Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/245/20.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 05:09:46+00:00

Document:
[245 U.S. 20, 21] Mr. Owen J. Roberts, of Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff in error.
It is apparent that the fundamental question, therefore, is, did the Constitution of the United States prevent the exertion of the right of eminent domain to provide for the street in question because of the binding effect of the contract previously made excluding the right to open the street through the land without the consent of the hospital. We say this is the question, since if the possibility were to be conceded that power existed to restrain by contract the further exercise by government of its right to exert eminent domain, it would be unthinkable that the existence of such right of contract could be ren- [245 U.S. 20, 23] dered unavailing by directing proceedings in eminent domain against the contract, for this would be a mere evasion of the assumed power. On the other hand, if there can be no right to restrain by contract the power of eminent domain, it must also of necessity follow that any contract by which it was sought to accomplish that result would be inefficacious for want of power. And these considerations bring us to weigh and decide the real and ultimate question; that is, the right to take the property by eminent domain, which embraces within itself, as the part is contained in the whole, any supposed right of contract limiting or restraining that authority. We are of opinion that the conclusions of the court below in so far as they dealt with the contract clause of the Constitution of the United States were clearly not repugnant to such clause. There can be now, in view of the many decisions of this court on the subject, no room for challenging the general proposition that the states cannot by virtue of the contract clause be held to have divested themselves by contract of the right to exert their governmental authority in matters which from their very nature so concern that authority that to restrain its exercise by contract would be a renunciation of power to legislate for the preservation of society or to secure the performance of essential governmental duties. Beer Co. v. Massachusetts, 97 U.S. 25 ; Stone v. Mississippi, 101 U.S. 814 ; Butchers' Union Co. v. Crescent City Co., 111 U.S. 746 , 4 Sup. Ct. 652; Douglas v. Kentucky, 168 U.S. 488 , 18 Sup. Ct. 199; Manigault v. Springs, 199 U.S. 473 , 26 Sup. Ct. 127; Texas & New Orleans R. R. Co. v. Miller, 221 U.S. 408 , 31 Sup. Ct. 534. And it is unnecessary to analyze the decided cases for the purpose of fixing the criteria by which it is to be determined in a given case whether a power exerted is so governmental in character as not to be subject to be restrained by the contract clause, since it is equally true that the previous decisions of this court leave no doubt that the right of government to exercise its [245 U.S. 20, 24] power of eminent domain upon just compensation for a public purpose comes within this general doctrine. Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, 11 Pet. 420; West River Bridge Co. v. Dix, 6 How. 507; New Orleans Gas Co. v. Louisiana Light Co., 115 U.S. 650 , 6 Sup. Ct. 252; Long Island Water Supply Co. v. Brooklyn, 166 U.S. 685 , 17 Sup. Ct. 718; Offield v. Railroad Company, 203 U.S. 372 , 27 Sup. Ct. 72; Cincinnati v. Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co., 223 U.S. 390 , 32 Sup. Ct. 267.
The principle then upon which the contention under the Constitution rests having been, at the time the case was decided below, conclusively settled to be absolutely devoid of merit, it follows that a dismissal for want of jurisdiction might be directed. Equitable Life Assurance Society v. Brown, 187 U.S. 308, 314 , 23 S. Sup. Ct. 123; Consolidated Turnpike Co. v. Norfolk, etc., Ry. Co., 228 U.S. 596, 600 , 33 S. Sup. Ct. 605; Manhattan Life Insurance Co. v. Cohen, 234 U.S. 123, 137 , 34 S. Sup. Ct. 874. In view, however, of the course of the proceedings below and the aspect which the case took as resulting from those proceedings, without departing from the rule settled by the cases referred to. we think our decree may well be one, not of dismissal, but of affirmance.

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