Oler v. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.

111 N.E. 619, 111 N.E. 618, 184 Ind. 431, 1916 Ind. LEXIS 136
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 23, 1916
DocketNo. 22,130
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 111 N.E. 619 (Oler v. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oler v. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co., 111 N.E. 619, 111 N.E. 618, 184 Ind. 431, 1916 Ind. LEXIS 136 (Ind. 1916).

Opinion

Cox, J.

Appellant sued to have the vacation of a part of Center Street in the town of Dublin, Wayne County, declared void as to her and to enjoin appellee perpetually from lowering the grade of its [433]*433railroad and from reconstructing and double tracking it over that part of the street vacated. No question is raised as to the sufficiency of any pleadings and they need not be further stated as,.pursuant to appellant’s request, the court found the facts specially and stated conclusions of law thereon and the sole error relied on arises from appellant’s exceptions to the conclusions of law. The court found in material substance that Center Street was the most western of the streets of the town running north and south through it and intersected and crossed appellee’s railroad at right angles. It had been a street of the town for more than thirty years. North of its railroad and abutting on the east side of Center Street appellee owned a lot on which was located its station. -Adjoining appellee’s station lot on the north appellant owned certain lots of land which also abutted on the east side of Center Street and as such abutting owner owned the fee to the center of Center Street. North of appellant’s property Center Street was intersected by a street running east and west which gave appellant an outlet by way of Center Street to the north and to the east and west. On May 24, 1910, and long prior thereto appellee •owned and operated its single track steam railroad which ran from the city of Eichmond, Indiana, through the town of Dublin on to St. Louis, Missouri. On this date appellee was engaged in a general enterprise of rebuilding and double tracking its railroad. And for the purpose of enabling it to lower the grade of its tracks through the town, to abolish grade crossings and to make improvements across Center Street appellee filed its petition as an abutting owner in the Wayne Circuit Court asking for the vacation among others of Center Street from a point even with the north line of its station lot to a [434]*434point south of the south line of its right of way. Upon the filing of its petition ten days’ notice to the town of Dublin and the citizens thereof was given by publication. fixing June 6, 1910, for hearing the petition. This notice set forth the substance of the matters involved in the petition and described the part of the street sought to be vacated and the purpose for which its vacation was desired; but it did not particularly set forth or designate appellant’s property, or any property whatever, which might be affected by the proposed vacation. The only persons named in the petition as particularly interested in and who would be affected by the vacation asked, other than appellee, were two other abutters, except that a blue print plat or map which was made a part of the petition, showed appellee’s line of railroad through the town, the streets, alleys, lots and tracts of ground (including appellant’s) contiguous thereto and with reference to the parts of streets and alleys sought to be vacated; but appellant was not directly named as a person who would be particularly interested in or affected by the vacation nor was her property otherwise so specifically designated. Appellant nevertheless appeared and filed a remonstrance against the proposed vacation and asserted therein that her land immediately adjoined the part of the street asked to be vacated and that it would suffer injury and damage by the vacation which she asked to be determined and ordered paid by appellee before the vacation was ordered. This remonstrance was filed ten days after the time fixed in the notice for the hearing and was subsequently struck out and appellant thereafter filed a cross-complaint in which she claimed to be an abutting owner, immediately adjoining that part of the street sought to be vacated and that the vacation of the street and the lowering of the grade of ap[435]*435pellee’s railroad fourteen feet as contemplated at the point of crossing would destroy the ingress to and egress from her property to the south and so result in great and permanent damage to it, wherefore she asked that the vacation of the street and the destruction of it at the crossing be enjoined. This cross-complaint was likewise stricken from the files of the proceeding. Thereafter such proceedings were had that the vacation was ordered by the court as petitioned for, but over appellant’s objection and without damages to her being assessed or paid. In the vacation proceedings the court did not pass upon or determine whether appellant’s real estate would be injured or damaged by the vacation. After the judgment ordering the vacation and prior to the bringing of this action appellee proceeded to make a cut through the town about fourteen feet deep and 100 feet wide for the purpose of lowering the grade of its railroad and making it a double track instead of a single track road which cut extended across Center Street at the point covered by the judgment vacating it. And this cut appellee claimed the right to make without restoring the crossing of Center . Street over its right of way by virtue of the vacation. of that part of the street. The court finally found that appellant and her real estate would “be damaged and injured by the vacation of said portion of said street.” On the facts as found the court concluded as a matter of law that the law was with the appellee and that appellant was not entitled to have appellee “enjoined from vacating or destroying said Center Street as set forth in her complaint.”

1. Counsel for appellant press with much earnestness a claim that the statute under which the vacation proceeding was conducted is violative of the provision of the 14th amendment to the Federal Constitution which forbids any state [436]*436from making or enforcing any law which shall deprive any person of property without due process of law; and that it also contravenes §21 of the Bill of Rights (Art. 1) of the Constitution of the State which provides that no man’s property shall be taken by law without just compensation, nor except in the case of the State, without such compensation first assessed and tendered. These contentions are not based on any claim that the provisions of the statute in question do not grant adequate and constitutionally sound authority to surrender those rights in the street which are common to the public and to divest the public authorities of the duty which lies upon them to keep a street in safe repair, but they are based on insistence that the statute seeks also, with the vacation so far as the public rights are concerned, to take away from abutting owners those private rights of ingress and egress which are appurtenant to their lots and as much property as the lots themselves. And it is insisted that no notice and opportunity to be heard which .satisfy due process of law are provided for those for whom provision is made for a hearing on the question of compensation; and that .as to those situated as appellant no provision at' all is made for any hearing to determine and award compensation for the invasion of her private right. Now in this case appellant is seeking to protect what she claims as an invasion by appellee, by lowering the grade of its tracks, of her private right of ingress and egree as she had previously enjoyed it to and from property abutting on a part of the street not vacated but which would be rendered a cul-de-sac by the closing or obstruction of that part vacated. For this reason we do not deem any question of the constitutional validity of the statute is necessarily involved unless the statute attempts to deprive appellant of such private right and at the same time [437]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
111 N.E. 619, 111 N.E. 618, 184 Ind. 431, 1916 Ind. LEXIS 136, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oler-v-pittsburgh-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railway-co-ind-1916.