Myers v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry. Co.
Myers v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry. Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from an order sustaining a general demurrer to plaintiff’s complaint, in which his counsel claims that there has been stated a cause of action against defendant corporation, a common carrier, for unjust.discrimination, under Laws 1887, ch. 10, § 2, subd. b; and also “incidentally,” as counsel says, a cause of action under § 3, subd. c, of the same chapter. A variety of acts and occurrences in the year 1890 at Wells station are alleged in the pleading as constituting the unjust discrimination complained of, in brief, as follows : That defendant refused to lease its land to plaintiff, that he might build a warehouse thereon; that after he had erected two buildings for warehouse purposes adjacent to defendant’s
There are other averments in the complaint as to the past and present rental value of plaintiff’s buildings, and also as to their rental value had plaintiff’s demands and requests been complied with, — inserted, presumably, for the purpose of showing the amount in which plaintiff has been damaged; and there are other allegations in respect to the privileges and rights granted by defendant company at Wells station to other shippers and warehousemen.
But by none of these averments was it shown that unequal or unreasonable preferences or advantages, in respect to the matters of which the plaintiff complains, have been made or given to these persons, or that the plaintiff has been subjected to any unequal or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage by defendant’s refusal to lease its land that he might build a warehouse upon it, or by its requiring him to remove buildings from its premises which he had erected there without permission.
There was nothing in the complaint indicating whether the side track which plaintiff demanded should be built to his houses could be so built upon defendant’s land, and under the statute, (subdivision c, supra,) it was not required to furnish or construct a track off from its own land; and, as plaintiff had then leased the buildings, a
Order affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.