People's Traction Co. v. City of Atlantic City & Central Passenger Railway Co.
People's Traction Co. v. City of Atlantic City & Central Passenger Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Tills is a certiorari to set aside an ordinance of Atlantic Oity, granting a location of the tracks and route of the Central Passenger Railway Company, also granting consent and permission to said railway company to construct, maintain and operate a street railway by the electric overhead system, and to construct, erect, use and maintain poles, wires, conduits and other structures and appliances appropriate and necessary to operate and maintain its railway, and to fix and determine the location of its rails
The ordinance grants permission for Hie location, and locates with great particularity each pole, and grants permission for the operation of the road, and as conditions of such permission requires the paving by the company of those streets in some portions the entire width and in other portions along the middle, between points one foot outside the outer rail on each side.
The first reason assigned is that the city council was without jurisdiction to entertain the petition of the Central Passenger Eailway Company and to grant the ordinance prayed for in the petition. The basis for this reason seems to be in the clause that certain portions of the streets through which consent to lay the railroad was granted by the ordinance were not dedicated and accepted streets. We think the evidence shows that the streets were dedicated by the filing of maps and sales of lots upon them, and were accepted by the city by resolution, accepting them, and also by the passage of this very ordinance, in which provision is made for their improvement by paving.
Another reason urged is that the People’s Traction Company has an exclusive right for a location of a route of street railway upon the streets, avenues and highways, &c., included in the petition. The Traction company claims this right by reason of having filed a description of its route, together with a map, in the office of the secretary of state. The Traction company is incorporated under “An act to authorize the formation of traction companies for the construction and operation of street railways or railroads operated as street railways and to regulate the same.” Pamph. L., 1893, p. 302. By section 6 of that act it is provided “that whenever any corporation, created under this act, desires to extend any existing railway or to build any new line of
We do not find any sufficient grounds for setting aside the ordinance, and the same is affirmed, with costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.