Consolidated Traction Co. v. South Orange & Maplewood Traction Co.

40 A. 15, 56 N.J. Eq. 569, 1898 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 91
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedMarch 1, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 40 A. 15 (Consolidated Traction Co. v. South Orange & Maplewood Traction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Consolidated Traction Co. v. South Orange & Maplewood Traction Co., 40 A. 15, 56 N.J. Eq. 569, 1898 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 91 (N.J. Ct. App. 1898).

Opinion

Emery, V. C.

The complainant is a traction company operating street railways, organized under the Traction act of March 14th, 1893, and under this act entered upon and is operating the street railroad of the Orange and Newark Horse Car Railroad Company, as one of its lines. This street railroad is a double-track road running through Main street in the city of Orange, and, at the time of the entry on it by complainant, was operated by horses, but is now equipped and operated by the electric overhead trolley system.

The rights of the complainant to the occupation of the portion of Main street now in question for the purposes of its railroad, were first conferred on the Newark Passenger Company, a predecessor in title of the complainant, by a resolution of the common council of the city of Orange, passed August 25th,. 1890, which authorized this company to construct, maintain, and operate their street railway for the transportation of passengers from the point on Main street where their line then ended, westerly to the city boundary line. A previous resolution of the common council of August 8th, 1890, gave the Newark [571]*571Passenger Company the right to use the overhead trolley system for propelling their cars.

The defendant is also a. traction company organized under the Traction act of 1893, incorporated November 8th, 1897, and on or about this date entered upon the street railroad of the South Orange and Maplewood Street Railway Company. This latter company was organized as a street railway company in 1894, and by its original articles its road was to be constructed entirely within the limits of the village of South Orange, and-was to run over private property, except where it crossed two. public avenues. The road was subsequently extended, beyond the village of South Orange and into the,township of West. Orange and into the city of Orange, up to the south side of Main street, where complainant’s railway is now operated. This extension is alleged by complainant to have been m.ade without authority of law. The extension of the road of the South Orange and Maplewood Street Railway is also built upon pri-. vate lands, except where it crosses the public highways, and for this crossing of the highways by the road as extended, the municipal authorities of the township have given authority. The extension of the road by the street railway company as far as the south side of Main street in Orange (according to the bill) was completed and-the road in operation as long ago as the 7th of June, 1897, and on this date the street railway company applied to the city of Orange for permission to cross Main street, and the city council passed an ordinance on August 9th, 1897, granting this authority. On August 30th, 1897, a certiorari was granted by Mr. Justice Depue on the application of complainant, removing the ordinance to the supreme court, and by consent of the street railway company, which was a party defendant to the proceedings, the ordinance was afterwards set aside. One of the reasons assigned in the certiorari proceedings for setting aside the ordinance was that the street railway company had no authority to construct or operate a street railway beyond the limits of South Orange. After this ordinance had been set aside, the defendant, the South Orange and Maplewood Traction Company, was organized under the Traction act of [572]*5721893, and entered upon the railroad of the South Orange and Maplewood Street Railway Company as constructed and operated by the latter company. At the time of filing the certificate of entry required by the Traction act of 1893 (P. L. of 1893 p. 306 § 5), the road was constructed and in operation as far as the south side of Main street, and ever since its entry thereon, has been operated by the defendant from that point. On November 8th, 1897, the defendant, under the Traction act (section 6) filed a route for a proposed extension of its road from the terminus of the extension of the road on the south side of Main street, and across Main street, where complainant’s tracks are laid. The Traction act (section 6) requires the consent of the municipal authorities to the location of the route of an extension by a traction company before the construction thereof, and the defendant on its application to the common council procured an ordinance, approved on December 21st, 1897, granting permission to construct, maintain and operate a double-track street railway across Main street. This ordinance did not provide for the location of the tracks and poles of the extension across Main street, but a resolution passed January 3d, 1898 (three days before the filing of the bill), provides for these locations. The defendant’s railway is also operated by the overhead trolley system, and it now proposes to construct its system across the complainant’s tracks, and claims the right to do so under this ordinance. Such construction cannot be made without to some extent interfering with the complainant’s tracks during construction, and the continued operation of both roads at the point of crossing, in the method provided by the ordinance, will require the removal of the present rails of complainant, and the substitution» at the crossing of rails especially constructed for crossings, and will also require the adoption of the overhead wire system now owned and used by complainant in such way that at the place of crossing a joint use for a short distance either of some portion of complainant’s wire, or of defendant’s wire, is necessary.

The complainant has given no consent to the construction of the crossing by defendant, nor has any offer' of compensation [573]*573for damages to complainant, by reason of the construction, been made. Complainant’s bill' asks an injunction upon two grounds —-first, that the defendant has no right to make its extension across the street, for the reason that the railroad of the street railroad company, upon whose road defendant entered, was not lawfully constructed beyond the limits of South Orange, and defendant’s entry thereon under the Traction law, outside of that township, was unauthorized; second, that complainant’s rights in its track and trolley system, operated in the public streets, are property rights which cannot be interfered with against their consent, without compensation. A preliminary injunction is now applied for.

Such preliminary injunction cannot be granted upon the first ground. The only ground upon which the complainant’s right to equitable relief, based upon the illegal construction and operation of the defendant’s railroad outside of the limits of South Orange, and up to the south side of Main street in the city of Orange, can be based, is the interference with the authorized business of the company, by competition carried on without authority of law. Such unauthorized competition with the business operated under a legal franchise, is a recognized ground of equitable as well as legal relief. Raritan and Delaware Bay Railroad Co. v. Delaware and Raritan Canal Co., 3 C. E. Gr. 546; Pennsylvania Railroad Co. v. National Railway Co., 8 C. E. Gr. 441; Jersey City Cas. Co. v. Dwight, 2 Stew. Eq. 242.

The only other legal injury which complainant can sustain by reason of an illegal extension of the defendant’s road beyond the limits of South Orange and up to Main street, is an injury common to the public or to all other owners of property, and such common injury affords no basis for equitable interference on behalf of the individual or property-owner to enjoin the illegal exercise of a public franchise.

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Bluebook (online)
40 A. 15, 56 N.J. Eq. 569, 1898 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consolidated-traction-co-v-south-orange-maplewood-traction-co-njch-1898.