Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/200/148.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 13:14:30+00:00

Document:
Bill in equity to enjoin defendants from closing a certain passageway in the approach of a bridge called the Morrison street bridge, in the city of Portland, Oregon. The approach leads to plaintiffs' wharves. The bill was demurred to and the demurrer sustained by the trial court, plaintiffs declining to plead further, and a decree was entered dismissing the bill. The decree was affirmed by the supreme court of the state. 45 Or. 1, 76 Pac. 347.
The bridge was constructed in 1886, the west end of which was located at the east end of Morrison street. Between the west end of the bridge and Front street a plank road or approach was constructed over Morrison street, but the approach did not conform to the grade of Front street, but was constructed at an elevation of more than 2 feet above such grade at the west end of the bridge, and thence inclined to Front street, and has always been maintained at such elevation. The bridge did not cover the whole of Morrison street from Front street to the west end of bridge, but was so constructed that a portion of Morrison street, in the center thereof and leading from Front street on an incline to the lower docks and wharves of plaintiffs, was left uncovered and unchanged, the same being about 18 feet wide and extending easterly from Front street about 95 feet. The approaches constructed by the bridge company have been and are sufficient for the passage to and from the bridge for foot passengers, cars, and vehicles using the bridge. The opening was left in the decking of Morrison street to provide access to the lower floors of the wharves, and as a means of ingress and egress from them, and did not materially interfere with or obstruct the use of city roadways and the wharves and docks as they had been theretofore used.
In 1895 the city of Portland purchased, under legislative authority, the Morrison street bridge from the Willamette Iron Bridge Company, the successor in interest to the Portland Bridge Company, and subsequently, under the provision of an [200 U.S. 148, 153] act of the legislature, approved February 21, 1895, the county court of Multnomah county assumed and has since had the care and operation of the bridge and its approaches.
In 1886 the Willamette Iron Bridge Company began the construction of the bridge and built two piers in the river to support the western end of the bridge in front of the outer line of plaintiffs' wharves, in such position as to obstruct navigation and to greatly interfere with the access to the wharves, and at the same time began to construct the approach to the bridge over Morrison street in such manner as to interfere with access to the wharves. The owners of the wharves in April, 1887, protested, and a compromise and settlement was effected between the parties, whereby the bridge company agreed to forever leave an opening in the bridge approach substantially as it now is, and in consideration thereof the wharf owners agreed to permit the piers to remain as constructed, and as they have ever since remained, and to waive all objection to the construction of the approach in the manner in which it was constructed, leaving the opening forever open and unobstructed for free ingress and egress to the wharves. The parties acted upon the agreement, and the wharf owners did not begin or prosecute legal proceedings. In 1890, however, the company, notwithstanding the agreement, threatened to close up the opening, whereupon the wharf owners commenced a suit in equity to enjoin the threatened injury, and thereupon, in consideration of the dismissel of the suit, the bridge company entered into another agreement to refrain from the threatened acts, and leave the opening and approach in the condition as the same now is.
It is alleged that the city of Portland acquired the bridge and the approach thereof subject to the said agreement, and the rights vested in the plaintiffs thereby, and that the defendants are proceeding, without tendering or offering compensation therefor, to close said opening, and thereby deprive plaintiffs of their property without due process of law, contrary to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. [200 U.S. 148, 154] And it is alleged that the ordinances of the city of Portland, hereinbefore set out, constitue a contract between the city and plaintiffs' predecessors, and the acts of the legislature of the state of Oregon which have been mentioned, so far as they undertake to confer upon defendants the power to close the opening of such bridge without payment of compensation, impair the obligation of such contract, and violate 10, article 1, of the Constitution of the United States. An injunction was prayed.
Messrs. Charles H. Carey, C. E. S. Wood, S. B. Linthicum, J. C. Flanders, and Carey & Mays for plaintiffs in error.
[200 U.S. 148, 158] Messrs. L. A. McNary, and J. P. Kavanaugh for defendants in error.
