Pittsburg. C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Columbus, C. & I. C. Ry. Co.

19 F. Cas. 772, 8 Biss. 456
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Indiana
DecidedApril 15, 1879
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 19 F. Cas. 772 (Pittsburg. C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Columbus, C. & I. C. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pittsburg. C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Columbus, C. & I. C. Ry. Co., 19 F. Cas. 772, 8 Biss. 456 (circtdin 1879).

Opinion

HARLAN, Circuit Justice.

The more Important facts out of which this litigation has arisen, are as follows: The complainant, the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railway Company, an Ohio corporation, was formed in 1856 by the consolidation of the Steuben-ville and Indiana Railroad Company, an Ohio corporation — the Holiday’s Cove Railroad Company, a West Virginia corporation — and the Pan-Handle Railway Company, a Pennsylvania corporation. At the date of the lease hereafter referred to, it operated a continuous line of railroad from Pittsburg, via Steuoen-ville, to Columbus, Ohio.

The history of the organization of the de- ! feudaut corporation, the Columbus, Chicago ! and Indiana Central Railway Company, is as follows: The Columbus and Indianapolis Central Railway Company was formed in 1864, by articles of consolidation between the Columbus and Indianapolis Railroad Company, an Ohio corporation, and the Indiana Central Railway Company, an Indiana corporation— the consolidated company operating a line of railroad extending from Columbus to Union City, on the state line between Ohio and Indiana, with a branch from the main line, in Miami county. Ohio, to the. Indiana state line, where the track of the Indiana Central Railway touches the same, through Richmond to Indianapolis.

The Columbus and Indiana Central Railway Company was formed by a consolidation of the Columbus and Indianapolis Central Railway Company and the Union and Logansport Railway Company, an Indiana corporation, whose line extended from Union City to Lo-gansport, and the Toledo, Logansport and Burlington Railway Company, an Indiana corporation, whose line extended from Logans-port to the west state line of Indiana.

The Chicago and Great Eastern Railway Company, an Indiana corporation, was consolidated in 1863 with the Galena and Illinois River Railroad Company, the consolidated company retaining the former name. The latter was subsequently consolidated with the Chicago and Cincinnati Railroad Company, an Indiana corporation, retaining the name of the Chicago and Great Eastern Railway, and the company last named, in 1863, consolidated with the Cincinnati and Chicago Air Line Railroad Company, an Indiana corporation, whose line extended from' Richmond to Lo-gansport. The company last formed by consolidation retained the name of the Chicago and Great Eastern Railway Company, owning and operating, as an Indiana corporation, the line from Richmond through Logansport to the Illinois state line, and as a corporation in Illinois, the line from that point to Chicago.

Finally, in December, 1807, the Colunrous and Indiana Central Railway Company, and the Chicago and Great Eastern Railway Company (last named), consolidated and became the Columbus, Chicago and Indiana Central Railway Company, owning and operating lines of railroad extending from Columbus to the Indiana state line, four miles east of Richmond, from Union City to the junction of the main line, from Union City to Logansport, from Logansport to the Illinois state line, from the Ohio and Indiana state line, four miles east of Richmond, through that city to Logansport, and from Richmond to Indianapolis, and from a point on the eastern line of Indiana to Chicago — the entire line being about 586% miles in length'.

It should be here stated that the Cincinnati and Chicago Air Line Railroad Company, to which reference has been made, was formed in I860 by the associate purchasers, at judicial sale, of the railroad from Richmond to Lo-gansport. The decree was to foreclose a mort[774]*774gage given by the Cincinnati, Logansport and Chicago Railway Company, and the sale was subject to the continuing lien of a prior mortgage on 27 miles of the road, between Richmond and Newcastle, given by the Newcastle and Richmond Railroad Company, then the owner of that portion, which was the same corporation as the Cincinnati, Logansport and Chicago Railway Company, with its name changed aDd its line of road extended from Newcastle to Logansport. After the organization of the Cincinnati and Chicago Air Line Railroad Company a bill in equity was filed in this court by James Pulían, trustee, against the last named company, to enforce said subsisting mortgage, given by the Newcastle and Richmond Railroad Company. And on July 30, 1874, a decree was rendered, adjudging that there remained due on account of said bonds and interest the sum of $033,500.44. Por that sum the road from Richmond to Newcastle was directed to be sold.

On the 20th of February, 18GS, the Colum: bus, Chicago and Indiana. Central Railway Company executed to Roosevelt and Fosdiek, trustees, a mortgage upon the entire railroad property of said company, with all its franchises, equipments, property, tolls, issues, profits. lands, tenements, buildings, fixtures, machinery, goods and chattels, connected with or used in- the operation of said railroad, including all the property of every kind then owned or possessed, or thereafter acquired by the mortgagor, but excepting certain property which need not be here mentioned, to secure the payment of bonds then about to be issued, to the amount of $15,000.000, payable twenty years after date, with seven per cent, interest, payable semi-annually.

The mortgage recited: That the several corporations composing the mortgagor company had, prior to its consolidation, become indebted by mortgage bonds, which were still unpaid and continued a lien on the respective parts of the road and property so consolidated and united, in the amounts following, to-wit:

The Columbus and Indiana Central Railway Company, for the sum of $3.200,000 on the road from Indianapolis to Columbus, and from Richmond Junction to Union City, and for the sum of $2,000,000 on its road from Union City to Logansport, and for the sum of $S00,000 on its road from Logansport to the Illinois state line, in all, the sum of $6,000,000; the Chicago and Great Eastern Railway Company, for the sum of $5,600,000, in several liens on different parts of its road, as follows: $2ÜS,000 on line between Richmond and Newcastle; $1.2S3.000 on line between Richmond and Logansport, and $1,820,000 on line between Logansport and Chicago, and $2,199,000 on the line between Richmond and Chicago, the last named sum being part of an issue of $5,600,000 made to take up previous liens, and $3.040,000 of said issue being unexchanged, and delivered at time of consolidation to the Columbus, Chicago and Indiana Central Railway Company.

The mortgage also recited: That it was issued in pursuance of the resolutions adopted on February 13, 1S68, by the board of directors of the mortgagor corporation, by which it was declared among other things, that it was expedient to reduce to simple forms and classes all of the bonded debts aforesaid of the corporations of which the mortgagor corporation was constituted, and for which indebtedness that corporation was. by lien upon its property or otherwise, liable; that to that end an issue be made of consolidated mortgage bonds to the amount of $13,-900,000, secured by mortgage upon the prop-' erty, rights and franchises of the property of the consolidated company, — $11,500.000 of such issue to be used for the redemption and payment, dollar for dollar, of the like amount of the said first mortgage bonds of the several companies already mentioned.

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Related

Moran v. Pittsburgh, C. & St. L. Ry. Co.
32 F. 878 (U.S. Circuit Court, 1887)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 F. Cas. 772, 8 Biss. 456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pittsburg-c-st-l-ry-co-v-columbus-c-i-c-ry-co-circtdin-1879.