Riedinger v. Marquette & Western Railroad

28 N.W. 775, 62 Mich. 29, 1886 Mich. LEXIS 754
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJune 24, 1886
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 28 N.W. 775 (Riedinger v. Marquette & Western Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Riedinger v. Marquette & Western Railroad, 28 N.W. 775, 62 Mich. 29, 1886 Mich. LEXIS 754 (Mich. 1886).

Opinion

Shekwood, J..

The Cleveland Iron Mining Company was ■organized in April, 1853, under the act of February 5, 1853, for the purpose of iron mining in the county of Marquette, in the State of Michigan, and became the owner of an iron mine near Ishpeming, in sa.id county, and also the owner of ■a. parcel of. land on the shore of Lake Superior, which the company platted into lots and streets, in September, 1854, .and caused the plat to be duly filed, and said parcel now forms a part of the city of Marquette. In making the plat, and dedicating the same, the company made a reservation referring to the streets therein, in the following language:

“ Reserved to the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, and their assigns, forever, the exclusive right to lay a plank or ■railroad track through and across any of the streets recorded in this map; also the exclusive right to use the same, with cars, engines, or any other vehicle they may choose; also the right of conveying, through pipes or otherwise, the water of Harlow’s spring, or any other waters, through any of the .■streets of this plat, forever.”

There are, in the plat referred to, two blocks numbered, respectively, 2 and 3. In each of these blocks there are 22 ■lots. On the east side of these two blocks is Front street, it being 66 feet wide, and about 250 feet from the lake front .as it is now established. Between the two blocks runs Superior street east and west, 100 feet wide, extending to the lake. The dock of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company is at the foot of this street, and standing near the same and on the ■south side thereof.

The plaintiff is the owner of lot 2 in block 3, lying in the [31]*31south-east corner of the block at the junction of Front and ¡Superior streets, extending 30 feet on Front street and 124 feet on Superior street. These streets intersect each other at right angles.

At the time of filing the plat the Cleveland Iron Mining Company had constructed the said dock upon its water front, for shipping ore and receiving merchandise, and had a strap iron railroad, the cars of which were moved by horses or ■mules, extending from the dock westerly, across both of said streets at their junction, and diagonally across the northern portion of block 3, on to the mine of the company. The track crosses, in passing through the block, the extreme south-west corner of lot 2.

In 1857 and 1858 two additional tracks down Superior ■street, just south of the original track, and extending onto a trestle-dock, were built, and these three tracks were continued in use by the company down to 1871, and operated by locomotives from 1858; and the two leading to the trestle-clock continued to be so operated until they were sold to the defendant the Marquette & Western Railroad Company. Since 1857 the railroad had been doing a large and constantly increasing business, in shipping iron ore, pig-iron, and general merchandise, until in 18S3, when there was shipped over these tracks something over 200,000 tons from the Cleveland mine alone.

In 1883 the Marquette & Western Railroad Company was engaged in building a railroad from Marquette to the iron mines at Negaunee and Ishpeming, and purchased of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, at Marquette, its entire water front, shipping dock, railroad tracks, and land occupied thereby, all its reserved rights in the streets, and its real estate remaining unsold, and the parcel of land platted as aforesaid.

The reserved rights in the streets referred to are the same ■quoted above, and contained in the same language.

The plaintiff’s lot was sold by the Cleveland Iron Mining Company to William J. Gordon and Peter White on the ¡twenty-second day of August, 1857, by warranty deed, for [32]*32the sura of $4,300; the conveyance containing the following clause:

“ Reserving therefrom all that part of said lot above described which is now used and occupied by said Cleveland Iron Mining Company for railroad or railway purposes, to be used and occupied by the said Cleveland Iron Mining Company, its successors or assigns, so long as needed or desired' by them for the right of way for said railroad or railway purposes.”

The lot was described in this deed by metes and bounds, and on the south by the north line of Superior street.

On the fourteenth day of June, 1865, Gordon conveyed his interest in lot 2 in block 3, by warranty deed containing the same reservations, to Peter White, and the complainant made his purchase of this lot of Peter White in March, 1869, receiving his deed therefor on the second day of December, 1872 ; it being a warranty deed, and containing the sam° reservations as mentioned in the conveyance of the property by the Cleveland Mining Company to said Gordon and White.

From the time of complainant’s purchase of this lot, down to the time of the commencement of this suit, he used and occupied the property in his own business, renting some parts of the building as he could spare the same.

About the month of .October, 1883, after the Marquette & Western Railroad Company made its purchase, it began grading, for the purpose of bringing its ore cars on the trestle, and for that purpose it -was necessary to bring them upon the tracks crossing Front and Superior streets. It was also the purpose of defendant to change the tracks further to the south upon Superior street, and add another track crossing said streets. The work of- grading to make such connection with the tracks purchased of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, as before mentioned, continued until the grade had been completed and its tracks laid to the east side of Front street, and it was about to proceed with the work of grading across Superior street.

At this time William Ward and James Dwyer, who owned [33]*33the land on the south-west corner of Front 'and Superior streets, and who claimed that the changes proposed to be made by the Marquette & Western Nailroad Company were unlawful, and, if completed, would seriously injure their property, obtained a writ of injunction restraining the further progress of the work, on the nineteenth day of January, 1884, which was afterwards dissolved upon the defendants giving a bond. One of the grounds taken in the Ward and Dwyer bill was that the right of way across or in the streets had not been granted to the defendants by the city, and, on the sixth day of February following, the common council of the city passed the following resolution :

“ Whereas, the Marquette & Western Nailroad Company has applied for permission to lay its tracks and run its cars in Front and Superior streets, as shown on a plan this day filed with the recorder:
“ Nesolved, that said Marquette &

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Bluebook (online)
28 N.W. 775, 62 Mich. 29, 1886 Mich. LEXIS 754, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/riedinger-v-marquette-western-railroad-mich-1886.