Cincinnati Crushed Stone & Gravel Co. v. Public Utilities Commission
Cincinnati Crushed Stone & Gravel Co. v. Public Utilities Commission
Opinion of the Court
Before the Queen City Company filed its application with the Public Utilities Commission it made a request of the Railway Company for a switch connection. Plaintiff in error thereupon addressed a letter to the Railway Company, a copy of which was furnished the Queen City Company, in which it contended that it owned exclusively the siding in question, had acquired an indefeasible right in it for railroad purposes, and
Counsel for plaintiff in error insist that the physical layout of the tracks as they existed prior to 1915 is immaterial and that the entire matter should be considered as a “clean slate” as of January 1, 1915, with no switch tracks or connection with any of the properties abutting upon the railroad. They lay great stress upon the statement of the superintendent of the railroad, made before the Commission, which in substance is that if the main-track layout were the same as it was prior to January 1, 1915 — that is, a middle siding between the two tracks with no sidetracks leading to either the plaintiff in error or the Queen City Company — and the latter company were to make application for a switch, the Railway Company would require of it a layout very similar to that which was made and paid for by plaintiff in error. In other words, the expenditure made by plaintiff in error would
It is to be presumed that had the Queen City Company or any other company made a request for a switch connection, the Railway Company would have made the same requirement that it made of plaintiff in error. But it does not follow that the Queen City Company would have complied with such a requirement. It would have had the right to make and might have made application to the Public Utilities Commission, and there may have been found a more simple and less expensive method of providing switching facilities for the applicant.
But be that as it may, in our view, the Commission was not concerned with conditions existing prior to the filing of the application by the Queen City Company. That company was asking for a switch connection with a siding established on the right of way of the Railway Company. It was owned by the Railway Company. It was under its control absolutely. It appears that it was used for a passing siding, and, according to the testimony of the superintendent of the railroad, where a sid-> ing is used as such it cannot be used for any other purpose without the permission of the railroad company through its train dispatcher. Plaintiff in error had no interest in or right to the siding other than the right to use it in connection with its switch or spur track in the handling of its business, permission having been first obtained from the Railway Company. It is true that the cost of the change of the location of the siding and the rearranging of the yard was paid for by plaintiff in
In a proceeding such as the one before us, our jurisdiction is fixed by law. Unless it appears, from a consideration of the record, that the final order made by the Public Utilities Commission is
Order affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.