Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/294/613.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 01:32:19+00:00

Document:
Messrs. G. J. Neuner, of Kansas City, Mo., and Chester J. Gerkin, of New York City, for appellant. [294 U.S. 613, 614] Mr. Otho W. Lomax, of Topeka, Kan., for appellee.
The Kansas highway commission, administrative agency of the state, without any proceeding in condemnation, ordered the appellant company to make specified changes in its transmission lines. It refused. By an original proceeding in the Supreme Court, the commis- [294 U.S. 613, 615] sion obtained a peremptory writ of mandamus directing compliance. The company insists that to enforce the commission's order would deprive it of property without due process of law, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment.
Judgment went for the commission upon the pleadings; there is no dispute concerning the facts; the validity of the statute said to authorize the order is challenged.
Appellant, a Delaware corporation with power to construct and maintain conduits for transporting natural gas, obtained authority to do business in Kansas, May 21, 1930, and during that year purchased from the owners rights of way for pipes, auxiliary telephone lines, etc. Thereafter these were constructed; the gas passes in both interstate and intrastate commerce.
The commission, created under chapter 225, Acts of 1929, is charged with the duty to lay out, open, relocate, alter, redesignate, and re- establish highways throughout the state. Section 16 of that statute (Supp. Rev. Stats. 1931, also 1933, 68-415)-copied in the margin1-undertakes to [294 U.S. 613, 616] grant power to require removal of abutments, wires, and pipe lines and other fixtures now upon state highways from the present locations thereon to other designated parts of the right of way. Unless imposed by this section, there are no statutory obligations upon pipe line companies with respect to the construction, maintenance, or operation of their lines, whether located upon public highways or private lands.
After the pipes were in operation-1933-the commission adopted plans for new highways across the company's right of way at six widely separated places. Permission of the owners of the fee to use the necessary land was obtained; but appellant declined to permit the use of its right of way.
Plans for the new highways called for material changes in the pipe and telephone lines at the crossings-removals, lowerings, casements- estimated to cost above $5,000. All parties admit that the commission could not make these with reasonable safety; appellant was willing to do the work if promised repayment of the necessary expense. Purporting to act under section 16 (December 1, 1933), the commission ordered it to proceed without compensation. That the proposed changes would be proper for new highways as planned is admitted; also that the estimated cost [294 U.S. 613, 617] is reasonable. But appellant denied the existence of power to impose this expense upon it; and for that reason refused to comply with the order until the commission should agree to refund the outlay.
If carried into effect, the challenged order of the commission would result in taking private property for public use. State of Washington ex rel. Oregon R. & Nav. Co. v. Fairchild, 224 U.S. 510, 523 , 524 S., 32 S.Ct. 535; Southern Ry. Co. v. Virginia, 290 U.S. 190, 194 , 54 S. Ct. 148. A private right of way is an easement and is land. United States v. Welch, 217 U.S. 333, 339 , 30 S.Ct. 527, 28 L.R.A.(N.S.) 385, 19 Ann.Cas. 680. No compensation was provided for; none was intended to be made. Ordinarily, at least, such taking is inhibited by the Fourteenth Amendment. Chicago, B. & Q. Ry. Co. v. Chicago, 166 U.S. 226, 241 , 17 S.Ct. 581; Chicago, B. & Q. Ry. Co. v. People of State of Illinois, Drainage Com'rs, 200 U.S. 561, 593 , 26 S.Ct. 341, 4 Ann.Cas. 1175; McCoy v. Union Elevated Ry. Co., 247 U.S. 354, 363 , 38 S.Ct. 504; Chicago, B. & Q.R. Co. v. Pub. Util. Comm., 69 Colo. 275, 279, 193 P. 726. See Lewis, Eminent Domain, (3d Ed.) 223. [294 U.S. 613, 619] A claim that action is being taken under the police power of the state cannot justify disregard of constitutional inhibitions. Schlesinger v. Wisconsin, 270 U.S. 230, 240 , 46 S.Ct. 260, 43 A.L.R. 1224; Georgia Power Co. v. Decatur, 281 U.S. 505, 508 , 50 S.Ct. 369; Southern Railway Co. v. Virginia, supra, page 196 of 290 U.S., 54 S.Ct. 148.
