Lincoln Traction Co. v. Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Co.

187 N.W. 790, 108 Neb. 154, 28 A.L.R. 960, 1922 Neb. LEXIS 226
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 1922
DocketNo. 21942
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 187 N.W. 790 (Lincoln Traction Co. v. Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lincoln Traction Co. v. Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Co., 187 N.W. 790, 108 Neb. 154, 28 A.L.R. 960, 1922 Neb. LEXIS 226 (Neb. 1922).

Opinion

Flansburg, J.

This was an action brought by the Lincoln Traction Company, plaintiff, against the Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company, defendant, to enjoin the defendant from building some 600 feet, of street railway track in the streets of the city of Lincoln, and to enjoin the defendant from using, for the purposes of its own railway business, certain street railway tracks belonging to the plaintiff. The injunction was allowed and defendant appeals.

The Lincoln Traction Company is a Nebraska corporation and owns and operates a system of street railway in the city of Lincoln.

The Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company is a corporation, operating an interurban railway. Its tracks [156]*156enter the city from the east, and then pass within some 000 feet of the entrance to the farm campus of the Nebraska University, and proceed along the streets of the city in a westerly direction until Fourteenth street is reached, when the tracks proceed south, passing the east side of the city campus of the University; the city and farm campus being about two and three-quarters miles apart. These tracks, therefore, furnish a reasonably direct route between the university city campus and the university farm campus, except that at the farm campus, the tracks, at their nearest point, pass the farm entrance at some 000 feet distant, and at the city campus the tracks pass along the east instead of the south side, and several hundred' feet distant from the south and main entrances to the city campus. The defendant Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company proposes to construct a track from the nearest point on its main line, so as to extend to the entrance to the farm campus. That track would pass along and over Idlewild Drive in the city of Lincoln, and would be some, 600 feet in length. The construction of that track the plaintiff seeks to enjoin.

The Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company also proposes to use certain tracks, which belong to the plaintiff Lincoln Traction Company, located south of the city campus of the University of Nebraska, and which pass directly in front of the south entrances to such city campus, so as to be able to go around a loop, formed by its tracks and the tracks of the Lincoln Traction Company, and so as to be able to pass its cars, over plaintiff’s tracks, in front of the, south entrances.

By adding these two facilities to its present system, the Omalia, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company would have a trackage by which it could render a street railway service from the city campus to the entrance to the farm campus by a more direct route than could the plaintiff Lincoln Traction Company.

For some years the Lincoln Traction Company has been [157]*157rendering street railway service between the farm campus and the city campus by, in part, using the trackage facilities of the Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company, under an agreement and lease, entered into by and between the two companies, but the rights under that agreement have been declared terminated, and, as we do not consider the status of the parties under that agreement material in this case, that agreement, or the operation by the companies thereunder, will not be further mentioned.

The Lincoln Traction Company, however, has trackage facilities by which it is able to render, and has in the past rendered, street railway service between the city campus and the entrance to the farm campus, by going west from the city campus, then south to O street and east for a distance, and then back north again. This route between the two points, however, is longer and more indirect, and through a district, where passenger traffic is heavier and where more frequent stops are required, than over the route furnished by the trackage of the Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company.

In June, 1920, the city council of the city of Lincoln enacted two ordinances. One of these ordinances, of date June 1, 1920, granted permission to defendant Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company to connect with and use, for railway purposes, the tracks of the plaintiff Lincoln Traction Company, so as to form a loop of tracks and so as to enable the Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company to run its cars over plaintiff’s tracks and in front of the main entrance to the city campus of the University. ■ The permission to use those tracks was intended to be granted in pursuances of statute (Laws 1917, ch. 216, see. 9), and was to be upon “terms and conditions to be fixed by the Nebraska state railway commission.”

On June 11, 1920, a second ordinance was enacted, purporting to grant permission to the Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company to construct, maintain and operate the proposed track, now in controversy, along and upon [158]*158Idlewild Drive. The permission to build that track was absolute and not made conditional upon the approval of the electors, nor was the question of permission to construct the track and maintain service over it ever submitted, or intended to be submitted, to a vote of the electors.

On June 14, 1920, immediately after the passage of the second ordinance, the Lincoln Traction Company, plaintiff, brought this action, to enjoin the Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Railway Company from constructing any track on Idlewild Drive, and from using the tracks, lying in front of and to the south of the city campus and belonging to the Lincoln Traction Company.

It is the defendant’s contention that plaintiff is not entitled to bring the action to enjoin the construction of tracks by the defendant, for the reason that the plaintiff has no special interest; that it is not affected differently from any other citizen; and that the question of the authority in the defendant to construct the tracks and operate a railway service, under color of the permission granted to it by the ordinance, can only be questioned on the relation of the state. The defendant argues that the Lincoln Traction Company has no valid franchise, and that, whatever its rights are, they are not exclusive, in the sense that the city is prevented from granting to any other company the right to conduct a street railway business in the city.

The right of the Lincoln Traction Company to operate its street railway system upon certain streets in the city of Lincoln, including those tracks upon which the defendant now seeks to operate, as well as those tracks of the plaintiff company by which it is able to furnish street railway service between the city and farm campus, has been established by the decision in State v. Lincoln Street R. Co., 80 Neb. 333. In that case it is said that the construction and operation of street railway lines, under a blanket permission from the electors to go upon all the streets of the city, gave to the street railway company an easement in the streets occupied, though the blanket license did not [159]*159give the right to extend lines, or to go upon other streets than those which had become occupied within a reasonable time after the grant of permission had been given.

In the case of Herpolsheimer Co. v. Lincoln Traction Co., 96 Neb. 154, the right of the plaintiff company in the streets was not only recognized, but its duty to continue upon the streets occupied and to render service as a street railway company was enforced, and it was declared in that ease that the traction company could not remove tracks or change service without the consent of the railway commission.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 N.W. 790, 108 Neb. 154, 28 A.L.R. 960, 1922 Neb. LEXIS 226, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lincoln-traction-co-v-omaha-lincoln-beatrice-railway-co-neb-1922.