Postal Tel. Cable Co. v. Cleveland, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co.

94 F. 234, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3059
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio
DecidedMay 20, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 94 F. 234 (Postal Tel. Cable Co. v. Cleveland, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Postal Tel. Cable Co. v. Cleveland, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co., 94 F. 234, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3059 (circtndoh 1899).

Opinion

RICKS, District Judge.

In this action the Postal Telegraph Cable Company, a corporation and citizen of the state of RTew York, seeks to appropriate for its use the easement or right of way to construct, maintain, and operate its telegraph line, and the necessary fixtures and appurtenances thereto, “in accordance with law,” on and over and within five feet of the outer southerly limits of the respondent railway company’s right of way, from the southwesterly corporation limits of the ci ty of Cleveland, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, to and through the counties of Cuyahoga, Lorain, Huron, Richland, Crawford, Morrow, Marion, Hardin, Logan, Shelby, and Darke, to the town of Union City, on the state line between Ohio and Indiana. The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company is a corporation organized under the laws of Ohio, and is a citizen of said state. The Union Trust Company, the other defendant, is a corporation organized under the laws of Indiana, a citizen of Indiana, and is trustee under a general mortgage executed by the defendant railroad company to secure the first mortgage bonds of said company to the amount of $50,000, and which mortgage is a lien upon the right of way sought io be appropriated. There is the necessary allegation of the jurisdictional value of the matter in dispute, and also an allegation that the complainant lias filed with the postmaster general of the United States its written acceptance, pursuant to section 5268 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, of all the restrictions and obligations required by law, and thereby secured the right to construct, maintain, and operate its lines of telegraph upon all post roads in the United States, but so as not to interfere with the ordinary travel on such post roads. The right of way of the railroad company is about 100 feet in width, and said railroad is a post road, under the laws of the United States. The Western Union Telegraph Company, a rival corporation, by virtue of a contract with the railroad company occupies the northerly line of said right, of way of the railroad company betwpen the city of Cleveland and Union City, the terminal points of the line sought to be aj > propria ted; and the plaintiff alleges that: the contract between the Western Union Telegraph Company and the railroad company assured to said the Western Union Telegraph Company, so far as it legally might, the exclusive use of said right of -way for telegraph purposes- contrary to the laws of the United States and of the state of Ohio, and that the railroad company refuses to agree with the plaintiff upon a sum to be paid by way of just compensation for the easement sought to be acquired by this proceeding.

The defendant the Cleveland. Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company moves the court to dismiss this proceeding and the petition on the following grounds, to wit:

“(1) The same are not authorized by any law of the United States. (2) The same are not authorized, by any law of the state of Ohio. (3) This court has no jurisdiction of this proceeding. (4) The petitioner has no right to appropriate tins defendant’s property, or any part thereof, or any rights therein, by judicial proceedings or otherwise. (5) For defect of parties defendant.”

[236]*236Judge Dillon, in his work on Municipal Corporations (section 482), says that “the tribunal by which the amount of compensation to the landowner is to be determined must be prescribed by positive law”; and the supreme court of Ohio, in the case of Harbeck v. City of Toledo, 11 Ohio St. 219, have held that proceedings under the Ohio laws for the appropriation of private property by corporations must be in strict accordance with such laws. It might be claimed that the legislature of the state of Ohio intended to confer exclusive jurisdiction in condemnation proceedings on the probate courts of the state. The first section of chapter 8, tit. 2, Rev. St. Ohio (being section 6414), provides that “appropriations of private property by corporations must be made according to the provisions of this chapter.” Section 6416 of that chapter provides that the petition must be filed with the probate judge, and the whole chapter seems to confine the proceedings to the probate court. But, when the procedure under the laws of a state differs from that of the federal courts, the state laws must give way to the practice of the federal courts. Kohl v. U. S., 91 U. S. 367. If this proceeding is a suit at common law, jurisdiction is vested in the circuit courts of the United States, for the proper allegations as to citizenship and amount involved are made in the bill. Boom Co. v. Patterson, 98 U. S. 403; Martin v. Railroad Co., 151 U. S. 673, 14 Sup. Ct. 533. That it is a suit admits of no question. Kohl v. U. S., 91 U. S. 367; Weston v. City Council of Charleston, 2 Pet. 464.

If the federal courts have jurisdiction in such cases when removed from the state courts, there is no good reason why they have not original jurisdiction, as well. We come, therefore, to the question whether the appropriation sought to be made is authorized by any law of the United States. If the Postal Telegraph Cable Company were a corporation organized under the laws of the United States, for purposes in which the government had a direct interest, it might be claimed that such power was granted. The act of July 24, 1866, made no provision for compensation or payment for property to- be taken; hence the procedure cannot be sustained by virtue of that act. The supreme court, in Pensacola Tel. Co. v. W. U. Tel. Co., 96 U. S. 1, distinctly say:

“It gives no foreign corporation the right to enter upon private property, without the consent of the owner, and erect the necessary structures for its business; but it does provide that, whenever the consent of the owner is obtained, no state legislation shall prevent the occupation of post roads for telegraph purposes by such corporations as are willing to avail themselves of its privileges. * * * No question arises as to the authority of congress to provide for the appropriation of private property to the uses of the telegraph, for no such attempt has been made. The use of public property alone is granted. If private property is required, it must, so far as the present legislation is concerned, be obtained by private arrangement with its owner. No compulsory proceedings are authorized. State sovereignty under the constitution is not interfered with. Only national privileges are granted.”

Aud in tbe case of Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Southern Ry. Co., 89 Fed. 190, the court say:

“Rev. St. § 5263, authorizing telegraph companies to construct their lines-over and along any military or post roads of the United States, does not give such companies the right to build their lines over the right of way of a rail[237]*237road, or other private properly, without the consent of tlie owner, or the condemnation of tlie right of way over such property in accordance with the laws of the state where situated.”

And this was the holding of Judge Taft in the case of W. U. Tel. Co. v. Ann Arbor. R. Co., 33 C. C. A. 113, 90 Fed. 379.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
94 F. 234, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3059, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/postal-tel-cable-co-v-cleveland-c-c-st-l-ry-co-circtndoh-1899.