Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-05-17
INJUNCTION PRAYED FOR
To Stop the Construction of the
Trolley Road.

viii SIT ms Advisers.
On Wednesday of last week Levi X.
| Fuller and AZ others, land owners and
abutters upon the streets and highways
! through which the Brattleboro Street Rail-
road company proposes to construct its
railroad, filed in the court of chancery for
| this county their bill in equity praying for
an injunction against the railroad com
pany. The following day an order was OBJ
| tained from Chancellor Rowel for the de-
/ PENDANTS to appear before him at Mont
pelier on Thursday of this week to show
cause why the injunction prayed for should
not be granted, ard the bill and order were
served upon the defendant company Friday
evening, the 10th. The complainants
charge as grounds for an injunction that
the act Incorporating the railroad company,
so far as it allowed the railroad company
to appropriate the streets and highways of
| Brattleboro, was modified and repealed by
! the act of 1894, and that the whole matter
had been committed by the last named act
to the selectmen of the town, whose per-
mission to occupy the streets and highways
was prerequisite to their right to construct
their railroad in and along the streets and
highways; that the company had never
| filed with the selectmen or town clerk
! statement defining the portions of the
! streets and highways in which it purpOsed
! to locate its tracks, turnouts and switches,
| and the erection of its poles and wires, as is
required by the act of the legislature afore-
! said. That the location given by the rail
read commissioners was without warrant
in law, for the reason that the permission
of the selectmen had first to be obtained
for the use of the streets and that the rail
road commissioners had no jurisdiction
whatever in the premises That the action
! of the bailiffs was also without authority
| in law, from the fact that consent of the
| bailffs to use the streets and highways is
| only necessary to be obtained in those
cases where the legislature has specially
committed to the bailitfs of the village the
right to lay out and keep in repair the
streets, which has never been done in the
case of the village of Brattleboro.
That under the provisions of the act in
cooperating said company it was necessary
that at least $4,000 of its capital stock
should be actually paid in before it could
acquire any rights of way or begin the con-
struction of its railroad That at the time
when the several pretended permissions
had been given the company to locate and
construct its railroad by the railroad COM
missioners, the baliffs of the village and
the present board of seectmen, no part of
its capital stock had been actually paid in,
nor had any been called for to be paid in
until May l, 1895, and that at the time of
the filing of the bill of complaint the sum
of $4,000 had not been paid in. That the
erection of poles and wires along the line
of the proposed railway and its construc-
tion and operation would impose an addi-
tional servitude upon the streets and high
ways, for which the abutting land owners
were entitled to receive Just compensation
and damages, and that section four of the
act of 1894 contemplates and recognizes
such street railroad operated by the trolley
system to be such additional servitude, for
which compensation and damages should
be made to the abutting owners. That the
lines of road proposed to be constructed
would require an expenditure of every dol
lar of its capital stock, and in addition
thereto the company would be required 20
bond or mortgage its property, in order to
properly construct, equip and operate its
road That the company would inevitably
become bankrupt and the abutting land
owners left without any remedy for the
damages which they might sustain by rea-
son of its construction. That portions of
Canal street and High street and the whole
of North Main and Chaplin streets are very
narrow and that the construction and opera
tion of a street railroad therein would prac-
cally monopolize the use of the streets,
largely TO the exclusion of other travel
thereon with teams and carriages. That at
the time the street railroad was incorpo-
rated neither the incorporators nor the
promoters of the enterprise had in view or
contemplated the construction of rail-
road to be operated by any other than
horse power, and this is evinced by the fact
that at the time of said incorporation there
was not a street railroad in all New Eng
land operated by means of the trolley sys-
tenn of electricity, and but few, if any, in
the world, and those only for experimental
purposes. That the company threatened
to begin the construction of its railroad
without delay, and the petitioners there
fore prayed that the company be enjOined
from so doing and until further order of
the court therein.
Among the names the complainants
are Levi X. Fuller, obie E. Fuller, Julius
j. Estey, Geo. A. Hines, Geo, w. Hooker,
B. d. Harris, o. d. Esterbrook, Geo. S.
DOwley, o. j.. Pratt, Geo. A. Boyden,
Francis Goodhue, Mary E. Goodhue, Mary
N. Cune, Elizabeth Thompson, Mrs. Kirk
land, Alice p Carpenter, Julia X. Plum
mer, Jennie NJ. White, S. w. Kimball,
Chas Miner, L. F. Adams, Chas A. Harris,
Lewis S, Higgins Jane E. Higgins, An
gelica B. Shea, Mary Ritter Shea, Ellen E.
Brooks, Edwin F. Brooks, Howard A.
Pratt, Helen r. Pratt, S. w. Richardson,
Alonzo Starkey, Loretta Starkey, and ten
others.
The Defendant COmPany's Answer.
The essential contentious of the defend
ants, it is evident, will be on the right to
build an electric road under the charter of
1888, or the rights of the complainant
abutters as against any other citizens; that
the construction and operation of an cleo
trio railroad imposes no additional servi-
tude on the streets; and that the road
being built under the restriction and con-
troll of the town and village authorities, the
complainants have no just ground on which
to ask for an injunction.
The Hearing Postponed.