West Chicago Street Railroad v. People Ex Rel. City of Chicago
Concurring Opinion
concurs in the judgment, upon the authority of Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. Co. v. Drainage Commissioners, 200 U. S. 561.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of thé court.
This case presents some questions of jurisdiction and constitutionality arising out of the relative rights and duties,of’ the city of Chicago and the West Chicago Street Railroad Com
The judgment in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, was in favor of the railroad company, but it was reversed in the Appellate Court, First District, the.former court being directed to give to-the city the relief asked. Upon appeal to the Supremé Court of Illinois a judgment was rendered in favor of the city.
The contention of the company is that the judgment under review cannot be sustained consistently either with the contract clause of the Constitution .of the United States or with the due process of law enjoined by the Fourteenth Amendment.
The case presented by the record is substantially as will be now stated.
On or about April 2, 1888, the City. Council of Chicago adopted in due form the following ordinance :
“Whereas, the board of directors of the West Chicago Street Railroad Company, on the second day of April', 1888, by and at the request of the Mayor of the city of Chicago, adopted the following resolution: Resolved, That the West Chicago Street Railroad Company, in consideration of the passage and approval by the Mayor of the three ordinances passed by the City Council of- Chicago on the thirtieth day of March, 1888; one granting to the West Division Railway Company the right to change its motive power from horse to cable or electric power; one granting to the Chicago Passenger Railway Company the right to make the same change; and one granting to the West Chicago Street Railroad Company the right to construct its tracks on Jefferson street between Madison and Washington streets, and to use horse, cable or electric power thereon, hereby agrees by and with the city of Chicago at its own expense to construct a tunnel 'under the Chicago river and acquire the necessary right of way therefor on a route to be located by;said company between Madison and Twelfth streets, with the east terminus at Fifth ¿venue or west thereof,, and
When this ordinance was passed there was in force what is known -as the Horse and Dummy Act,, passed in 1874, which provided: “That any company which has been or shall be incorporated under the general laws of this State, for the purpose of constructing, maintaining or operating any horse or dummy railroad or tramway, may enter upon and appropriate any property necessary for the construction, maintenance and'oper-b ation of its road, and all necessary siding, side, tracks and appurtenances, and may,, subject to the provisions contained in this act, locate and construct' its road upon or over any street, alley, road or highway, or across or over any waters in this State, in such manner as not to unnecessarily obstruct the public use of such street, alley, road or highway, or interrupt the navigation of such waters.”
The tunnel was completed by the railroad company in March, 1894, and has ever since been used and is now being used as a passageway under the river for its cars. When constructed (as well as at the present time) the water in the South Branch of the Chicago river over the tunnel near Van Burén street varied in depth from seventeen to eighteen-and three-tenths feet.
On the third day of March, 1899, Congress passed a River and Harbor Act, among the provisions of which was one directing the Secretary of War to cause surveys to be made and the cost of improving certain rivers and harbors to be estimated and reported to Congress, as follows: “Improving Chicago river in- Illinois: survey and estimate of cost for .a channel twenty-one feet deep from its .mouth to the stock yards, on the South Branch, and to Belmont avenue, on the North Branch so far as may be permitted by existing docks and wharves, exclusive of .cost of removing or constructing bridges or piers or lowering tunnels; and the aforesaid depth of twenty-one feet is hereby adopted as the project depth for the improvement in lieu of that fixed by the act of June third, eighteen hundred and ninety-six; Provided, that all the,work of removing and reconstructing bridges and piers and. lowering tunnels necessary to permit a practicable channel with said depth to
After the passage of that act steps were taken to dredge the Chicago river so as to deepen its channel in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress, and, it is alleged, such work “has been proceeding under the authority and supervision of the Government of the United States, for the purpose of providing a sufficiently deep channel for the uses and purposes of commerce and navigation as aforesaid. ”
For the purpose of obeying the act of Congress, and in order to .obtain a free and unobstructed navigation of the Chicago river for the benefit of commerce, interstate and domestic, the City Council of Chicago, on the nineteenth day of March, 1900, duly passed the following ordinance: “ Whereas, by act of Congress of March 3,,1899, it is provided that in the survey ánd esti- . mate of cost for a channel twenty-one feet deep, in the improvement of the Chicago river from its mouth to the stock y^rds on the South Branch, and to Belmont avenue on the North Branch, the aforesaid depth of twenty-one feet is adopted as the project depth for such improvement; whereas, io is'in said act further provided that all the work of removing ánd reconstructing bridges and piers and lowering tunnels necessary to permit a practicable channel with said depth to be obtained, shall be doxle or caused to be done by the city of Chicago, without expense to the United States; whereas, the tunnel under' the South Branch of the Chicago river at Van Burén street was constructed by the West Chicago Street. Railroad Company under a certain ordinance of the city of Chicago, passed April 2, 1888; whereas, a channel in the Chicago river, of the depth of at least twenty-one feet is now made necessary by the requirements of navigation and by the increase ip the draft of vessels engaged in the-shipping trade of the Lakes; whereas, the said tunnel is an obstruction to said proposed improvement to the Chicago river and to the navigation thereof, and as such obstruction must be lowered so that there-may be above it in
In execution of the provisions of that ordinance the city caused notice to be given to the railroad company, demanding compliance • with its provisions. The company did not heed that notice.
