State ex rel. Tillery v. Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad

97 Mo. 348
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 97 Mo. 348 (State ex rel. Tillery v. Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad) 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. Tillery v. Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, 97 Mo. 348 (Mo. 1888).

Opinion

Black, J.

For the tax-year ending August, 1883, the state board of equalization assessed the defendant’s [351]*351bridge over the Missouri river at Kansas City as a toll-bridge, placing the valuation at $500,000. The bridge being in two counties, one-half of this valuation was certified down to Clay county, and on that the county court levied taxes for that year. This is a suit to enforce the payment of the taxes thus levied. The circuit court gave judgment for plaintiff, except for the item called “funded debt tax,” and as to that found for the defendant. Both parties appealed.

The case was here before on the plaintiff’s appeal from a judgment sustaining a demurrer to the petition. While the petition states that the bridge is owned by the defendant, it also states that it is a toll-bridge, and does not disclose the fact that it is a part of the defendant’s road. On this state of the pleadings we held, and could only have held, that the bridge was properly assessed as a separate structure. On return of the cause, defendant denied the above allegation, and averred the fact to be that the bridge formed a part of the railroad itself, and on this allegation the plaintiff made.an issue of fact. It is therefore plain that we have to deal with another and a different question from that considered on the former appeal.

The Kansas City, Galveston & Lake Superior Railroad Company was created by the' act of February 9, 1857, with power to build a railroad from Kansas City northward and to bridge navigable streams. By authority of law, the name was changed to the Kansas City & Cameron Railroad Company; and the fourth section of the amendatory act of March 11, 1867 (Laws of 1867, p. 144) provides: “ The said railroad company shall have the same authority, rights and powers as are conferred upon the Kansas City Bridge Company incorporated by an act of the general assembly of February 20,1865, and may, in connection with its railroad bridge, erect a bridge for the passage of teams, carriages and foot-passengers, and shall have the same right and [352]*352authority to receive compensation therefor as is granted to the said Kansas City Bridge Company ; and all railroad companies whose roads shall terminate at or near said bridge on either side of the Missouri river, or which shall construct a branch road to such bridge, shall have the right to run their cars and engines upon and over such bridge at such times and on such terms as may be agreed on between the companies respectively, and if such companies shall not agree on such terms, then on such terms as shall be prescribed by the governor of the state.”

■ The bridge act provides, among other things, that, “When said bridge is completed the said company shall be entitled to demand and receive tolls for crossing the same, and to fix the rates of toll, of which a schedule shall be kept conspicuously posted at each end of the bridge, which rates shall be as follows, and shall never' exceed the same, to-wit: * * * And said bridge company may permit any railroad company to extend their.railroad track over said bridge upon such terms as may be agreed upon by said bridge company, and such railroad companies.” Acts of 1865, sec. 6, p. 240.

The Kansas City Bridge Company failed to build a bridge; but the Kansas City & Cameron Railroad Company constructed its road from Kansas City to Cameron, and in doing so, and under the authority of law before stated, built the bridge in question. Thereafter, and in 1870, that company and defendant were consolidated.

The structure is an ordinary railroad bridge with a plank floor between and on either side of the rails for the passage of teams, vehicles and the like ; and for such use tolls are charged. The bridge and defendant’s tracks in connection therewith are used by a number of other railroad companies for the passage of their trains, they paying a rental therefor. These rentals paid by other railroad companies are not denominated tolls in [353]*353the law under which the bridge was built, nor are they tolls in the sense in which we use the term when speaking of toll-bridges.' From these facts and especially the law by authority of which this bridge was built there can be but one conclusion, and that is this : the bridge is an integral part of tjie roadbed and track of defendant’ s road from Kansas City to Cameron, with a highway toll feature attached to it as a mere incident, and a small and inadequate one at that. The tolls collected amount to only about $4,000 per annum.

With this conclusion, we now come to the statutes which provide for the assessment of toll-bridges, and for the assessment of railroad property; and the question is, under which should the bridge be assessed? The act of April 21, 1877, was carried into the Revision of 1879 without change. The first section, now section 6901, enacts that: “All bridges over streams in this state, or over streams dividing this state from other states, owned by joint-stock companies, and all such bridges where a toll is charged for crossing the same * * * and all property, real or personal, including, the franchises owned by telegraph and express companies, shall be subject to taxation. * * * And the president or other chief officer of any such bridge, telegraph or express company, or the owner of any such toll-bridge, is hereby required to render statements of the property of such bridge, telegraph or express company, in like manner as the president or other chief officer of railroad companies are now or may hereafter be required to render for the taxation of railroad property.” It is to be observed that railroad property is not mentioned in this act.

A few days days after the passage of the above act, and on the second of May, 1877, the legislature passed another act relating to the assessment of railroad property (Acts of 1877, p. 366). The substantial parts of this act were carried into the Revised Statutes by way of [354]*354a revised bill. Section. 6866 makes it the duty of the president or other chief officer of every railroad com-' pany to furnish the state auditor, each year, by a designated date, a verified statement, “setting out in detail the total length of their road so far as completed, including branch or leased roads, the entire length in this state, and the length of double or side-tracks, with depots, water-tanks and turntables, the length of''such road, double or side-tracks in each county, municipal township, incorporated city, town or village, through or in which it is located in this state; the total number of engines and cars of every kind and description, including all palace or sleeping cars, passenger and freight cars, and all other movable property, owned, used or leased by them on the first day of August in each year, and the actual cash value thereof.”

The state board is then required to assess the aggregate value of all such property belonging to any railroad company, and to apportion that value to the counties, townships, etc., according to the mileage of the railroad therein. Sec. 6876 declares: “All property, real, personal or mixed, including lands, machine workshops, round-houses, warehouses and other buildings, goods, chattels and office furniture of whatever kind, owned or controlled by any railroad company or corporation in this state, not hereinbefore specified, shall be assessed by the proper assessors in the several counties, cities * * * wherein such property is located, under the general revenue laws of the state and the municipal laws regulating the assessments of other local property in such counties, cities * * .

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Bluebook (online)
97 Mo. 348, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-tillery-v-hannibal-st-joseph-railroad-mo-1888.