Southern Railway Co. v. Franklin & Pittsylvania Railroad

32 S.E. 485, 96 Va. 693, 1899 Va. LEXIS 123
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedFebruary 2, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 32 S.E. 485 (Southern Railway Co. v. Franklin & Pittsylvania Railroad) 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
Southern Railway Co. v. Franklin & Pittsylvania Railroad, 32 S.E. 485, 96 Va. 693, 1899 Va. LEXIS 123 (Va. 1899).

Opinion

Riely, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The Franklin and Pittsylvania Railroad Company (hereinafter called the Franklin Company) was incorporated by an act °of the General Assembly of Virginia, of March 12, 1878, and authorized to construct a railroad “ from some point on the main line of the Washington City, Virginia Midland, and Great [695]*695Southern Railroad Company (hereinafter called the Midland Company), or any branch thereof, in the county of Pittsylvania, to Rocky Mount,” the county seat of Franklin county.

On September 19, 1878, it made a lease of its road, to take effect when the same was completed, to John S. Barbour, Receiver, in the chancery suit of Graham v. Washington City, Virginia Midland, and Great Southern Railroad Company, pending in the Circuit Court of the city of Alexandria, for the term of thirty-four years, at the annual rental of $7,000. The lease was made subject to the ratification of the stockholders of the Franklin Company, and the approval and confirmation of the said court. It was duly ratified by the former, and approved and confirmed by the latter. The road was constructed and equipped by the lessor, and delivered to the lessee on April 15, 1880, from which date the lease was to run for thirty-four years.

The Southern Railway Company having, on June 18, 1894, duly acquired by purchase and conveyance the road owned by the Midland Company when the lease was made, and along with it the lease to Barbour, Receiver, by the Franklin Company, plainly manifested an intention, in the summer of 1897, to abandon and cease to operate the leased road. In anticipation of such action by the Southern Railway Company, and to prevent the consequences that would result from it, the Franklin Company brought its suit in equity in the Circuit Court of Franklin county, charging in its bill that the Southern Railway Company intended to abandon and cease to operate under the lease the road of the complainant after July 1, 1897, and asking that it be enjoined and restrained from doing so. The Southern Railway Company filed its answer to the bill, and admitted the charge of the complainant.

Is the defendant company bound to operate the leased road during the term of the lease, or may it rightfully abandon and cease»to operate it? This is the first question presented for our determination. Its solution depends upon the provisions of the lease.

[696]*696It is conceded that an express covenant to operate the road during the term of the lease is not to be found among the provisions thereof, but the complainant in the court below, which is the appellee here, contends that the obligation to operate the road throughout the entire term of the lease is so plainly contemplated by its provisions that the law will enforce it as an implied covenant, as fully as if the obligation were expressed in appropriate words.

ÍTecessary implication is beyond doubt as much a part of an instrument as if that which is so implied was plainly expressed. “Although the words of a contract under seal,” says Addison in his Treatise on Contracts (3 Vol., sec. 1400), “do not in themselves import any express covenant, yet the law, in order to promote good faith, and make men act up to the spirit as well as the letter of their engagements, will create and supply, as a necessary result and consequence of the contract, certain covenants and obligations, which bind the parties as forcibly and effectually as if they had been expressed in the strongest and most explicit terms in the deed itself.”

While this is very true, courts are, nevertheless, justly prudent and careful in inferring covenants or promises, lest they make the contract speak where it was intended to be silent, or make it speak contrary to what, as may be gathered from the whole terms and tenor of the contract, was the intention of the parties. If, however, it can be plainly seen, from all the provisions of the instrument taken together, that the obligation in question was within the contemplation of the parties when making their contract, or is necessary to carry their intention into effect, in other words, if it be a necessary implication from the provisions of the instrument, the law will imply the obligation and enforce it.

Before proceeding to examine critically the provisions of the lease, it is proper to observe that a court, in construing an agreement whose language leaves in doubt its meaning as to the particular matter in controversy, in order to ascertain the [697]*697intention of the parties, should have regard to the occasion which gave rise to the contract, the obvious design of the parties, and the object to be attained, as well as to the language of the instrument- itself; and give the agreement that construction which will effectuate the real intent and meaning of the parties as thus ascertained from the entire instrument, and by reference to the circumstances attending the making of it.

It is apparent that a principal object of the incorporators of the Franklin Company was to furnish railroad facilities to the citizens of Franklin county, which were without them, by connecting by rail Rocky Mount, the county seat, with the main line of the Midland Company, and thereby secure railroad communication with all sections of the State and country reached by that road and its connections. It was to this end that the county of Franklin subscribed to and paid for in its bonds $200,000 of the capital stock of the Franklin Company. And the consummation of this object was the main inducement on the part of the Franklin Company to enter into the lease with the Midland Company; while the inducement to enter into it on the part of John S. Barbour, Receiver, was, as expressed in his reports to the Circuit Court of Alexandria, to obtain, as he believed, a valuable feeder to his line of railroad. That the lease was in the contemplation of the parties thereto, at the time the Franklin Company obtained its charter, is shown by the eighth section thereof, whereby it is expressly made u lawful for said company to lease its road, or any part thereof, to the "Washington City, Virginia Midland and Great Southern Railroad Company, or any other railroad company chartered by the Commonwealth.”

It is apparent, upon a fair construction of the whole instrument, considered in the light of the circumstances under which it was made, that it was within the contemplation of the parties, and their intention, that the road should be maintained and operated during the entire term of the lease. And when [698]*698we come to examine its provisions critically, the obligation to do so, though not expressed in words, is plainly implied.

By the lease, the Franklin Company demised to John S. Bar-hour, Receiver, its whole road from Rocky Mount to Pittsville, in Pittsylvania county, together with all its stations, water tanks, switches, sidings, privileges, franchises, and other appurtenances, including an equipment of rolling stock not to exceed in value $20,000, for thirty-four years; said-term not to commence until the Franklin Company had completed and delivered the road to the Receiver, and supplied the same with such amount of rolling stock and other equipment as might be necessary to its use and enjoyment, provided said equipment should not exceed in cost the sum of $20,000. And the Receiver, in consideration of the said demise, agreed to pay to the Franklin Company an annual rental during the term of thirty-four years of a sum equal to seven per centum

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32 S.E. 485, 96 Va. 693, 1899 Va. LEXIS 123, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-railway-co-v-franklin-pittsylvania-railroad-va-1899.