Harvey v. Aurora & Geneva Railway Co.

57 N.E. 857, 186 Ill. 283
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 57 N.E. 857 (Harvey v. Aurora & Geneva Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harvey v. Aurora & Geneva Railway Co., 57 N.E. 857, 186 Ill. 283 (Ill. 1900).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Cartwright

delivered the opinion of the court:

. This case is before us for the third time. Defendant in error was incorporated under the general act concerning corporations, in force July 1,1872, for the purpose of constructing and operating a street railway. It located and constructed its railway in streets and highways, with the consent of the proper authorities, from a point in the city of Aurora to and through the city of Batavia and from thence to a point in the highway south of the city of Geneva, and obtained permission from the city of Geneva to construct and operate its railway in Sixth street and Campbell street in said city. Between said point in the highway south of Geneva and the south end of Sixth street it located its railway over private property, deflecting to the east from the public highway and passing under the Chicago and Northwestern railway and over premises owned by plaintiffs in error and others to the south end of Sixth street. It filed its petition in the circuit court of Kane county to ascertain the compensation to be paid to the owners of such private property. No necessity was shown for departing from the highway, but the court refused to dismiss the petition on motion of the property owners. Plaintiffs in error and others brought before us the record of that ruling, and we reversed it. (Harvey v. Aurora and Geneva Railway Co. 174 Ill. 295.) We fully recognized the rule that the exercise of the power of eminent domain is a legislative question, and that the legislature of the State, representing the public at large, have paramount authority to delegate the exercise of that power to a corporation so long as the use is a public one, but we held the rule subject to the limitation that the taking must be within the power delegated by the legislature. A street railway is a road constructed on a street or highway with the principal object of accommodating street travel, and it can only be a street railway and fulfill that object by following the public street or highway, except in cases of temporary divergence under exceptional conditions. The courts will protect the property owner from an abuse of the power to take private property, delegated to such corporations, in case of necessity.

The record contained no evidence whatever that it had become necessary to leave the public highway and go across private property in the construction or operation of • the road, and there was evidence that it was wholly unnecessary. The cause was re-instated in the circuit court, and defendant in error amended its petition by setting up specifically a necessity for deflecting from the highway and taking private property, and the reasons therefor. The circuit court heard the evidence on that question and dismissed the petition. Defendant in error appealed from that decision, and the case was here for the second time. The evidence in the record on that hearing proved the existence of such obstacles in the public highway and such dangers to the public in the practical operation of the road -that the necessity for deflecting from the public highway contemplated by the statute had arisen, and the right to- appropriate the private property of plaintiffs in error on which the road was located was within the power delegated by the legislature to street railways. We therefore decided that defendant in error had established its right, under the law, to condemn the property sought to be taken as described in the petition, ( and that the circuit court erred in its judgment denying it that relief. The judgment was accordingly reversed and the cause remanded, with directions to proceed in conformity with the views expressed in the opinion then filed. (Aurora and Geneva Railway Co. v. Harvey, 178 Ill. 477.) In pursuance of the directions so given, the defendant in error, as petitioner in the circuit court, served notice upon defendants to its petition that on Monday, April 17, 1899, it would apply to the circuit court to re-instate the case and proceed to a final disposition of it. On the Saturday night preceding such application the city council of the city of Geneva' passed an ordinance, as follows:

“Sec. 1. The said Aurora and Geneva Railway Company, its successors or assigns, may, subject to all private rights which may be involved, and subject to said further conditions as may be imposed by ordinance when said railway company shall have definitely and precisely adopted a rpute within the limits of this ordinance, locate its right of way within the city limits of Geneva as follows, and not otherwise, namely: Along Batavia avenue, or any part thereof, from the southern city limits northward; along Shady avenue, or any part thereof; across private property in passing from one of the said streets to the other, provided the consent of the owner or owners of such private property be first obtained; across or along Cheever avenue and across private property from the north end of Shady avenue northward to the right of way of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, provided the consent of the owner or owners of such private property be first obtained; over the right of way of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company not east of where Sixth street extended southward would cross said right of way, or under said right of way at some point west of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company’s depot and near the tunnel or culvert through which the brook passes; from the point of emergence after so passing under the right of way of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company westward over private ground, provided the consent of the owner or owners thereof be first obtained, parallel with said right of way and not more than fifty feet distant from the northern limit thereof, to land which would be in Sixth street if that street were extended southward to said north limit of the right of way of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company; northward on property which would be in Sixth street if so extended southward, as aforesaid, to South street, provided the consent of the owner or owners of said property be first obtained; across South street to Sixth street; along Sixth street to State street; along Campbell street from Sixth street to the court house; along Bridge street from Batavia avenue to First street; along First street to State street; along any street or streets from First street to the county court house.
“Sec. 2. Any location for said railroad not in this ordinance expressly allowed is hereby prohibited, in,eluding the route at present proposed by said railway company.
“Sec. 3. This ordinance is passed under power conferred in and by paragraph 25 of section 1,_ article 5, of the general Incorporation .act for cities and villages, and is to be construed as a provision for the location by the 'said railway company of its line within the city limits of Geneva and not as a grant of rights in any street, and the determination whether such rights shall be granted is reserved until a petition for the same shall be presented by the railway company under and in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 90 of said section 1, article 5.
“Sec. 4. Final action may be taken on this ordinance immediately upon its introduction or at any time thereafter, and the same shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.”

On April 17, 1899, the cause was re-instated according to notice, and plaintiffs in error entered their motion to dismiss the petition.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cummins, Inc. v. Tas Distributing Co., Inc.
700 F.3d 1329 (Federal Circuit, 2012)
Hughey v. Industrial Commission
394 N.E.2d 1164 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1979)
La Salle National Bank v. County Board of School Trustees
337 N.E.2d 19 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1975)
McReynolds v. City of West Frankfort
122 N.E.2d 433 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1954)
City of Chicago v. South Side Elevated Railroad
183 Ill. App. 181 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1913)
Lonoke v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.
123 S.W. 395 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1909)
Ward v. Field Museum of Natural History
89 N.E. 731 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1909)
East St. Louis Ry. Co. v. Louisville & N. R.
149 F. 159 (Seventh Circuit, 1906)
Lingle v. City of Chicago
77 N.E. 924 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1906)
Bradley v. Lightcap
66 N.E. 546 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1903)
Baldwin v. Hanecy
104 Ill. App. 84 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1902)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 N.E. 857, 186 Ill. 283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harvey-v-aurora-geneva-railway-co-ill-1900.