says it must not incommode the public. I think that expression means, incommode the public in the use of the streets for the purposes to which streets are usually devoted. See Northwestern Telephone Exch. Co. v. Anderson et al, 98 N. W. Rep., 706 (12 N. Dak., 585). This is a case which has been found important enough to be reported in two series of collected reports, the case being found further in 102 Am. State Rep., 580, and 65 L. R. A., 771.

The court say in the syllabus, reading now from the 102 American State Reports, at page 580:

“The acceptance of the terms and conditions of an ordinance granting to a -telephone company the -úse of the streets of a city constitutes a contract between the company and the city, and the construction of its line at large expense gives such company vested rights which the city can not impair by- granting to persons the use of such streets for private purposes or extraordinary uses.
“House moving in a street is an extraordinary use thereof, and while it may be permitted, it can not be allowed so as to destroy the use of the street for the purpose of travel or other necessary public purpose, or to destroy or impair vested-rights.
‘ ‘ A licensed house mover in a city is liable for an injury done by him, while moving a -house, to the wires and property of a telephone company authorized by ordinance to establish and maintain a telephone line and system in the streets of such city. ’ ’

This case reviews the decisions pretty fully up to that time, and is a comparatively recent case, being only some four years of age, and it contains- a very -thorough consideration of the questions involved.

Another case, more recent yet, is the case of Kibbie Telephone Co. v. Landphere, 115 N. W., 244 (151 Mich., 309), a decision of March 5th, 1908.

The Compiled Laws of Michigan, Section 6691, provide that every telephone company organized thereunder shall have the power to construct and maintain .lines for the transmission of telephone messages through the public streets and highways with all necessary erections and fixtures therefor, provided that 'the [150]*150same shall not injuriously interfere with other public uses of said places. Held: That the use of the streets for moving a building was an unusual and extraordinary use, and was not such “other public use” as was contemplated bjr the statute. Where the telephone company, under the powers conferred upon it by the statute under which it was organized, erects its poles, wires, cables, etc., in a proper manner in the streets and highways, it has a vested right to their use and maintenance, and interference with them or destruction of them would be an appropriation of property without due process of law, which should be restrained.

Our own circuit court has had occasion'to pass on a question somewhat similar, being a case of the removal of a structure across an electric road. See Toledo, B. G. & S. Traction Co. v. Sterling, 9 C. C.—N. S., 200. See, also, Williams v. Citizens’ Railway Company, 30 Am. State Rep., 201 (15 L. R. A., 64; 330 Indiana, 71).

Such, then, are the general rights of a telephone company located in and along the streets, and of a house mover. Are there any facts in this case that would amount to a waiver, or estoppel, on the part of the plaintiff? It has been urged, on the part of the defendant, that in a conversation had between the defendant and the manager of the plaintiff company, the company waived any right it had, and should be prevented from exacting from the defendant the cost of the removal of the poles and lines, or for the alteration of the house.

It was found by the court that the cutting off of some four feet of gable would be cheaper than changing the pole lines. The number of lines 'and poles interferred with was so great that the evidence showed it would be less expensive to alter the house, and that was the sole reason for cutting the house, instead of changing the poles and arms.

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Related

Northwestern Telephone Exchange Co. v. Anderson
65 L.R.A. 771 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1904)
Kibbie Telephone Co. v. Landphere
115 N.W. 244 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1908)

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Bluebook (online)
8 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 147, 19 Ohio Dec. 471, 1908 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 95, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clyde-telephone-co-v-parmenter-ohctcomplsandus-1908.