If we determine what rights plaintiffs had in Morrison street and the river, we shall be able to determine their contentions. Plaintiffs claim a contract with the city based on the ordinances which authorize plaintiffs to construct their wharves, but they also claim rights which they say were attached to the property and reserved to it by Daniel H. Lownsdale, 'of the wharves and wharfing privileges.' The rights so reserved are made especially dominant. Indeed, the rights obtained from the city are somewhat minimized and depreciated. All the city [200 U.S. 148, 160] could do, it is said, and all the city attempted to do by its ordinances, was to authorize the riparian owners to build their wharves. Why authority from the city was necessary in view of the reservation in the Lownsdale dedication, if it was as extensive as contended, seems to call for explanation, and explanation is given by saying that the ordinance was but the exercise of the authority to regulate the manner in which the wharves were to be built by the riparian proprietors. And plaintiffs, to point their reliance on the reservation in the Lownsdale dedication, say: 'Whether the ordinances do or do not purport to grant a privilege or right to use or appropriate the street or an extension thereof for wharfing purposes, the right exists, and it existed because of the reservation in the plat, long before the ordinances; and it exists independent of any action of the city. This right is different in kind from the right of the public to use the street. And it is a valuable right, which cannot be taken away or destroyed without compensation.' Plaintiffs, however, in other parts of their argument, claim, by reason of the ordinances, an irrevocable license, and in the pleadings give prominence to nothing else but the rights conferred by the ordinances. On account of this probably neither the trial court nor the supreme court commented on the Lownsdale dedication. But we will not consider plaintiffs precluded by that omission. It is very clear to us that their contention under the Lownsdale dedication is not sound. The purpose of the dedication was an addition to the city. Streets were contemplated and power of the city over them, and this purpose and power is as clear and definite in the dedication as the reservation of rights to lot owners. This was the view of plaintiffs' predecessors when they applied for the ordinances. Therefore the fundamental proposition in the case is the power of the city over its streets, and how far that power was limited or could be limited by the ordinance upon which plaintiffs rely.
It will be observed that the wharves were constructed on Morrison street and 'used as, and the same are, a public street and highway.' In other words, the bill alleges that the wharves [200 U.S. 148, 161] on Morrison street formed a part of the street, and were open to general and public use.
What power the city of Portland had to grant rights in its streets depends upon its charter; and interpreting the ordinance upon which plaintiffs rely, the supreme court of Oregon decided that neither the plaintiffs nor their predecessors in interest were granted rights or privileges in the street different in kind from that enjoyed by the public.
Against these conclusions plaintiffs cite other Oregon cases. We are, however, not called upon to reconcile the cases. Plaintiffs point to no case decided prior to the construction of the wharves which interprets the ordinance as they now contend for, which might bring the case within the ruling of Muhlker v. New York & H. R. Co. 197 U.S. 544 , 49 L. ed. 872, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 522, and Lewis v. Portland, 25 Or. 159, 22 L. R. A. 736, 42 Am. St. Rep. 772, 35 Pac. 256. And if we could say that the construction of the ordinances by the supreme court is not indisputable, yet we are required by the rule expressed in Burgess v. Seligman, 107 U.S. 20 , 27 L. ed. 359, 2 Sup. Ct. Rep. 10, and the many cases which have followed it, to incline to an agreement with the state court.
In accordance with the doctrine announced in Brand v. Multnomah County, 38 Or. 79, 50 L. R. A. 389, 84 Am. St. Rep. 772, 60 Pac. 390, 62 Pac. 209, the supreme court decided that a change or alteration of the grade of a street may be made by lawful authority, without liability to abutting property owners for consequential damages, and that the act of October 18, 1878, was a legislative change of the grade of Morrison street for its full width. Plaintiffs do not deny that the legislature has such power. They make, hawever, two contentions: (a) That the act of 1878 was not intended to change the grade of the street, and did not do so. (b) If it did change the grade at all, it changed it as to those portions of the street only which were actually made use of on the new grade as an approach to the bridge, the remainder not being affected by the act.' As to the latter point, it is contended that the power given to the bridge company to build an approach to the bridge on Morrison street to confrom to the grade on Front street was exhausted with the exercise of the right, and that the defendants have no power under the act, after a lapse of twenty years, to extend the [200 U.S. 148, 164] approach of the bridge to cover the opening in Morrison street, and change the grade where it was not changed when the approach was built.
