State ex rel. Kansas City Terminal Railway Co. v. Public Service Commission

272 S.W. 957, 308 Mo. 359, 1925 Mo. LEXIS 669
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 23, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 272 S.W. 957 (State ex rel. Kansas City Terminal Railway Co. v. Public Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Kansas City Terminal Railway Co. v. Public Service Commission, 272 S.W. 957, 308 Mo. 359, 1925 Mo. LEXIS 669 (Mo. 1925).

Opinion

RAGLAND, J.

This is an appeal from a decree of the .Circuit Court of Cole County, affirming’ an order of the Public Service Commission which requires the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company to construct and maintain at its sole expense a ‘ ‘viaduct and approaches thereto over and across its tracks, right of way and property” at the point where Oak Street in Kansas City, Missouri, if produced south, would cross.

The Terminal Company’s railroad runs through Kansas City in a southwesterly and northeasterly direction from a .point in the State of Kansas to the eastern city limits. At the point of the proposed crossing it has four main tracks used for the passage of trains to and from the Union Station, and also a freight yard which furnishes team-tracks facilities. These tracks occupy low ground through which a creek formerly ran as an open stream. Immediately south of the main tracks a bluff rises abruptly to an elevation of nearly forty feet; the team tracks spread out fanlike from the north side as far as Twentieth (an east-and-west) Street. The width of the strip of ground taken up for right of way proper and freight yard, lying between Twentieth Street and the bluff, is approximately 600 feet. This strip, owing to the contour of the ground and its occupancy by relator’s railroad, can be crossed by a street only by means of a viaduct, and in order to obtain a suitable grade for a trafficway such viaduct must begin at or near Nineteenth Street, a block still further north.

In 1909 the Terminal Company, then recently organized by twelve trunk-line railroads entering Kansas City, set about to enlarge the plant, widen the right of way and change the grades of the old belt-line system which it had acquired from the Kansas City Belt Line Railway Company, and to build a .union passenger station. Pre[367]*367liminarily to entering upon its program of extensions and improvements it obtained from Kansas City a two-hundred-year franchise to operate its lines of railroad over and across public streets and public places of the city. The franchise ordinance required relator to construct viaducts at designated street crossings and to reconstruct others then in existence. The ordinance contained this further provision:

“Section 8. (a) If in addition to those specifically provided for elsewhere in this ordinance, viaducts or subways and approaches thereto or other rights such as appertain to the use of streets, are reasonably required in the future across any line of railroad now owned or which may be hereafter owned by the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, at any time during the life of this franchise, the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company covenants and agrees to grant and does hereby grant and convey without expense to Kansas City rights of way therefore, and rights of way so granted shall be held by Kansas City as and for public streets.
“The Kansas City Terminal Railway Company further covenants and agrees that whenever any such viaduct or subway is reasonably necessary to provide for public traffic, and upon the passage of a reasonable ordinance by Kansas City fixing,the time when the same shall be constructed and the place where the same shall be located, the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company will construct and thereafter maintain a subway and approaches (or a viaduct and approaches where a subway is impracticable); such construction and maintenance to be of like character and under like supervision with the construction and maintenance provided for the viaducts and subways mentioned in Sections 6 and 7 of this ordinance.”

On December 12, 1921, an ordinance was duly enacted by Kansas City “to open, widen, alter and establish Locust Street from Grillham Road (near Twenty-fifth Street) to Twenty-seventh Street, condemning the necessary land therefor, providing for and authorizing [368]*368'the construction; of a viaduct with an approach thereto, in Oak Street, produced from the north, over the tracks, right of way and lands of the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, condemning the necessary easement and right of way for said viaduct, providing for the cost of said improvement, and authorizing the issuing of condemnation fund certificates.”

By way of preamble the ordinance recited:

“Whereas, owing to the rapid growth and development of Kansas City, the advent and increasing use of motor cars and trucks, the north-and-south public traffic of the city has become badly congested, and is constantly increasing over the existing streets and viaducts crossing the tracks and right of way of the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, leading to and from the business centers and the resident districts of the city; and
“Whereas, in order to provide for and relieve such constantly increasing congested traffic, it is necessary and it is the purpose of Kansas City, to construct a great north-and-south traffic way from the ArmiourSwift-Burlington Bridge over the Missouri River, at the north side of the city, through the business sections thereof to' the southern part of the city, over and along what is! known as. the Locust Street Connection (a public highway) connecting with Admiral Boulevard; thence south from Admiral Boulevard over and along Oak Street to 20th Street; thence south along Oak Street, produced from the north, over and across the tracks, right of way and land of the Kansas City Terminal Company to Gillham Road. ... In order to reach the south side of the tracks, right of way and lands of the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, it will be necessary to span such tracks, right of way and lands with a viaduct and an approach thereto, in Oak Street and Oak Street produced, from the south line of 19th Street to Grillham Road on the south; ... ”

The ordinance, after providing for the widening and altering of certain streets and the taking of the necessary lands therefor, required the Terminal Company to [369]*369“construct a viaduct and its approach to be used as and for a public highway in Oak Street and Oak Street produced south, over and across its tracks, right of way and lands and to the south line thereof, beginning in Oak Street at the south line of 19th Street, and extending south in Oak Street and Oak Street produced to the south line of its lands and right of way in Kansas City,” all in accordance with the plans and specifications on file with the Board of Public Works of Kansas City. It also provided that an easement for the construction, support and maintenance of the viaduct and its approach, in all of the lands within the site of the proposed improvement, and in those immediately abutting thereon, be taken and condemned.

Relator having announced that it would not build a viaduct over and across its railroad and freight yard, as provided by the ordinance, Kansas City sought the aid of the Public Service Commission. The complaint filed by it with that body alleged that in 1909 Kansas City had enacted an ordinance, referred to as a “franchise ordinance,” by which the Terminal Company was granted certain rights; that, by the terms of said ordinance, the Terminal Company was obliged to construct viaducts additional to those specifically mentioned in the ordinance and to grant rights of way therefor, when reasonably necessary for traffic, and upon the passage by the city of a reasonable ordinance so providing; that Kansas City had passed an ordinance (No.

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Bluebook (online)
272 S.W. 957, 308 Mo. 359, 1925 Mo. LEXIS 669, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-kansas-city-terminal-railway-co-v-public-service-commission-mo-1925.