Williamsport & Hagerstown Turnpike Co. v. Hollman
Williamsport & Hagerstown Turnpike Co. v. Hollman
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The question involved in this case lies within a very narrow compass. It arose in an action of assumpsit, instituted in the court below by the appellant against the appellee, to recover a certain sum of money, due on twelve shares of stock subscribed for by the appellee, who resisted the recovery upon the ground of a violation of the terms of the contract of subscription; the ground of the defence was sustained by the court below, and the right of recovery, thereby defeated. The only provision of the act of incorporation, upon which any thing like the semblance of a contract can be founded, is to be found in the ninth section thereof. That section authorizes the president and managers of the company to appoint three commissioners to lay out the road, in the nearest and best direction, from the eastern limits of the town of Williamsport, to the town of Hagerstown; and after having laid out and marked said road, they are directed to make out a plat of the same, specifying the courses and distances, and return said plat to the president and managers.
It is to be observed, that this law emphatically makes it the duty of the commissioners, in designating the course the road was to run, to locate it in the nearest and best direction. If then the provisions of this section can even be considered as entering into the essence of the contract between the parties, we do not think that the appellee can invoke to his aid, the provisions which it contains, under the facts agreed to exist in this case. It is distinctly admitted, that in changing the location of the road as marked out by the commissioners, the president and managers of the company, so far from infringing the provisions of the law, strictly complied with the letter of its requirements, by shortening the distance, and that the termination of the road at the town of Williamsport, was not changed by such alteration. Under this aspect of the case it appears to us, that the president and managers in changing
judgment REVERSED AND PROCEDENDO AWARDED,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The Williamsport and Hagerstown Turnpike Company v. Joseph Hollman
- Status
- Published