While the court below held that the commission exercised police power to make public travel safe, and to accomplish that end might require alteration of the lines without compensation, it repudiated the suggestion that the same reasoning would support an order to remove other lawful structures; e.g., compressor stations. 'Transmission lines of all kinds' it said, 'are on the same footing, and are on the same footing with railroads with respect to grade crossings.' Erie R. Co. v. Board of Pub. Util. Commissioners, 254 U.S. 394 , 41 S.Ct. 169 was cited and relied upon.
Where the circumstances sufficed to show that the public would be subjected to serious danger from moving trains and supported the inference that the railroad company obtained permission to occupy the soil subject to reasonable legislation to prevent such danger, this Court has upheld orders, based upon the state's police power, to change tracks, eliminate grade crossings, etc.
'The company must be deemed to have laid its tracks within the corporate limits of the city subject to the condition-not, it is true, expressed, but necessarily implied-that new streets of the city might be opened and extended from time to time across its tracks, as the public convenience required, and under such restrictions as might be prescribed by statute. ... The plaintiff in error took its charter subject to the power of the state to provide for the safety of the public, in so far as the safety of the lives and persons of the people were involved in the operation of the railroad. The company laid its tracks subject to the condition, necessarily implied, that their use could be so regulated by competent authority as to insure the pbulic safety.' Chicago, B. & Q. Ry. Co. v. Chicago, 166 U.S. 226, 250 , 252 S., 17 S.Ct. 581, 590.
'The railway company accepted its franchise from the state, subject necessarily to the condition that it would conform at its own expense to any regulations, not arbi- [294 U.S. 613, 621] trary in their character, as to the opening or use of streets, which had for their object the safety of the public, or the promotion of the public convenience, and which might, from time to time, be established by the municipality, when proceeding under legislative authority, within whose limits the company's business was conducted.' Cincinnati, I. & W.R. Co. v. Connersville, 218 U.S. 336, 343 , 31 S.Ct. 93, 94, 20 Ann. Cas. 1206. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. v. Minneapolis, 232 U.S. 430, 440 , 34 S.Ct. 400.
Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 413 , 415 S., 416, 43 S.Ct. 158, 159, 28 A.L.R. 1321, Mr. Justice Holmes again writing, elucidates the doctrine of the Erie's Case.
The rule in respect of railroad crossings applies when there is substantial risk of injury to the public from the operation of trains and ground to imply the company's consent to take such measures as may be necessary to prevent the hazard. This Court has not sanctioned extension of the rule to wholly dissimilar circumstances; it does not apply to structures which are unattended by serious danger to the public.
The police power of a state, while not susceptible of definition with circumstantial precision, must be exercised within a limited ambit and is subordinate to constitutional limitations. It springs from the obligation of the state to protect its citizens and provide for the safety and good order of society. Under it there is no unrestricted authority to accomplish whatever the public may presently desire. It is the governmental power of self-protection and permits reasonable regulation of rights and property in particulars essential to the preservation of the community from injury. New York & N.E. Ry. Co. v. Town of Bristol, 151 U.S. 556 , 14 S.Ct. 437.
New Orleans Gas Light Co. v. Drainage Commission, 197 U.S. 453 , 25 S. Ct. 471, and similar cases concerning pipes in public streets, are not controlling. In them the pipes were laid upon agreement, actual or implied, that the owner [294 U.S. 613, 623] would make reasonable changes when directed by the municipality.
As construed below, the challenged statute authorizes an arbitrary and unreasonable order by the state highway commission, whose enforcement would deprive appellant of rights guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.
The questioned judgment must be reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
Mr. Justice STONE and Mr. Justice CARDOZO concur in the result.
[ Footnote * ] Petition for rehearing denied 295 U.S. 768 , 55 S.Ct. 652, 79 L.Ed . --.

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