Geiger v. President of the Perkiomen & Reading Turnpike Road.

31 A. 918, 167 Pa. 582, 1895 Pa. LEXIS 949
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 29, 1895
DocketAppeal, No. 291
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 31 A. 918 (Geiger v. President of the Perkiomen & Reading Turnpike Road.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Geiger v. President of the Perkiomen & Reading Turnpike Road., 31 A. 918, 167 Pa. 582, 1895 Pa. LEXIS 949 (Pa. 1895).

Opinion

Opinion by

Me. Justice Dean,

These facts, as abbreviated from the case stated, were agreed upon in the court below :

1. The defendant is a turnpike company, incorporated by act of 20th March, 1810. Said act and its supplements were made part of the cases stated.

[584]*5842. Ou March 9, 1894, the company made an order, that all persons riding bicycles upon the turnpike should not pass through any of its gates, except upon payment of toll at rate of one cent per mile.

8. The bicycle was not invented and in common use until the year 1875.

4. The plaintiff, on December 11, 1894, while on his bicycle, attempted to pass through a toll gate on the turnpike, but was stopped by the gate-keeper, who demanded from him five cents toll, being the amount demandable at the rate of one cent per mile. Plaintiff paid the five cents under protest, and was then permitted to pass.

5. As a general rule, horses gentle and well broken do not take fright at bicycles, but some such horses do.

The question of law for the court to answer, was, whether on these facts the company had a right to collect this toll from the plaintiff ? The court below, being of opinion that there was no express statutory grant of authority, and no necessary implication of one, to defendant to collect toll from bicyclers, entered judgment for plaintiff; hence this appeal by defendant.

The defendant was organized as a turnpike company under the act of 1810, and under that act had authority to make all such by-laws, rules and regulations for its management as the Centre Turnpike Company, organized under act of 25th March, 1805, had, with the right to collect such tolls and profits in proportion to the distance as was granted to the Centre Turnpike Company. On turning to this last named act, we find, in section 11, the company had the right “ to fix such and so many gates or turnpikes upon and across the said road as will be necessary and sufficient ” to collect the tolls hereinafter granted to the said company from all persons traveling on the same with horses, cattle and carriages.

Three distinct uses of the highway are here enumerated as subject to tolls, — by horses, cattle and carriages.

Then the method of enforcing payment of tolls is specified:— “ It shall and may be lawful for them (the managers) to appoint such and so many toll gatherers as they shall think proper, to collect and receive of and from all and every person and persons using the said road the tolls and rates hereinafter mentioned, and to stop any person driving any .... sulbey, chair, [585]*585chaise, phaeton, cart, wagon, wain, sleigh, sled or other carriage of burthen or pleasure from passing through the said gates ■until they shall have respectively paid the same.” Then follows a basis of computation or limitation on the rates to be •charged; thus, — “ that is to say, for every space of five miles in length of the road, .... and so in proportion for any ■greater or less distance, .... for every sulkey, chair, or chaise with one horse and two wheels, six cents; with two horses, nine cents; . . . . for every other carriage of pleasure under whatever name it may go, the like sums according to the number of wheels and horses drawing the same.” There is no ■mention of bicycle propelled by the muscles of the rider; therefore appellees contend, there is no express or plainly implied statutory power in the company to collect tolls from the bicycler.

There is no power in a corporation as against the public •except that expressed in its grant, or that which is necessarily implied from it. What is the power granted to this company by the law ?

The commonwealth conferred on the defendant a right of •eminent domain, for a public highway, under which it appropriated land and constructed and kept in repair its turnpike. As soon as constructed and opened, it became public; it was open to all on equal terms, that is, to all paying toll alike, for a like use. The taking of tolls, it has been held, is only another method of taxing the public for the cost of construction, repair and reimbursement to the corporation for the capital invested: Com. v. Wilkinson, 16 Pick. 175 ; Plank Road Co. v. Thomas, 20 Pa. 91. The power here, then, was to a private corporation, 1, To take sufficient land for a public highway, and construct and keep the same in repair for the convenient and safe use of the public, 2, To collect from the public who used it by animals and carriages, tolls.

The word tolls, in 1810 and 1805, had in this state a well defined meaning. As is said in Boyle v. Phila. & Read. R. R. Co., 54 Pa. 310: “ It is a tribute or custom paid for passage.” Strong, J., in that case, says: — “ Before 1833, transportation had generally been over common roads, turnpikes and canals. The common and the legislative mind were then familiar with what is called tolls.” Here the defendant demanded, through the toll gatherer it was expressly authorized to appoint, at the [586]*586gate it was expressly authorized to erect, from the plaintiff, five cents for passage over the highway, or a toll for its use. It may be conceded, that the enumeration in the act of 1805, of the uses for which tolls may be collected, restricts the right to collect for such uses only, as are either specially or generally designated. But if a bicycle be a carriage, then the general words “ other carriage of burthen or pleasure,” and “ every other carriage of pleasure under whatever name it may go,” are sufficiently descriptive to subject it to toll. It is not strenuousty contended that a bicycle is not a two wheeled carriage. It is no less a carriage because propelled by a man instead of being drawn by a horse; whether it be one of burden or pleasure, or both, is not material, for if either, defendant was expressly authorized to collect toll from the persons using it on the turnpike.

But, it is argued, the only basis fixed in the act for computation of toll on carriages, is by wheels and horses, not wheels •or horses; therefore, as this carriage is not drawn by horses, the amount of toll cannot be determined by the law of the corporation, and as it cannot thus be determined, there is no power to demand any.

Assuming, the amount of toll to be charged is incapable of computation by the method designated for other vehicles in the act, that does not negative the power expressly given to collect toll from those traveling b}*- carriage. The method of computation by wheels and horses is not the power to collect toll, which is expressly given; that is a mere limitation on the power; the demand must not exceed the sums specified for the animals and vehicles enumerated.

In Pa. R. R. v. Sly, 65 Pa. 205, it is held, that toll is the consideration for the use of the highway, and where there is no express power to charge for transportation by the corporation itself over its own road, the right is a necessary incident of the power granted. Says Sharswood, J., repeating the language of Strong, J., in Boyle v. P. & R. R. R. Co., supra, “ No provision was made respecting rates and charges for their own service as carriers; but the very purpose of their incorporation was, that they might carry. How can they carry without compensation ? Authorized to engage in a business, it is necessarily incident to their authority, that they have the rights which ordinarily belong to such a business.”

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Bluebook (online)
31 A. 918, 167 Pa. 582, 1895 Pa. LEXIS 949, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/geiger-v-president-of-the-perkiomen-reading-turnpike-road-pa-1895.