St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-20
THE STREET. RAILROAD.
1t is Simply Tolerated, and Has no
Real Corporate Existence or
Right to the Streets.
To the Editor of the Globe:

nection with this quasi this world is used with
industry,'O corporation has been so diligent-
ly liberal, and its present management is so
popular, that I am constrained as one of
many sufferers to insist that justice to the
public requires that it should be held to the
strict conditions of the bond"
In the first place the so-called corporation
| is not corporation, and is only upon the
| streets with its rails and equipments by toler
alton. have given the subject thoughtful
examination as a lawyer, and will give my
reasons for the conclusion stated as briefly as
the facts will permit.
The constitution of the state became prac-
tically operative in 1858. Section two, arti-
| Gle ten, reads: mo corporations shall be
formed under special acts, except for NUM-
cipal purposes"
| This section received an authoritative in
depreciation in the appeal of Cakes Ames and
another executor VS.. The Lake Superior and
Mississippi Railroad company, reported p
Mimi, 241. The court, upon the first hear
| ing, decided that the act under which the
corporation claimed its rights was unconstitu-
tioa,al.
The interests involved being of great mag
nitude the court upon its own motion suggest
| ed re-argument, and thereafter upheld the
| integrity of the corporation by declaring the
act constitutional. 1t would be both inu-
| tile and beyond these limits to review that
decision. 1t is ultima ratio, audit suffices me
to say that careful reading OF the able and
| ingenious opinion of Chief Justice Gillian
! demonstrates that the result was largely con-
tributed to by the immense public and pecu-
! MARY effect of different decision. Such
| considerations do often and most properly
affect the decision of cases otherwise almost
equilibriant. This case, however, would
not recalcitrate, if 1 could, because in its en-
! tire scope of reasoning it sustains the view l
| am here offering.
make the following extract from Judge
| Gilfllan's opinion, not because it contains
news to lawyers, but may be good reading for
such of the laic public as incline to favor the
omnipotence of legislatures.
| 'That legislature might misapprehend the legal
effect of the act passed by it, just might mis-
take as to the limits Of its constitutional power, is
| possible. 1t might without intending to create
new corporation, attempt such radical and es-
sential changes in the constitution OF an old one
as to amount to the creation of new one; and
! if such must be the necessary result of such
| changes, the act must be just as clearly within
| the constitutional prohibition as though the
! legislature actually intended the result, and
fully understood that such would be the effect of
| the act
Let us now examine the facts connected
| with this putative corporation. In 1858 the
| legislature of the territory OF Minnesota
passed an act entitled ''An act to incorporate
the Saint Paul and Saint Anthony Railroad
company Claws of 1858, passed March 2,
1853.
| TN. - 4ho4 To-. no,y,
Eli Kinney, Luke, P. n. Smith, George
johnson, John Rollins, James Wells, G.
CARL, Emanuel Case, VIM. P. Murray, Will
liam L. Larned, r. P. Russell, R. M. Spencer,
Alfred E. Ames, AMI Edmund and such
others as may become stockholders with
successors, ETC., become corporation with
the usual corporate powers.
Sec g. That said corporation is hereby vested
| with the right and authority to construct rail
| road commencing in near the town of st Paul,
in the county of Ramsey, and thence by such route
! as the directors may select, to near the town'of
| st. Anthony, County of Ramsey, as the directors
| may hereafter determine.
Sec. limits, the amount and the distri-
| button of stock.
Sec provides for stock subscriptions,
election of directors, officers, etc.
| Sec. regulates the manner of subscrip-
| tons to stocks, etc.
| Section reads:
| Sec 6. That if said company shall not organ
| ize within one year from the date of the passage
of this act and have the road completed within
| three years from the organization of said compa-
| ny, then this act shall be void
| I have conversed with VIM. P. Murray,
Edmund Rice and G. CARL, who each in
formed me that they have no memory of any
organization under this act. N'iaaporte, it is
| Dotorio,1c that nothing practical was over
done by this corporation.
Sec. Z gives the directors power to deter
mine the kind of railroad equipments, etc.,
ETC., and authorizes a double track.
Sec. s, relates to condemnation of lands.
Sec. 9 authorizes the corporation if neces-
sary to connect with or use any other road,
| street or bridge made by any other company
! or persons incorporated or authorized by the
law of the territory and it is authorized to
contract with such corporations or companies
| for such use or connection, or for a transfer
| to it of the corporate other rights or privil-
eyes of such other entities.
The remainder of the act relates to details
which are of no importance here.
March 4th, 1868, more than ten years after
the act of 1853 had lapsed by non use, and
by its terms and ten years after the
constitutional prohibition, an act was passed
| entitled
can act to revive and continue an act, and
the corporation created by said act entitled,
can act to incorporate the st. Paul 81 st.
Anthony Railroad company" approved
March I'd, one thousand eight hundred and
| fifty three, and to amend said act"
The preamble states in substance that the
stated, ''and the corporation thereby
| {oI 1a nd I'm Inv
revived and continued and said act is hereby
amended so that the same shall read as fol-
| lows"
| Sec 1. George /. Becker. W. H. Temple. la
fayette Emmett, Eugene Underwood, John NJ
| Gilman. Dewitt c. JONES' Charles II. Lienau, P.
f. McQuan, Louis Roberts and Parker Paine
! and their associate successors and assigns be,
| and they are hereby created body corporate,
| the name and style of The st. Paul Street Rail-
! way Company with the usual corporate pow
| ers.
See 2 The said corporation is hereby
| vested with the right, power ard full authority
to lay out construct, operate maintain, and use
| railway with all the necessary convenient
| tracks, side tracks, turn outs, switches, and
| other appurtenances from the City of st. Paul
| in the County of Ramsey in the direction of ST..
| Anthony to the western line of said county of
Ramsey, in the direction of the city of st. An
thony i'll the county of Ramsey
Here we have an entire neD body Of
men, created a body corporate without a pre-
tence that they have succeeded to. the rights
of the corporation created by the act OF 1858,
| with the right to construct railroad over
the same route excepting that the westerly
terminus is limited to the western line of
Ramsey County, instead of ''to or at the
town of St. Anthony in Ramsey County"
Ut may be stated that st. Anthony was in
Ramsey County in 1852
These notifications of the act of 1853 with
in the reasoning of Oh. j. Gilfllan in the
case of Ames and others before cited might not