T. B. Townsend Brick & Contracting Co. v. Central Trust Co.

187 F. 63, 109 C.C.A. 381, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 4483
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedApril 19, 1911
DocketNo. 2,074
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 187 F. 63 (T. B. Townsend Brick & Contracting Co. v. Central Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
T. B. Townsend Brick & Contracting Co. v. Central Trust Co., 187 F. 63, 109 C.C.A. 381, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 4483 (6th Cir. 1911).

Opinion

SANFORD, District Judge.

This is an appeal by the T. B. Townsend Brick & Contracting Company, from a decree of the Circuit Court' dismissing on demurrer an intervening petition filed by the appellant in an equity cause therein pending entitled Central Trust Company of New York v. AVheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Co.

The material averments of this intervening petition, which was filed January 20, 1910, are: That the petitioner is an Ohio corporation located in the city of Zanesville and engaged in the manufacture, sale, and shipment of brick. That the line of railway of the Zanesville Belt & Terminal Company, an Ohio corporation, hereinafter designated as the Belt Line, is contiguous to the manufacturing establishment of the petitioner and other manufacturing establishments in and about said city, and connects with other lines of railway entering or passing through said city, and that said Belt Line has been used solely for switching and transporting cars between such manufacturing establishments and lines of connecting railway; the distance from such manufacturing establishments to the points of connectipn with other railways being less than four miles. That under an arrangement between said Belt Line and the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company the said Belt Line has been for a long time controlled and operated by said railroad company and is now being controlled and operated by the receiver appointed in said equity cause. That said Belt Line was constructed about the year 1887 by two railway companies of which it is a successor. That it passes along and crosses various streets in said city. That the right to use such streets was granted to said original railway companies by various ordinances of the city council, and especially by an ordinance passed January 10, [65]*651887, granting a right of way over certain streets of the city subject to the conditions, stipulations, and limitations expressed in the following clause:

“Said railway company, its successors and assigns shall have the right to fix and determine the price and charge for hauling all cars over llie railroad constructed on the rights of way herein granted, but in no case shall the price or charge exceed two dollars per car (empty ears to be carried free), and each loaded or partly loaded car hauled from any other railroad shall he construed and held to be a haul within the meaning of this ordinance.”

That said $2 rate was intended to apply through the entire Belt Line as one haul and one road. That said ordinances were duly accepted by said railway companies, and said Belt Line was constructed partly upon the right of way granted by said ordinance of January 10, 1887, and partly on the rights of way granted by said other ordinances, and that all switching and movement of cars between petitioner’s manufacturing establishment and the points of connection with other railway lines move over a large portion of the right of way granted by said ordinance of 1887. That for a long time prior to January 1, 1910, a $2 rate for hauling and switching on said Belt Line was in effect, which more than covered the cost of said service, but that the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company and its receiver had put in effect on January 1, 1910, a tonnage rate of 10 cents per ton, which was largely in excess of the $2 per car rate provided in said ordinance of 1887, and that the several other railways connecting with said Belt Line had refused and would continue to refuse to absorb such switching charge upon shipments of freight over their several roads in so far as the same is in excess of $2 per car, and that the petitioner would be put to largely increased expense, both as to freight received and shipped by it. And that under sections 3340 and 3341 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio of 1908 any railway company owning a track contiguous to a manufacturing establishment within the terminal limits of or about any city is required to switch the cars of connecting railway companies at the request of such company, or the shippers, over and upon its tracks for the purpose of loading freight, and is entitled to receive from the companies whose cars are so switched, loaded and unloaded, not more than $2 per car for switching all distances over two and one-half miles and not exceeding five miles, with no charge for returning empties from said manufacturing establishment.

The petitioner prayed that an injunction issue commanding said Belt Line and said the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company and its receiver to refrain from maintaining said increased tonnage rate for switching on said Belt Line, and requiring them to haul all freight cars upon said Belt Line between petitioner’s manufacturing establishment and connecting railway lines at not exceeding $2 per car, and that they be restrained from attempting to collect from petitioner any charge in excess of the rate of S2 per car, as provided by the laws of Ohio and by said ordinance of 1887, and be required to comply in all respects with the conditions and limitations contained in said ordinance.

The Belt Line, the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company, and its receiver and the Central Trust Company of New York demurred to [66]*66this petition as stating no cause of action. These demurrers were sustained and the petition dismissed.

The appellant contends, first, that the increased tonnage rate charged is a‘violation of the condition under which the right of way to occupy the streets of the city was granted by the ordinance of 1887, and that the acceptance of this ordinance constituted a contract obligation which cannot be disregarded by the Belt Line while it 'uses and maintains said right of way; and, second, that said increased rate is a violation of the provisions of the Revised Statutes of Ohio fixing a switching rate of not exceeding $2 per car upon hauls of this distance.

1. The validity of the ordinance of 1887 is to be determined by a consideration of various provisions of the Revised Statutes of Ohio of 1880, which were then in force.

By section 3270 of these Revised Statutes every railway company is authorized to construct, maintain, and operate its railway “between the points named in the articles of incorporation, commencing at or within, and extending to or into any city, village, town or place named as a terminus of its road.”

By section 3281 the company is authorized to enter upon any lands and appropriate so much thereof as may be necessary for the railroad, subject to the obligation of making full compensation therefor as prescribed by law.

By section 3283, upon' which the appellant bases its argument as to the validity of the ordinance of 1887, it is provided that:

, “If it be necessary, in.

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Related

J. B. Doppes' Sons Lumber Co. v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.
14 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 392 (Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Hamilton County, 1913)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 F. 63, 109 C.C.A. 381, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 4483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/t-b-townsend-brick-contracting-co-v-central-trust-co-ca6-1911.