Union Pac. R. Co. v. Public Service Commission

134 P.2d 469, 103 Utah 186, 1943 Utah LEXIS 99
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 26, 1943
DocketNo. 6556.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 134 P.2d 469 (Union Pac. R. Co. v. Public Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Union Pac. R. Co. v. Public Service Commission, 134 P.2d 469, 103 Utah 186, 1943 Utah LEXIS 99 (Utah 1943).

Opinions

*188 BAKER, District Judge.

On the 7th day of October, 1942, this court upon joint application of the plaintiffs and in exercise of its original jurisdiction issued an alternative writ of prohibition directed to the defendant, Public Service Commission of the State of Utah, hereinafter called the Commission, ordering said defendant to show cause why it should not be restrained and prohibited from proceeding with an investigation initiated by it of the right of the plaintiff railroad companies to remove a certain railway track and trolley poles maintained and operated by them along Second Street within the corporate limits of Ogden City, Utah, in compliance with an ordinance of said Ogden City requiring them to do so. On the day appointed in the temporary writ the Commission appeared by general demurrer to the petition of plaintiffs for an alternative writ of prohibition and the affidavit in support thereof, and attacked them on the ground that they do not state facts sufficient to justify the relief for which they pray.

At the same time the defendant also filed a motion supported by affidavit to quash the temporary writ and dismiss the action upon the grounds, among others, that the ordinance of Ogden City, above mentioned, is invalid; that the plaintiffs have a plain, speedy and adequate remedy at law by means of an action to test the validity of said ordinance, and that in fact such an action has been commenced. However, for reasons which will appear in the course of this decision, we regard the issue tendered by the demurrer as determinative of the action, and will proceed accordingly.

The facts as they appear from plaintiffs’ petition and supporting affidavit are substantially as follows: On May 28th, 1906, the city council of Ogden City by an ordinance duly passed and adopted, hereinafter referred to as the franchise ordinance, granted to the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company, a corporation, its successors and assigns, the right and privilege to construct, maintain and operate a single railway track on the south side of Second Street, beginning *189 at a point where said Second Street then intersected the line of said railroad company and extending thence east to a point at or west of the west side of Washington Avenue, all within the corporate limits of said Ogden City; that pursuant to said franchise ordinance the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company constructed a single railway track of a length of 1.5 miles along the route as authorized by said ordinance; that said railway track was maintained by said Oregon Short Line Railroad Company until January 1st, 1936; that since said date the plaintiff, Union Pacific Railroad Company, has maintained, and still does maintain, said track as lessee and successor in interest of said Oregon Short Line Railroad Company; that there are no stations upon said track, and that no trains have ever been operated upon said track upon any schedule.

That said franchise ordinance, which is set out in full as an exhibit attached to plaintiffs’ application, contained among others, the following provisions:

“Section 3. That the said track shall be laid so as to conform to the grade of said street at this time, and said Oregon Short Line Railroad Company, its successors and assigns, shall alter the same so as to conform to such change of grade as the City Council may from time to time make.”
“Section 8. The city reserves the right to make further regulations relating to the use of said track, engines and cars thereon, and the speed of such engines and cars.”
“Section 9. This grant shall expire and be terminated at the expiration of fifty (50) years from this date, and on breach of any of the covenants herein set out.”

It further appears from said affidavit that within the past two years the United States has constructed a large Army General Supply Depot at the extreme westerly end of said Second Street in Ogden City, which Depot employs a large number of persons, and that there is also being constructed on said Second Street east of Washington Avenue approximately 500 homes, primarily for workers at said Supply Depot, and that in going from such homes to their work such workers will necessarily traverse said Second *190 Street; that because of the increased travel over Second Street to said Supply Depot the government of the United States requested the city of Ogden to widen said Second Street, including the part thereof along which said track of the Plaintiff Union Pacific Railroad Company is maintained as aforesaid, so as to make a four-lane highway and pave the same.

That thereafter arrangements were made by Ogden City in cooperation with the State Road Commission to widen and improve Second Street in accordance with said request, and an appropriation was secured therefor from the Bureau of Public Roads, and that such appropriation did not include sufficient funds to shift plaintiff Union Pacific Railroad Company’s said railtrack, nor to pave between the rails of said track and for two feet on each side thereof in accordance with Sec. 15-7-28, R. S. U. 1933, nor to remove the trolley poles of the plaintiff Utah-Idaho Central Railroad Corporation, which said corporation is permitted to operate on said track by means of electrical cars and engines; that the plaintiff Union Pacific Railroad Company was then advised that the latter mentioned items were to be done at the expense of said plaintiff in accordance with the terms of said franchise from Ogden City.

That said plaintiff thereupon caused an investigation to be made of the cost of shifting its tracks and paving between and along them as aforesaid, as shown by the proposed plans of reconstruction of said street, and determined that such cost would be prohibitive, and not justified by the revenues from the operation of trains over said track; that thereafter several conferences were had with Ogden City and the State Road Commission with the view of eliminating certain items of such cost, but that such conferences were unavailing; and that said plaintiff was advised that it must proceed to comply with said plans without delay and at its own cost.

It further appears that on September 14th, 1942, the Board of Commissioners of Ogden City demanded of said plaintiff, in writing in pursuance particularly of Section *191 15-7-28, Revised Statutes of Utah, 1933, and of Section 3 of «aid franchise ordinance (hereinabove quoted) that it do the following things in connection with its tracks on said Second Street:

(a) Change or shift the location of the tracks and raise the tracks so as to conform to the proper grade;

(b) Pave all the space between the different rails and tracks and also a space two feet wide outside of the outer rails of the outside tracks, including all side tracks, crossings and turn-outs used by your Company, (the said Union Pacific Railroad Company);

(c) Move trolley poles and wire.

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Bluebook (online)
134 P.2d 469, 103 Utah 186, 1943 Utah LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/union-pac-r-co-v-public-service-commission-utah-1943.