State v. Northern Central Railway Co.

18 Md. 193, 1862 Md. LEXIS 5
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJanuary 30, 1862
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 18 Md. 193 (State v. Northern Central Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Northern Central Railway Co., 18 Md. 193, 1862 Md. LEXIS 5 (Md. 1862).

Opinion

Bowie, C. J.,

delivered the opinion of this court.

The rights and liabilities of the parties to this cause, springing from and depending, in a great measure, upon the Acts of the General Assembly, in the proceedings referred to, we deem it necessary to a proper understanding of the character and magnitude of the interests involved, to prefix a summary of their provisions.

By an Act of the General Assembly of Maryland, passed on the 10th of March 1854, entitled, “An Act to authorize the consolidation of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company with the York and Maryland Line Rail Road Company,” &c., the stockholders of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company were authorized to unite and consolidate their company, or corporation, with the York and Maryland Line Rail Road Company, the York and Cumberland Rail Road Company, and the Susquehanna Rail Road Company in the State of Pennsylvania, so as to form and constitute one [206]*206company or corporation, to be called, “The Northern Central Railway Company,” upon certain conditions therein expressed, among others, “that all existing contracts, engagements and liabilities of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company shall continue to bind said company and its property, as fully as before the consolidation therein authorized, or that the said existing contracts, engagements and liabilities shall be duly adopted and assumed by the consolidated company.”

•On the same day, by an Act, entitled, “'An Act to provide for the sale of the interest of the State of Maryland in the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company, and for the completion of the Northern Central Railway,” <fc., it was enacted, “that whenever the corporation, authorized by this General Assembly to be created by the consolidation of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company^,” and the other companies above mentioned, to be known by the name of the Northern Central Railway Company, “shall have been duly established and erected, in conformity with the Act of this General Assembly, and an Act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, authorizing the same, and shall execute and acknowledge, and cause to be recorded in due form of law, in the city of Baltimore, and in all the counties of Maryland and Pennsylvania, in which the same may'' be, a mortgage to the State of Maryland of the entire line of railroad belonging to the said, company, from Baltimore to Sunbury in Pennsylvania, with all the revenue or tolls thereof, to secure to the State of Maryland the payment of the annuity of $90,000, and shall, in all respects, comply with the provisions of this Act,” then the treasurer of the State was authorized to execute and deliver to said company and its assigns, in perpetuity, a conveyance and release of all the estate and interest of the State of Maryland, in the then Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company, and all its property, whether as stockholder, creditor or mortgagee. It was further enacted, that the consolidated company, in the execution of the mortgage, should covenant and bind itself to pay to the State of Maryland from its [207]*207date, the annuity of $90,000 per annum, payable into the treasury of the State in quarterly payments; that the annuity should be extinguishable at any time within ten years thereafter, upon the full payment of one million five hundred thousand dollars, with all interest that may be due; that the mortgage should contain the usual conditions in such deeds, with a clause to authorize the sale of the mortgaged, property, at any time after three months subsequent to a default of the company to pay the whole amount of the annuity,- which may fall due in any one year-, and upon the execution of the said mortgage and its delivery to the treasurer, then the said treasurer should execute the conveyance and release above mentioned. It was further provided by said Act, that the said mortgage, so far as it shall comprehend and include that portion of the road of the consolidated company, which now belongs to the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company, and which was heretofore mortgaged to the State of Maryland, shall be,- in all re-' spects, entitled to the same priority which' now appertains to the existing mortgage on the property of the said Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company, and that said mortgage, so far as it shall comprehend and include all that portion of the road of the consolidated company, not now belonging to the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company, shall be entitled to a priority over any liens upon the same, bearing date and recorded after the the first day of March 1854, “it being the intent of this Act, in releasing to the consolidated Company the mortgage or mortgages heretofore given to the State by the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail Road Company, and taking another mortgage, to retain in the new mortgage the same priority of lien which the State now holds on that part of the road heretofore mortgaged as aforesaid, and also to obtain the additional security of the mortgage, by the consolidated company, of its interest in all the remaining portion of the road, between Baltimore and Sunbury.'” Vide Act of 1854, ch. 260, secs, 1, 2, 3.

On the 27th of January 1855, the Northern Central Railway [208]*208Company by their deed,reciting and referring to the Acts of Maryland and Pennsylvania, as authorizing the same, assigned, transferred and conveyed, unto the State of Maryland, for the considerations therein mentioned, “the entire line of railroad belonging to said company,' from Baltimore to Sunbury in Pennsylvania, with all thé revenue or tolls thereof,” covenanting to pay to the treasurer of Maryland,- an annuity of $90,000, in quarterly payments, in the manner provided and required by the Act of 1854, ch. 260’, and in default thereof', the State of Maryland was thereby authorized to sell the above mortgaged premises, and dll the estate, right, title, interest, property, claim and demdnd at law or in equity, as well of the State of Maryland as of the Northern' Central Railway Company, in dnd to the said mortgaged premises, and every part thereof, aS'is provided by the third section of the Act of 1854, ch. 260.

Thé State filed its information on the 18th of December I860-, in the Circuit court for Baltimore city, suggesting that the Northern Central Railway Company was then in arrear $>92,500', of the principal annuity, besides interest;—that it realized profits more than sufficient to pay the State, which, in violation of its covenants, were misapplied, and appropriated to the payment- of junior .obligations,- and especially to the payment of interest on' bonds,- amounting to $>2,500j000, issued long' after the mortgage, and it apprehended the company intended to apply its future earnings,-and earnings then in hand, in- payment of interest on said bonds";—that the company had no effects out of which the State could realize its aforesaid claims, except the property mortgaged, and had no adequate means to enforce the payment of arrears,'except by sequestrating the tolls and revenue.

The information prayed that the company be enjoined from applying'the tolls and revenue to any other purpose, save only to the cost of working the railway, and maintaining the same in good order; and that a receiver may be appointed to take charge of said railway and other mortgaged premises, and work the same, and apply the revenues thereof, under the direction

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Bluebook (online)
18 Md. 193, 1862 Md. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-northern-central-railway-co-md-1862.