Shedd v. State Line Generating Co.

41 F.2d 505, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2826
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJune 5, 1930
DocketNo. 4255
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 41 F.2d 505 (Shedd v. State Line Generating Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shedd v. State Line Generating Co., 41 F.2d 505, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2826 (7th Cir. 1930).

Opinion

EVANS, Circuit Judge.

This appeal is from a decree dismissing appellant’s suit because his complaint failed to slate facts which, if true, would entitle him to the relief sought. The narrow question upon which the decision must turn involves the extent of an easement obtained through certain condemnation proceedings instituted in the Indiana state court by tbe Northern Indiana Public Service Company, an Indiana publie utility corporation. These condemnation proceedings resulted in the utility’s acquisition of a certain easement (hereinafter more fully described) in a 300-foot strip of land in Lake county, Ind., belonging in part to appellant.

Tbe facts may be briefly stated. The Northern Indiana Publie Service Company was, and is, an Indiana public utility corporation engaged in the business of “manufacture, transmission, distribution, purchase and sale of electrical current to towns and cities and to the publie in general in the northern part of the State of Indiana.” Through condemnation proceedings it acquired the right to erect its poles and string its wires over a 300-foot strip of land, an undivided ene-half of which was owned by appellant in fee simple. Other public utilities, three in number, wero engaged in a similar business and served a publie living in adjacent territory. Two of these companies, the Publie Service Company of Northern Illinois and the Commonwealth Edison Company, served Illinois consumers exclusively or chiefly. They are referred to by counsel as the two Illinois companies. The other company, Interstate Public Service Company, is an Indiana company serving Indiana customers. The four public utilities (tbe two Illinois companies and the two Indiana companies) caused, by co-operative action, the State Line Generating Company, the appellee herein, to be organized. It is an Indiana corporation and was organized for the purpose of generating electrical energy in wholesale quantities for the four named utilities who advanced the $28,500,000 necessary for the construction of its first unit. Its ultimate maximum generating voltage is estimated at 1,000,000 kilowatts. Appellee issued stock to the aforementioned utilities in the proportion which each contributed to the cost. Commonwealth Edison Company received 40 per cent., Public Service Company of Northern Illinois, 30 per cent., Northern Indiana Public Service Company, 20 per cent., and Interstate Public Service Company, 10 per eent. The four parties contracted that the current generated by appellee should [506]*506be distributed according to this same percentage.

Appellee’s generating plant is located on land which is adjacent to the end of the 300-foot strip condemned. In order that current from this generating plant may reach the Commonwealth Edison Compkny’s transformer, or may reach the distributing station of the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois, it must pass along the wires strung, or to be strung, over this right of way.

In disposing of this case, it is assumed: (a) That the scope of the easement acquired by Northern'Indiana Public Service Company "must be measured by the condemnation proceedings in the Indiana state court, (b) Threatened use of appellant’s land in excess of this easement is a basis for injunctive relief. (c) Threatened use of appellant’s land by one not entitled to enjoy the above-mentioned easement is the basis of injunctive relief. With these concessions made there remain but two questions. (1) Does the easement secured in the state condemnation proceedings permit of its use for the transmission of current for consumption in the State of Illinois by a utility other-than the condemnor? (2) If question No. 1 be answered in the affirmative, is appellee, under the alle1gations of the complaint, entitled to the enjoyment of the easement?

Only an examination of the pleadings and findings and final decree in the condemnation proceedings can .answer the first question. They are set forth in the complaint. We' quote therefrom:

“Plaintiff is a public utility corporation.

“That it is now engaged in constructing, an electrical transmission line * * * and that the same varies in width from one hundred fifty (150) to three hundred (300) feet; and intends to use the property to be appropriated for a right of way for the erection, maintenance, operation, and repair of its said transmission lines,” etc.

Appellant, the defendant in the condemnation proceedings, filed an answer wherein he alleged:

“That the use and purpose for which defendants’ property is here sought to be appropriated is not to enable plaintiff to supply towns' and cities and the public in general of Indiana with current, but said use and purpose is to secure for the plaintiff corporation and the Commonwealth Edison Company, an Illinois corporation,-and the Public Service Company of - Northern Illinois, an Illinois corporation, and the Interstate Public Service Company, an Indiana corporation, (1) conservation of capital investment and maintenance costs; (2) savings in the cost of electrical energy; and, (3). economies in operation and conservation of fuel.

“That part of defendant’s property lying within the westerly 150 feet of the proposed 300-foot right of way is here sought to be appropriated for the purpose of providing a right of way for a super-power transmission line of 132,000 volts, over which large quantities of electrical energy generated by the State Line Generating Company, an Indiana corporation, may be transmitted into the State of Illinois and over a similar superpower transmission line in Illinois of the Commonwealth Edison Company, an Illinois corporation, and thence into the superpower transmission system of the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois, an Illinois corporation, for exclusive use in Illinois and states other than Indiana.

. “There is no necessity for plaintiff to appropriate defendants’ property, for the reason that plaintiff’s present sources of supply of electrical energy and facilities, with reasonable development from time to time, are now and will be for a great many years ample and sufficient to enable plaintiff to supply towns and cities and the public in general of Indiana with electric current for heat, light and power purposes.

“That there is no necessity in any event for plaintiff to acquire more than a right of way of 150 feet in width where plaintiff seeks to appropriate 300 feet of right of way, or a right of way 75 feet in width where plaintiff seeks to condemn 150 feet of right of way.”

The court found:

“(1) That the plaintiff was an Indiana corporation and has with a charter power to engage, in supplying communities in northern Indiana with light, heat and power, and furnishes electric energy to 105 cities, towns and communities with a population of about 250,000 inhabitants;

“That plaintiff intends to use the property sought to be appropriated for a right of way for the erection, maintenance, opera*tion, repair and renewal of its electrical transmission lines to the public in general in the State of Indiana for heating, lighting and power purposes.

“(3a) That, in order that plaintiff may insure its customers reliable and continuous service, it is necessary for it to have a reserve capacity or supply of energy approximately equal to its maximum or peak load demand [507]*507for energy. That such a reserve capacity is used to furnish energy in case of interruption by accident or prearranged shutdown for repairs of the normal generating capacity.

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Related

State v. Curtis
173 N.E.2d 652 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
41 F.2d 505, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2826, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shedd-v-state-line-generating-co-ca7-1930.