Indianapolis & Eastern Railway Co. v. Town of New Castle

87 N.E. 1067, 43 Ind. App. 467, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 71
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 6, 1909
DocketNo. 6,346
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 87 N.E. 1067 (Indianapolis & Eastern Railway Co. v. Town of New Castle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indianapolis & Eastern Railway Co. v. Town of New Castle, 87 N.E. 1067, 43 Ind. App. 467, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 71 (Ind. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

Hadley, J.

This ivas an action instituted by appellee in the ITenry Circuit Court for the recovery of the cost of paving that portion of a street lying between the ends of the ties of appellant’s track. The complaint is in one paragraph, and proceeds upon the theory that appellant is liable for the cost of said improvement by virtue of the franchise granted to appellant by the board of trustees of said town on November 13, 1902, whereby appellant agreed that, in ease any street occupied by said appellant was improved by graveling or paving, it would pay the cost of such improvement of that portion of such street lying between the ends of the ties of its track.

The complaint sets out in full the ordinance granting the franchise. It also shows that the street was ordered to be and was improved by paving, under the statutes of the State enacted for such purposes, that a demand was made on appellant to pay the same, and it refused to do so. A demurrer was filed to this complaint, which was overruled, and appellant answered by setting up the ordinance set out in the complaint, and then averring that on April 8, 1903, appellee, through its board of trustees, amended said ordinance by another which eliminated the contract to improve the streets, contained in the first ordinance, and which formed the basis of appellee’s suit. Said answer also shows that, subsequently to the enactment of said original ordinance, appellant laid and temporarily constructed its tracks for the operation of a system of street-railway in the street afterwards improved; that said amended ordinance was passed prior to the commencement of such improvement; that said amended ordinance repealed and rendered ineffective said original ordinance, and, at the time said street was so improved, there was no agreement on the part of appellant to pay for any portion thereof. To this answer appellee filed a demurrer which was sustained, and appellant refusing to plead further, judgment was rendered in [470]*470favor of appellee and against appellant. From this judgment appellant appeals.

The only error assigned and discussed is the sustaining of appellee’s demurrer to appellant’s answer.

The record shows that said original ordinance consisted of fourteen sections. It provided numerous restrictions upon the railway, as well as granting it a number of powers and rights. The amendatory ordinance is in nineteen sections, aiid reincorporates within its provisions the greater portion of the provisions of the original ordinance, and adds other restrictions and rights. The title of the amendatory ordinance is as follows:

"An ordinance amending sections of an ordinance entitled ‘An ordinance granting the Indianapolis & Eastern Railway Company the right to construct, maintain and operate a street-railway upon the streets of the town of New Castle, Indiana,’ passed and adopted by the board of trustees of the town of New Castle, Indiana, on November 13, 1902.”
The first section of said ordinance is as follows:
‘ ‘ Section 1. Be it ordained by the board of trustees of the town of New Castle, ITenry county, Indiana, that an ordinance entitled ‘An ordinance granting the Indianapolis & Eastern Railway Company the right to construct, maintain and operate a street-railway upon the streets of the town of New Castle, Indiana,’ passed and adopted by said board of trustees on November 13, 1902, be and the same is hereby amended to read as follows, to wit: An ordinance authorizing the construction, maintenance and operation of a street- and interurban railway in the town of New Castle, Henry county, Indiana. Section 1. Be it ordained by the board of trastees of the town of New Castle, Henry county, Indiana, that consent, permission and authority be and are hereby given and granted unto .Indianapolis & Eastern Railway Company, its successors and assigns, to locate, survey, construct, own, maintain and operate a single or double track standard gauge street- and interurban railway with the necessary side-tracks, switches, turnouts, and turntables, etc. ’ ’

Then follows the language of the original section.

[471]*4711. No section of the original ordinance, as an entirety, is left out of the amendatory ordinance. A portion of each section, or the section as a whole, is reincorporated in the amendatory ordinance. The contract upon which this action is based is found in section three of the original ordinance. This section provides, in addition to such provision, that appellant may take up or alter any track or lay any track in any other street, as it may from time to time determine, but shall put the vacated street in as good condition for travel as it was before said track was taken up, and shall put the street in as good condition where the track is laid as it was before such track was laid; that it shall keep all that portion of the street lying between the ends of its ties in good repair. By section five of the amendatory ordinance these provisions are reenacted, with the further provision that said railroad shall keep and maintain the track in such a condition that the rails and ties of said track will not interfere with public travel more than is reasonably necessary to operate said railroad, and will not interfere with vehicles crossing over or driving upon said tracks. The substantial difference between said section three and said section five is that in section three there is an agreement to pay for the improvement of that portion of the street lying between the ends of the ties of appellant’s track -when the city shall improve such street, while in said section five no such agreement appears, and this agreement is not reenacted in any other section of the amendatory ordinance. It thus is made clearly to appear that the new ordinance was intended to supersede the old and embrace the entire regulations on the subject; the language of the first section being that the original ordinance “shall be amended to read as follows,” clearly indicating that the amendments were intended to apply to the ordinance as a whole. Every subject in-the original ordinance is covered by the amendatory ordinance, unless the improvement of streets, which is in-[472]*472eluded iu a section for tlie repair of streets, should be called a subject. But the fact that all the other matters connected with this provision are specifically reenacted would clearly indicate that it was the intention of the parties to eliminate the contract for the payment of improvements. And while there is no provision in the amendatory ordinance that specifically declares that it shall stand as the only ordinance, or that specifically repeals any other ordinance, yet, under the well-settled rule, that where it clearly appears that the new ordinance was intended to replace the old and embraces the entire regulation on the subject, it must be construed as a repeal of the former ordinance on the same subject. 1 Smith, Mun. Corp., §545; Booth v. Town of Carthage (1873); 67 Ill. 102; City of Providence v. Union R. Co. (1879), 12 R. I. 473; Knight v. Town of West Union (1898), 45 W. Va. 194, 32 S. E. 163; People, ex rel., v. Harrison (1900), 185 Ill. 307, 56 N. E. 1120. It must be held that the second ordinance upon its passage extinguished the first, and became the existing contract between the parties.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 N.E. 1067, 43 Ind. App. 467, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 71, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indianapolis-eastern-railway-co-v-town-of-new-castle-indctapp-1909.