Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/164/403.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 19:12:51+00:00

Document:
[164 U.S. 403, 411] John F. Dillon, for plaintiff in error. A. S. Churchill and Geo. H. Hastings, for defendant in error.
The applicants then made a complaint to the board of transportation of the state of Nebraska, alleging that the two elevators already built on the right of way of the rail- [164 U.S. 403, 412] way company at Elmwood station were, 'during certain seasons of the year, wholly insufficient in affording a market for the cereals of the complainants and others desirous of marketing their grain,' and that the refusal of the railway company to grant to the complainants a location for an elevator was in violation of the Nebraska statute of 1887, c. 60, in that such refusal was an unjust discrimination, and that the railway company, by such refusal, was subjecting the complainants to an undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage in respect to traffic facilities, over other localities, and was giving an undue and unreasonable preference and advantage to the owners and operators of the two elevators already built at the station.
The board of transportation, after notice to the railway company, and hearing evidence and arguments, found that the two existing elevators were insufficient to handle the grain shipped at Elmwood station, and the owners and operators of those elevators had entered into a combination to fix the prices of grain, and to prevent competition in the price thereof, and there were not sufficient facilities for the handling and shipping of grain at that station; that it was necessary for the convenience of the public that another elevator should be erected and operated there; that, by reason of the side track being placed within the right of way and depot grounds, the complainants could not ship grain without building their elevator upon the grounds of the railway company; that there was room upon those grounds for another elevator, without materially interfering with the operation of the railroad, and the building of an elevator thereon by the complainants would not materially affect the railway company in the use of its grounds, or be an unreasonable burden to it; and that the granting by the railway company of the right and privilege to the owners of the two elevators now standing, and refusing to grant the like right and privilege to the complainants, was an unjust and unreasonable discrimination against the complainants, and unlawfully gave a preference and advantage to the owners of the two existing elevators. [164 U.S. 403, 413] The board of transportation thereupon ordered that the railway company, within 10 days, grant to the complainants, on like terms and conditions as granted to the owners of the two existing elevators, the right and privilege of erecting an elevator upon its grounds, and adjacent to its track, at a point specified in the order, or at some other suitable and convenient place, if the parties could agree, and grant to the complainants all and equal facilities for the handling and shipping of grain at that station which it granted to other shippers of grain there, and cease from all discrimination or preference to and of shippers and operators of elevators at that station.
The statute of Nebraska of 1887, c. 60, 1-3, prohibits, and declares to be unlawful, all unjust and unreasonable charges made by a railroad company for any services rendered in the transportation (which includes all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage) of passengers or property, or in connection therewith, or for the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of such property. The demanding or collecting, directly or indirectly, by a railroad company, from any person, of a greater compensation for such service than it demands or collects from any other person for a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, is declared to be unjust discrimination. It is also made unlawful to give any preference or advantage to, or to subject to any prejudice or disadvantage, any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or [164 U.S. 403, 414] any particular description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever; and railroad companies are required, according to their respective powers, to afford all reasonable, proper, and equal facilities for the interchange of traffic between their respective lines, and for the receiving, forwarding, and delivering of passengers and property to and from their several lines and those connecting therewith, and not to discriminate in their rates and charges between such contracting lines.
A railroad corporation doubtless holds its station grounds, tracks and right of way as its private property, but for the [164 U.S. 403, 415] public use for which it was incorporated, and may, in its discretion, permit them to be occupied by other parties with structures convenient for the receipt and delivery of freight upon its railroad, so long as a free and safe passage is left for the carriage of freight and passengers. Railroad Co. v. Richardson, 91 U.S. 454 . But how far the railroad company can be compelled to do so against its will is a wholly different question.
Nor does it present any question as to the power of the [164 U.S. 403, 416] legislature to compel the railroad company itself to erect and maintain an elevator for the use of the public, or to compel it to permit to all persons equal facilities of access from their own lands to its tracks, and of the use, from time to time, of those tracks for the purpose of shipping or receiving grain or other freight, as in Rhodes v. Railroad Co., 34 Minn. 87, 24 N. W. 347, in Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co. v. People, 56 Ill. 365, and in Hoyt v. Railroad Co., 93 Ill. 601.
Nor does this case show any such exercise of the legislative power to regulate the conduct of the business, or the rate of tolls, fees, of charges, either of railroad corporations or of the proprietors of elevators, as has been upheld by this court in previous cases. Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113 ; Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. Iowa, 94 U.S. 155 ; Dow v. Beidelman, 125 U.S. 680 , 8 Sup. Ct. 1028; Budd v. New York, 143 U.S. 517 , 12 Sup. Ct. 468; Brass v. State of North Dakota, 153 U.S. 391 , 14 Sup. Ct. 857; Covington & C. Bridge Co. v. Kentucky, 154 U.S. 204, 213 , 214 S., 14 Sup. Ct. 1087; Louisville & N. R. v. Kentucky, 161 U.S. 677, 696 , 16 S. Sup. Ct. 714.
This court, confining itself to what is necessary for the decision of the case before it, is unanimously of opinion that the order in question, so far as it required the railroad corporation to surrender a part of its land to the petitioners for the purpose of building and maintaining their elevator upon it, was, in essence and effect, a taking of private property of the railroad corporation for the private use of the petitioners. The taking by a state of the private property of one person or corporation, without the owner's consent, for the private use of another, is not due process of law, and is a violation of the fourteenth article of amendment of the constitution of the United States. Wilkinson v. Leland, 2 Pet. 627, 658; Murray v. Hoboken Co., 18 How. 272, 276; Loan Association v. Topeka, 20 Wall. 655; Davidson v. New Orleans, 96 U.S. 97 , 102; Cole v. La Grange, 113 U.S. 1 , 5 Sup. Ct. 416; Fallbrook Dist. v. Bradley, 164 U.S. 112, 158 , 161 S., 17 Sup. Ct. 56; State v. Chicago, M. & St. P . Ry. Co., 36 Minn. 402, 31 N. W. 365.

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