Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/258/13/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 15:57:36+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 258 › Western Union. Tel. Co. v. Louisville & N. R. Co.
Western Union Telegraph Company v.
A telegraph company whose line occupied part of a railroad right of way under an expired contract with the railroad company obtained a judgment under Ky.Stats. § 4679c adjudging it a right to condemn the easement and fixing the damages, which it paid into court, and, pending an appeal upon which the circuit court of appeals ordered a new trial on the right to include part of the property affected and on the damages, an act was passed (Acts 1916, c. 15) providing generally that no part of a railroad right of way should be condemned, longitudinally, for a telegraph line, and making no exception of pending cases.
(1) That the telegraph company acquired no vested right through the judgment, and its right to condemn was repealed by the later act. P. 258 U. S. 18.
(2) Kentucky Stats. § 465, declaring against construing a new law to repeal a former law as to rights accrued or claims arising under it or in any way whatever to affect any right accrued or claim arising before the new law takes effect, was inapplicable. P. 258 U. S. 19.
(3) The withdrawal of the right of condemnation violated neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the provision of the Kentucky Constitution forbidding any interference by the legislature with judicial proceedings in court. P. 258 U. S. 19.
Appeal from a decree of the district court dismissing appellant's petition in condemnation. A formal appeal in this case went to the circuit court of appeals. 249 F. 385. In an ancillary proceeding, an injunction was granted by the district court, 201 F. 946, and sustained by the circuit court of appeals, but, on a subsequent appeal, that court decided that it should be dissolved because of the repealing statute here in question. See 268 F. 4, 13.
The purpose is to condemn as a right under the sanction of the statute so much of the right of way of the Railroad Company as was occupied at the time of suit by the Telegraph Company under a contract with the Railroad Company, which was about to expire.
After pleadings in addition to the petition and answer, the case was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict fixing the compensation and damages at $500,000. The verdict was received and entered, and it was adjudged by the court that the Telegraph Company have the right it petitioned for.
A new trial was ordered, and the court reserved to itself the decision of the necessity of the easement, and whether, if adjudged, it "would interfere with the ordinary use by" the Railroad Company "of its right of way or with the ordinary travel and traffic on the railroad." Both questions were ultimately resolved in favor of the Telegraph Company, and, a jury, having been duly impaneled and instructed by the court, assessed the damages and compensation to be paid at five thousand dollars.
"from the record (the specific question has not been argued) that there are comparatively small fractions of the right of way as to which it may be reasonably claimed that the interference with the railroad use is too serious to permit condemnation."
of damages" might "meet the case," but that it might be that another telegraph line could not be so placed as not to substantially obstruct the use by the Railroad Company of its right of way for some railroad purpose. The court therefore concluded that the verdict of the jury and the judgment entered thereon must be set aside and the case remanded for new trial upon the question of amount of compensation and for such further hearing and decision upon the question of the forbidden interference in specific places as the opinion indicated might be open. Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co., 249 F. 385. As we construe the decision, there was a reversal not only on the question of damages, but on the question of the interference by the easement petitioned for with the use by the railroad of its right of way. And hence there might be brought into consideration a conflict between the uses, the resolution of which would determine for or against the right of the Telegraph Company under the law of 1898.
Upon the return of the case to the district court, the Railroad Company, in an amended answer, pleaded the Act of March 14, 1916, and moved a dismissal of the petition upon the ground that that act had withdrawn the right to prosecute it. To this answer the Telegraph Company replied that the Act of March 14, 1916, did not affect the litigation, and, that, if it be given that effect, it would be void under the constitution of the state because of legislative interference with "proceedings pending in a judicial tribunal." And further that, under a proper construction of the statutes of the state, the present proceedings were not affected by them, and, if so applied, they would violate the constitution of the state and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
The court denied the motion to dismiss the petition, deciding that the repealing act, taken in connection with Ky.St. § 465, [Footnote 3] was not intended to affect pending cases, and that, if so intended it, the repealing act, was void under the constitution of the state, which precludes interference with judicial proceedings, the courts having the "exclusive right to determine the law of existing cases."
The district court, no doubt regarding the decision of the circuit court of appeals as an authoritative construction of the statutes (repealing act and § 465), on motion of the Railroad Company notwithstanding the invocation of the Constitution of Kentucky and the Constitution of the United States by the Telegraph Company, reversed its former ruling and dismissed the petition.
From this statement of the case, it is clear that the constitutionality of the repealing act is the determining question in the case -- its "storm center," to use the words of counsel, and to the ruling of the court sustaining its constitutionality this writ of error is directed. And it was not introduced into the cause until it, the cause, was sent back for a new trial on all of the issues by the circuit court of appeals.
of conditions essential to a grant of the easement. Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co., 249 F. 385. There was something more, therefore, to be inquired into upon the return of the case to the district court than the amount of compensation to be paid, as we have pointed out.
