Richmond-Ashland Railway Co. v. Commonwealth ex rel. City of Richmond

173 S.E. 892, 162 Va. 296, 1934 Va. LEXIS 246
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedApril 11, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 173 S.E. 892 (Richmond-Ashland Railway Co. v. Commonwealth ex rel. City of Richmond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richmond-Ashland Railway Co. v. Commonwealth ex rel. City of Richmond, 173 S.E. 892, 162 Va. 296, 1934 Va. LEXIS 246 (Va. 1934).

Opinion

Hudgins, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The city of Richmond, on July 7, 1932, adopted the following ordinance:

“That it shall be the duty of the Richmond-Ashland Railway Company to relocate its track where the same crosses Lombardy street, in accordance with a general plan on file in the office of the director of public works of the city of Richmond, marked drawing No. 0-3568, an Ozlin copy of which is hereto attached and made a part of this ordinance. Said track so re-located shall be at grade shown upon said drawing and shall, where the same crosses Lombardy street, be of groove rail construction. Said railway company shall likewise restore the pavement torn up by the removal of its present track and shall re-pave between the rails of the relocated track and for a distance of two feet on either side thereof, with materials corresponding to those now being used by the city of Richmond in the improvement of- Lombardy street. All of said work shall be done to the satisfaction of the director of public works.”

[300]*300The railway company declined to furnish the materials and do the work required, on two grounds: (1) That the city was without power to pass such an ordinance, and (2) that even if it had such power the ordinance is unreasonable and arbitrary.

Thereupon, the city filed its petition with the Corporation Commission, praying that the railway company be compelled to comply with the provisions of the ordinance. To this petition the railway company filed an answer, setting forth the above defenses. The Commission held the enactment valid and entered an order requiring the railway company, at its own expense, to comply therewith. From that order this appeal was taken.

The Richmond-Ashland Railway Company is a public service corporation, operating an electric line between the city of Richmond and Ashland. It owns a fee simple title to a strip of land forty feet wide, extending from its terminal in the city of Richmond to the corporate limits and beyond. Part of this strip is in the center of Brook road, which road, or turnpike, was formerly one hundred feet wide. The old Brook Turnpike Company maintained on this 100-foot strip a toll road. In 1910 the turnpike company and the Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway Company, from which the Richmond-Ashland Railway Company derived its title, dedicated to the county of Henrico sixty feet' of the original one hundred feet, thirty feet to the east and thirty feet to the west of the present right of way for highway purposes, so the forty-foot strip now occupies a space between the north and southbound traffic on Brook road, which has recently been improved and is one of the main highways entering the city from the north. Lombardy street extends from Broad street in a northeasterly direction to Chamberlayne avenue, and crosses Brook road and the right of way of the railway company. This intersection was not within the corporate limits of the city of Richmond prior to the annexation proceedings in 1914. In 1917, the city, by condemnation proceedings, acquired a sixty-foot strip of land to the east of [301]*301the crossing, which is now Lombardy street. In 1921, the city, at its own expense and with the consent of the railway company, lowered the street car tracks some two feet and paved the right of way to conform to its plans for improving Lombardy street.

The railway company, in support of its position that the city lacks power to pass said ordinance, contends (1) that the city has merely a permissive right to use the crossing; (2) the Commonwealth has not delegated to the city control of railway and highway grade crossings within the municipality.

Neither of those contentions is sound. While it is conceded that Lombardy street was not opened east of Brook road until 1917, there was filed with the deed (dated February 16, 1910) dedicating the two thirty-foot strips for use as highways a map which shows a highway entering Brook road from the west along the present site of Lombardy street. 'This map does not show that this highway crosses the forty-foot right of way. Both of the thirty-foot strips were then used as public highways, and the evidence establishes that the public used this intersection for the purpose of passage to and from the eastern thirty-foot strip, which necessarily compelled them to cross the right of way. From this evidence it would seem that the crossing was included in the following paragraph of the agreement between the railway company and the board of supervisors of Henrico:

“(f) The said railway company is to provide and maintain crossings over its right of way at the junction of all established highways, or highways which may be opened for the public.”

It appears that the deed of February 16, 1910, divided Brook road into three parts the middle of which, forty feet wide, was the right of way of the railway company and the two strips thirty feet wide were dedicated to public highways; that at that time Lombardy street west of Brook road was open to the public, and in 1917 the city opened Lombardy street east of Brook road, con[302]*302demning for such purpose a strip of land lying immediately east of and adjacent to Brook road; and that in 1921 it graded Lombardy street both east and west of the crossing, when it was agreed by the railway company and the city that the city would grade the right of way of the railroad company and put in a concrete crossing at an established grade. This indicates that it was the intention of the company that Lombardy street should be opened across this right of way, and should be used by the public. Certainly the city graded and paved that part of Brook road lying east and west of the right of way and the right of way with the understanding and intention that all of Lombardy street included in this intersection with Brook road should become a public street and open to public use. Such use has continued for a period of more than five years. This brings the intersection within section 24 of the city’s charter, which is as follows:

“Whenever any piece, parcel or strip of land shall have been opened to and used by the public as any street, alley, lane or part thereof for the period of five years, the same shall thereby become a street, alley, lane or part thereof for all purposes 'and the city shall have the same authority and jurisdiction over and right and interest therein as they have by law over the streets, alleys and lanes laid out by it.” This provision of the charter was approved in Keppler v. City of Richmond, 124 Va. 592, 98 S. E. 747.

All the evidence indicates that the city of Richmond intended that the strip of land in question should be a part of Lombardy street; that the railway company never objected to such a strip of land becoming a part of the street, but, on the contrary, by its action permitting it to be used and improved, without objection, as a part of the street, dedicated it to the public in accord with its contractual obligation. In fact, the answer of the railway company asserts that “it has at ail times and is at [303]*303the present time maintaining the crossing of its tracks at Lombardy street in good and safe condition.”

Simply because the city acquired the right to the intersection as a street after the company had procured a fee simple title to the forty-foot strip and constructed its roadbed has no bearing on the issues here presented. This was settled adversely to the position taken by the city in Erie R. Co. v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
173 S.E. 892, 162 Va. 296, 1934 Va. LEXIS 246, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richmond-ashland-railway-co-v-commonwealth-ex-rel-city-of-richmond-va-1934.