Pennsylvania Co. v. Bond

99 Ill. App. 535, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 445
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 21, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 99 Ill. App. 535 (Pennsylvania Co. v. Bond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pennsylvania Co. v. Bond, 99 Ill. App. 535, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 445 (Ill. Ct. App. 1902).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Freeman

delivered the opinion of the court.

The burden of appellee’s complaint as shown by his bill is that appellant is about to take possession, with two additional tracks, of the east thirty-three feet of the west sixty-six feet of that part of Stewart avenue lying in front of his property, and to erect a fence along the east line thereof, without compensation to appellee as owner of the fee. The additional thirty-three feet taken to make the original avenue ninety-nine feet wide was condemned, and was paid for by appellant in accordance with the ordinance of July 21, 1887; but the strip thirty-three feet wide in the middle of the avenue as now constituted, and which appellant sought to appropriate and has since appropriated, has not been condemned nor paid for.

The principal question raised by the bill was determined in Bond v. Pennsylvania Co., 171 Ill. 508. The case was then before the Supreme Court on appeal from an order of the Circuit Court dismissing the bill for want of equity upon demurrer; and the principal question presented by the record and decided by the court was as stated in the opinion (p. 513), “ whether an owner of land abutting upon a public street, who owns the fee in such street subject to the public easement, can enjoin the laying of tracks upon and the use and occupation of such street by a steam railroad company to the practical exclusion of the public from so much of such street as is so occupied, where no compensation to such owner has been ascertained or made, but where such company is acting under authority of an ordinance of the municipality.” It was held that the bill stated a good cause of action, and (p. 517) it was said that “ the railroad, and use of it by appellee (the Pennsylvania Company) being an additional servitude upon the land used as a public street, the fee of which was in appellant (appellee here), appellee must first proceed to condemn appellant’s interest in the street for its own uses before it can lawfully appropriate it.” The case was accordingly sent back to the Circuit Court with directions to overrule the demurrer and proceed with the cause. This has been done, and a decree entered in the Circuit Court which perpetually enjoins appellant, the Pennsylvania Company, from constructing additional tracks upon that part of Stewart avenue in controversy, and from erecting any fence or wall lengthwise thereon, and grants other relief.

It appears from appellant’s answer that the allegations of the bill are conceded to be substantially correct, and there is no dispute as to the material facts. The city ordinance of July 21, 1887, a copy of which is attached as an exhibit to the bill of complaint, granted to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Eailway Company, its lessees and successors, permission and authority to lay down, maintain and operate two additional tracks and necessary appurtenances in Stewart avenue as then laid out, sixty-six feet in width, providing the said company (appellant’s lessor) should pay the entire cost of widening the avenue to' ninety-nine feet, and of grading and improving for street purposes the addition so made. Appellant states in its answer to the bill, that it has complied with the conditions of that ordinance and has already paid the sum of $8,073 for improving the additional thirty-three feet added to Stewart avenue, and for the removal of lamp posts, drain and water pipes, taken from the east half of the original street and replaced upon said newly added thirty-three feet; and that it has paid or is about to pay over $76,000 for viaducts constructed by it in accordance with its contract with the city evidenced by said ordinance of July 21, 1887.

It is first contended by appellant’s counsel that as the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Company is shown by the bill to be the owner and lessor of the railroad operated by appellant, it is therefore a necessary party defendant to the suit. It is said that the privileges granted by the ordinance are granted to the Fort Wayne Company and not to appellant, its lessee. The ordinance shows, however, that the grant is to the Fort Wayne Company, its lessees and successors.” The Fort Wayne Company was originally a party defendant, but has been dismissed from the suit. That was done, however, before the appeal to the Supreme Court. In Bond v. Pennsylvania Co., supra, the court refers (171 Ill., p. 511) to the dismissal of the bill as to all defendants except the Pennsylvania Company, appellant herein, and holds that inasmuch as said appellant had asked leave to have its answer to the original bill stand to the bill as so amended, it was precluded from demurring thereafter except to matter set up in a subsequent amendment. The objection now under consideration comes too late, therefore, in any event, whether well founded or not, and the principle of res adjudicada applies. An error existing at the time an appeal is prosecuted, and which the party appealing had opportunity to assign, is deemed to have been waived. Ogden v. Larrabee, 70 Ill. 512-513; Hook v. Richeson, 115 Ill. 431-444; Champaign County v. Reed, 106 Ill. 389-392; Smyth v. Neff, 123 Ill. 310, 315. It does not appear, however, that the Fort Wayne Company is a necessary party. The grant of the ordinance was equally to its lessee, the appellant. ¡Neither the Pennsylvania Company, a foreign corporation, nor its lessor, the Fort Wayne Company, a domestic corporation, claims any interest in or title to the land in controversy. Appellant admits that it is itself intending to occupy and lay tracks as alleged in the bill, claiming the right to do so by virtue of the ordinance of July 21, 1887. Appellee by bis bill sought to prevent such obstruction and use of the land in question by appellant, the only party apparently of whom he has as yet cause or reason to complain. The objection referred to comes, however, too late, and need not be further considered.

There is a provision, in the decree that “ if it shall appear said defendant company has, or that its officers, agents, servants or lessors for it, have, since the beginning of this suit, laid or caused to be laid,”'any new track or tracks on said premises in controversy, or if they or any of them have erected the fence in question, then “ said company, its officers, agents, servants and attorneys ” are perpetually restrained, not only from further operating or using such additional tracks and from further maintaining, permitting or using any fence upon said avenue in front of appellee’s property, but it is further ordered “ that within thirty days after the entry of a final decree herein, said defendant company shall, and it is hereby ordered and decreed to remove such additional track or tracks and fence from said portion of said avenue along and past said lot one.”

This portion of the decree is doubtless open to objection. By its terms it becomes effective only if it shall appear that these things have been done. How it is • to be determined whether they have been done, the decree does not state. Why counsel should have submitted to the chancellor a decree containing such a condition, especially when the evidence showed the condition had been already fulfilled, we are at a loss to discover. This part of the decree is by its terms inoperative.

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Bluebook (online)
99 Ill. App. 535, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 445, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pennsylvania-co-v-bond-illappct-1902.