The Telegraph Company insists that § 465 of the Kentucky statutes precludes the application of the Act of March 14, 1916, to the case, and such was the original view. We cannot accede to it. We agree with the circuit court of appeals that no right had accrued or claim arisen under the judgment of the district court within the meaning of § 465. Besides, as also pointed out by the circuit court of appeals, the Act of March 14, 1916, is general and absolute. It takes away the power to condemn the right of way of a railroad company by telegraph companies, and it does not save proceedings commenced before its applicable date. Such reservation is usual, if intended (Railroad Co. v. Grant, 98 U. S. 398), and is illustrated by Pannell v. Louisville Tobacco Warehouse Co., 113 Ky. 630.
The contention that, if the repealing act be construed to apply to the pending litigation, it is an interference by the legislature with judicial proceedings and therefore void under the constitution of the state challenges to particular attention. It is sustained, the company asserts, by the decisions of the state.
"The legislature have no power where a controversy is pending between individuals growing out of their respective legal rights, to so act as to cast off the rights of one of the parties and his remedy likewise. . . ."
one of the litigants, it would be an invasion by one independent department of the government of another, and therefore unconstitutional."
Marion County v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 91 Ky. 388; Thweatt v. Bank of Hopkinsville, 81 Ky. 1. In another case it is succinctly said that "Legislation pending suit cannot affect rights which existed before suit and upon which suit was brought." Turner v. Town of Pewee Valley, 100 Ky. 288.
"The state has the right to say on what terms it will allow its right of eminent domain to be exercised so long as anything remains to be done by the corporation in order to complete the condemnation of the land."
And necessarily, we may add, the state has a right to say upon what property or to what extent the right of eminent domain shall be exercised. The case seems a complete answer to the contentions of the Telegraph Company. See also Pannell v. Louisville Tobacco Warehouse Co., 113 Ky. 630; Commonwealth v. Ewald Iron Co., 153 Ky. 116; 1 Lewis on Eminent Domain (3d ed.) § 380; Cooley's Constitutional Limitations (6th ed.) pp. 143-343; Endlich on Interpretation of Statutes, §§ 480-486.
Cases in which it is decided that, upon payment or tender of the award of damages, the condemning company has a right to take possession of the land it seeks to condemn are not inconsistent with Treacy v. Elizabethtown, Lexington & Big Sandy Railroad Co., supra. In that case, there was not only under the railroad's charter a right of entry, but, upon payment or tender of payment of the damages awarded, the actual title could have been acquired, and yet the repealing statute was given effect because the conditions of condemnation had not been established.
and fix it as a right. The accomplishment of this the repealing act prevented.
Our conclusion, therefore, is that as the state could have withheld the power from telegraph companies to condemn the right of way of railroad companies, the state could withdraw the power before its exercise, and it could not be exercised before the conditions of condemnation were established and adjudicated, and this not preliminarily or dependently, but in final and unreviewable determination. To this situation the condemnation in the present case had not attained. The grant of power to the Telegraph Company, therefore, was subject to legislative control, and the Act of March 14, 1916, was not an "interference by the legislature with judicial proceedings in court," and does not offend the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendments.
"Sec. 4679c. 1. Right of to Erect and Operate Lines. That a telegraph company chartered or incorporated by the laws of this or any other state, shall, upon making just compensation, as hereafter provided, have the right to construct, maintain and operate telegraph lines through any public lands of this state, . . . and on, along and upon the right of way and structures of any railroad in this state . . . in such manner as not to interfere with the ordinary use or the ordinary travel and traffic on such . . . railroads."
"7. Judgment, Form of. . . . 'Now upon payment of said award either to the defendant or to the clerk of this Court, and all costs in this behalf expended, said . . . telegraph company may enter upon said land and appropriate so much thereof as may be necessary, as prayed for in its petition.'"
"An act to protect railroad companies in the use and enjoyment of their rights of way by forbidding the condemnation thereof for other purposes."
"§ 1. That no part of the right of way of any railroad company, or any interest or easement therein, shall be taken by any condemnation proceedings, or without the consent of such railroad company for the use or occupancy of any part of such right of way on, over, and along such right of way longitudinally by any telegraph, telephone, electric light, power, or other wire company with its poles, cables, wires, conduits, or other fixtures; provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing any such wire company from obtaining the right to cross the right of way of a railroad company under existing laws in such manner as not to interfere with the ordinary use or ordinary travel and traffic of such railroad company's railroad."
"§ 2. That all acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act be, and the same are, hereby repealed."
"No new law shall be construed to repeal a former law as to . . . any right accrued or claim arising under the former law, or in any way whatever to affect . . . any right accrued or claim arising before the new law takes effect. . . ."
The injunction suit was brought to restrain the Railroad Company from disturbing the Telegraph Company's occupancy of the right of way of the Railroad Company pending this proceeding. The injunction was granted February 7, 1913, 201 F. 946. The order granting it was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co., 207 F. 1.

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