The act of 1878 is a local statute, and in its interpretation involves no Federal question, nor does it become such by the circumstances of this case. It expresses the legislative authority, and its interpretation by the supreme court of the state we must accept. And the power to grade was not exhausted by one exercise. Goszler v. Georgetown, 6 Wheat. 593, 597, 5 L. ed. 339, 340; Wabash R. Co. v. Defiance, 167 U.S. 88 , 42 L. ed. 87, 17 Sup.Ct.Rep. 748. It is a phase of the same contention that the bridge company was given the right of election of the manner of constructing the approaches, and, being bound by that election, the city, its successor, is also bound.
[ Footnote 1 ] Ordinance No. 2273.
'Sec. 1. The owner or owners of lots 3 and 4, in block 77, in the city of Portland, are hereby authorized and permitted to construct a wharf of piles and timber in the Willamette river, on and in front of the lots above mentioned, the easterly line of said wharf to run parallel with the east line of Front street from a point 100 feet north of the north line of Morrison street, the lower floor of said wharf to be as near 10 feet above the base of grades as practicable; provided, that the owner or owners of said above-described property shall construct and maintain, at their own expense, a pontoon suitable for the landing of small boats, with suitable steps leading from the pontoon to the lower floor of the wharf; said pontoon to be constructed at the foot of Morrison street, and to be in accordance with plan on file in the office of the auditor and clerk.
'Sec. 2. The upper story or floor of said wharf shall not extend easterly beyond the lines of the lower wharf or beyond the lines of the block southwardly, except for a passageway, 15 feet in width along and over the north side of Morrison street to within 28 feet of the easterly margin of said wharf, and for said distance of 28 feet said passageway shall not extend southwardly into said street for a greater distance than 6 feet; provided, that the whole of said passageway and all of those portions of said wharf extending over and into the street shall be subject to regulation by the common council as a part of said street and sidewalk; and provided further, that a suitable trap for fire purposes shall be placed in the lower roadway, to be kept clear and in order by the owners of said wharf.
'Sec. 3. The owners of the property described in 1 of this ordinance are hereby authorized and permitted to erect a one-story warehouse thereon, to be constructed of wood, with the roof covered with tin, anything contained in ordinance No. 1140, entitled 'An Ordinance Providing for the Prevention of Fires and the Protection of Property Endangered Thereby,' and the several amendments thereto, to the contrary notwithstanding.
[ Footnote 2 ] Ordinance No. 2387.
'Sec. 1. The owners of lots 3 and 4, in block 76, are hereby authorized and permitted to construct a wharf of piles and timber in the Willamette river on and in front of the above-described lots. The easterly side of said wharf to commence at a point 147 feet east of the east line of Front street, and running from the center line of Morrison street extended in a direct course to a point 130 feet south of the center line of Morrison street extended, at a distance of 137 1/2 feet from the east line of Front street.
'The lower floor of said wharf to conform to the grade of Coulter and Church's wharf at its connection therewith; provided, that the owner or owners of the above-described property shall construct and maintain at their own expense a pontoon suitable for the landing of small boats, with suitable steps leading from the pontoon to the lower floor of the wharf, said pontoon to be constructed at the foot of Morrison street, and to be in accordance with plan in auditor's office.
'Sec. 2. The upper story or floor of said wharf shall not extend easterly beyond the lines of the lower wharf or beyond the lines of the block northwardly, except for a passageway, 15 feet in width, along and over the south side of Morrison street to within 28 feet of the easterly margin of said wharf, and for said distance of 28 feet said passageway shall not extend northwardly into said street for a greater distance than 6 feet; provided, that the whole of said passageway, and all those portions of said wharf extending over and into the street, shall be subject to regulation by the common council as a part of said street and sidewalk; and provided further, that a suitable trap for fire purposes shall be placed in the lower roadway, to be kept clear and in order by the owners of said wharf.
'Sec. 3. The owners of property described in 1 of this ordinance are hereby authorized and permitted to erect a one-story warehouse thereon, to be constructed of wood with the roof covered with tin, anything contained in ordinance No. 1140, entitled 'An Ordinance Providing for the Prevention of Fires and the Protection of Property Endangered Thereby, and the several amendments thereto, to the contrary notwithstanding.

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