Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Chicago City Railway Co.

224 Ill. App. 380, 1922 Ill. App. LEXIS 281
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided March 21, 1922·No. Gen. No. 25,495·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Mr. Justice Morrill

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of Cook county in an action of assumpsit under the common counts brought by the appellee against appellant to recover certain amounts expended by appellee in elevating its tracks and excavating a subway at Fifty-ninth street, an east and west street in the City of Chicago. The ease was tried by the court without a jury and resulted in a judgment in favor of appellee for the sum of $1,130.20. The appeal from this judgment has heretofore received our consideration (221 Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company, Appellee, v. Chicago City Railway Company, Appellant. App. 23), reshlting in an order of affirmance by this court, for the reason that the record presented no questions of law for review. For that reason we declined to review the judgment on its merits. This decision was reversed by the Supreme Court (Pittsburgh, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Chicago City Ry. Co., 300 Ill. 162), so that the case is now before us for determination upon its merits. In prior proceedings the appellee has been designated as the “railway company” and the appellant as the “traction company.” For the sake of brevity and' to avoid confusion we shall continue to employ the same nomenclature.

Before the elevation of its tracks the railway company operated a steam railroad line across Fifty-ninth street, at grade, in the City of Chicago and the traction company maintained and operated a street railway line on said street, the western terminus of which was a point 20 feet east of the railway company’s main line. This action involves the relative obligations growing out of the elevation of the railway company’s tracks across Fifty-ninth street and the construction of a subway thereunder and the necessary relocation and realignment of the traction company’s surface railway. It requires a consideration and construction of the ordinance under which the track elevation, took place (hereinafter called the “track elevation ordinance”) and the ordinance under which the traction company maintained and operated its street railway (hereinafter called the “traction ordinance”). The railway company’s claim is for the sum of $1,130.20, of which amount $1,108 was the expense incurred by it in mailing necessary excavations so as to lower the street to the new grade established by the track elevation ordinance. The area excavated by it, for the expense of which it claims reimbursement, was 16 feet wide and 468 feet long, located at Fifty-ninth street immediately east of the company’s main line. This area, except the west 20 feet thereof, was occupied by the tracks of the traction company prior to the track elevation. The remaining $22.20 was the cost of removing two of defendant’s trolley poles.

. The declaration contained the common counts only, to which defendant filed a plea of the general issue and three pleas of set-off, in which the traction company sought compensation for its expense in, reconstructing its equipment occasioned by the elevation of the railway-company’s tracks and the construction of the subway thereunder. All of this equipment was removed preliminary to the track elevation and subway construction and had to be restored. The various items of the cost of these transactions were agreed upon by the parties. The first plea of set-off is based upon the common counts; the second alleges the taking, damaging and injuring of the property of the traction company as the direct result of the elevation of the tracks of the railway company and the construction of the subway; and the third sets forth that the traction company was required to do certain things under the ordinance authorizing its use of the street for the operation of the system, its acts pursuant thereto, the passage of the track elevation ordinance on April 22, 1912, the acts of the railway company in constructing the subway and approaches thereto for the purpose of elevating its tracks over Fifty-ninth street pursuant to the track elevation ordinance, and that in consequence thereof defendant was compelled to remove its equipment from said subway and approaches, reconstruct its roadbed, tracks and electrical equipment and repave a portion of the street occupied by its tracks so reconstructed and a portion additional thereto. It' is averred that the expenses so incurred by the traction company amount to $10,986.66, for the payment of which it contends the railway company is liable.

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Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Chicago City Railway Co., 224 Ill. App. 380, 1922 Ill. App. LEXIS 281 (Ill. Ct. App. 1922).

224 Ill. App. 380 (Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Chicago City Railway Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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