Oregon-Washington R. & N. Co. v. Spokane P. & S. Ry. Co.

163 P. 600, 83 Or. 528, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 49
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 6, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 163 P. 600 (Oregon-Washington R. & N. Co. v. Spokane P. & S. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oregon-Washington R. & N. Co. v. Spokane P. & S. Ry. Co., 163 P. 600, 83 Or. 528, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 49 (Or. 1917).

Opinions

Mr. Justice McCamant

delivered the opinion of the court.

We desire to express our obligations to counsel who have appeared in this case for the clarifying arguments and the able and exhaustive briefs with which we have been assisted in our investigation of the important questions suggested by this record.

It was formerly necessary to secure an act of Congress in order to authorize a railroad company to bridge a navigable stream. The policy of Congress in adopting legislation of this character was to require the builder of the bridge to permit the common user thereof by other railway companies: Union Pacific Co. v. Chicago, Rock Island & P. R. Co., 163 U. S. 583 (41 L. Ed. 265, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1173); Union Pacific R. Co. v. Mason City etc. R. Co., 199 U. S. 160, 161 (50 L. Ed. 134, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 19). In 1899 Congress passed a general act on the subject (30 Stats, at Large, 1151, 4 U. S. Comp. Stats. 1913, § 9971, 6 Fed. Stats. Ann. 805), giving general authority to the Secretary of War and to the several states to act in all cases involving the bridging of navigable streams lying wholly within the boundaries of one state. Pursuant to this statute and the construction placed thereon by the Federal Supreme Court in Montgomery v. Portland, 190 U. S. 89 (47 L. Ed. 965, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 735), plaintiff secured authority to construct the bridge in question, subject to certain conditions, one of which was the common user clause above quoted.

1. Plaintiff contends that the defendant is not entitled to avail itself of the common user clause in the ordinance of the Port of Portland, because it is not authorized under its articles of incorporation to operate between its passenger terminals on the west side of the Willamette River in Portland and the in[536]*536dustrial district of East Portland. The articles of incorporation of the defendant have been received in evidence. They confer authority, among other things, for the construction, maintenance and operation of a line of railway from Spokane, Washington, to Portland, Oregon. It has been- frequently held that the line authorized by such a grant need not terminate at the boundaries of the terminal cities, but may extend to convenient points within them: 2 Elliott on Railroads, 927a; 33 Cyc. 122; Farmers’ Turnpike Road v. Coventry, 10 Johns. (N. Y.) 389; Mohawk Bridge Co. v. Utica & S. R. R. Co., 6 Paige Ch. (N. Y.) 554; Mason v. Brooklyn City etc. R. Co., 35 Barb. (N. Y.) 373, 377; Moses v. Pittsburgh etc. R. Co., 21 Ill. 516; McCartney v. Chicago etc. R. Co., 112 Ill. 611, 626; Tennessee & A. R. Co. v. Adams, 3 Head (Tenn.), 596, 597; Waycross Airline R. Co. v. Offerman & W. R. Co., 109 Ga. 827, 829 (35 S. E. 275); Rio Grande R. Co. v. Brownsville, 45 Tex. 88, 93. It has also been held that the definite location by a railroad company of its terminals does not deprive it of the power to extend its facilities into other parts of the city; Appeal of Western Pennsylvania R. Co., 99 Pa. St. 155, 161. Any other rule than that announced in these authorities would greatly hamper the development of cities, demanding as they do enlarged terminal facilities to keep pace with their industrial expansion. The charters of railroad companies should not be subjected to the narrow and technical construction which we must adopt in order to sustain plaintiff’s contention on this point.

2. It is next contended by plaintiff that the defendant is not a railroad company within the purview of the common user clause of the ordinance of the Port of Portland. This claim is based on the fact that the bridge and its approaches will not constitute a part of [537]*537the main line of the defendant and will not be used by its passenger trains or for the carriage of mail and express matter, which is a traffic appurtenant to the carriage of passengers, and that, on the contrary, the defendant desires the common user privilege solely for the purpose of switching cars between its established terminals on the west side of the Willamette in Portland and the trackage which it controls on the east side of the river in the same city.

It has been held that a common user clause, such as that involved in the case at bar, is entitled to a liberal construction: Joy v. St. Louis, 138 U. S. 1, 38, 50 (34 L. Ed. 843, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 243). If we are to give a liberal construction to the common user clause we think we must hold that the defendant- is entitled to the benefit of its terms. The purpose in view in inserting a common user clause in a bridge franchise is twofold. It is important that navigation shall not be impeded by the construction of bridges over navigable streams except as such bridges are needed, and it is also important that public service corporations shall not be required to expend money unnecessarily in providing facilities for which the public must pay in the form of transportation charges. The use which the defendant desires to make of the bridge in question is a legitimate railroad use and would probably have justified the Secretary of War and the Port of Portland in granting the defendant a franchise for the construction of an additional bridge across the Willamette Eiver. It is much better from every point of view that the present bridge should be used by both of these parties. The equal rights and privileges relative to the passage of railway trains and cars over the bridge, provided for in the ordinance; and for which plaintiff is entitled to compensation, are the right to pass trains [538]*538and cars thereover without discrimination and with the same facility as that under which plaintiff operates on the bridge. In order to the enjoyment of these rights and privileges it is not necessary that defendant should transport thereover the same number or the same kind of trains and cars as plaintiff.

It is true, as contended, that the defendant’s right to use the bridge grows out of the franchise ordinance and is not dependent on a judgment of condemnation. It has been held that the parties are not entitled to a trial by jury for the purpose of fixing the compensation to be paid in such a case as this: Union Depot R. Co. v. Southern Ry. Co., 105 Mo. 562 (16 S. W. 920). The proceeding is nevertheless somewhat analogous to a condemnation proceeding. The payment to the senior company of adequate compensation is a condition to the exercise of the right demanded by the junior company: Grand Avenue Ry. Co. v. People’s Ry. Co., 132 Mo. 34, 38 (33 S. W. 472, 475). It is therefore pertinent that the courts have held that in a condemnation proceeding a limited easement may be condemned: St Louis etc. R. Co. v. Postal Tel. Co., 173 Ill. 508, 535 (51 N. E. 382). It is also well established that the condemnor may by proper proceedings had in the condemnation action limit the right demanded, with a view to the reduction of the damages to be assessed: 2 Lewis on Eminent Domain, 1247, and note; Oregon Ry. & Nav. Co. v. Owsley, 3 Wash. Ter. 38 (13 Pac. 186, 188); State ex rel. Kent Lumber Co. v. Superior Court, 46 Wash. 516, 520 (90 Pac. 663);

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Bluebook (online)
163 P. 600, 83 Or. 528, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oregon-washington-r-n-co-v-spokane-p-s-ry-co-or-1917.