The present action was thereupon instituted by the people of Illinois, on the relation of the city of Chicago, against the railroad company. The^ specific relief asked was the issuing of a writ of mandamus directing the railroad company, without cost, damage, loss or expense of any kind whatsoever to the city, to proceed to lower its tunnel under the South Branch of the Chicago river at or near Van Burén street, so as to provide for a. clear depth above it of at least twenty-one feet of water at all times; for its entire width and length, or to wholly remove it “ so that the same shall cease to be an obstruction to the free
The Circuit Court found the issues for the defendant, and . denied the. application for a mandamus. Upon error to the Appellate Court, First District, the judgment of the Circuit Court was reversed and the cause remanded with directions “ to¡ issue a writ of mandamus commanding the railroad company to remove its tunnel, said writ not to be executed until, the Washington street and La Salle street tunnels are both removed or lowered to á sufficient depth to be no longer an .obstruction to navigation.”
' Upon appeal to the Supreme Court of Illinois a final judgment was there entered awarding a peremptory writ of mandamus as prayed for in the petition. West Chicago Street R. R. Co. v. People, 214 Illinois, 9.
• As explanatory of the reference to the -tunnels on Washington and. La Salle streets it may be here stated that those tunnels belonged to the city, and were located bétween the tunnel at Van Burén street, owned by thé railroad company, and the . mouth of the river ,at the Lake. -Of course, until the city’s ' tunnels are lowered or removed, the lowering or removal of the tunnel on Van Burén street would not be of material aid to navigation.
We come now to consider the questions arising on the record and discussed at the- bar.
1. The-contention of the city that the writ of error should be dismissed for want of jurisdiction in this court cannot be sustained. It is true that the judgment of the state court rests partly upon grounds of local or general law. But, by its necessary operation — although the opinion of the state court does not expressly refer to the Constitution of the United States— the judgment rejects the claim of the company, specially set up in its answer, that the relief asked by the city cannot, in any view of the case, be granted consistently, either with the contract clause of the Constitution or with the clause prohibiting
2. Great stress is placed by the railroad company on the fact that it is the owner, in fee of the bed of the' river at the point where the tunnel was constructed. But that’ fact is not vital in the present discussion; for it was ádjudged by the state court — in harmony with settled doctrines, as will presently appear — that “ the title to land under a navigable river is not the same as the title to the shore land; ” that “in a navigable ' stream the public right is paramount, and the bwner of the soil under the bed of such a stream can only use and enjoy it in so far as is consistent with the public right, which must be, free and unobstructed;” that “the title to the upland is absolute and paramount, while the title to the lands over which the navigable water flows is subordinate to the public right of navigation;” and that “the city could not, if it would, grant the right to obstruct the navigation of the river, or bind itself to permit anything which has become an obstruction to be continued.” 214 Illinois, 9, 20, 21.
3. We next consider the first of the strictly Federal questions raised by the company. Its contention is that the tunnel was constructed under a valid contract with the city, evidenced by the ordinance of 1888, and that the, mere order to remove or lower the tunnel impaired the obligation of that contract, in violation of the Constitution. .
Upon a careful scrutiny of the ordinance of 1888, we find no
4. This brings us to the principal question in the case: Whether, consistently with the Constitution of the United States, the railroad company can be required to lower or remove the tunnel in. question and (if it continues .to use a tunnel in crossing Chicago river with its cars) to construct and maintain, at its own expense, such a tunnel as will conform to the provisions of the ordinance of March 49, 1900.
It is indisputable, on this recprd, that the depth of water over the present tunnel is not sufficient to accommodate many boats and vessels now commonly employed in commerce between Chicago and other cities and towns on the Lakes. It is -to be taken also as indisputable that in order that such boats and vessels may navigate the South Branch of Chicago river with safety, the depth of water over the Van Bmen street tunnel must be at'least as great as that specified in the city ordinance of Í900. We assume also — as by the record we may properly do — that the, ordinance is a reasonable, not an arbitrary exertion of the power conferred on the city “ to construct and keep
As already observed, the contention of the company is, in ■ éffect, that even if the present tunnel be an obstruction to the navigation of the river by large vessels, the lowering or removal of the tunnel against the company’s will, would be a taking of private property for public use without compensation, in violation of the constitutional guarantee of due process of law.
This result, it is supposed by the railroad company, necessarily follows from the fact that the present tunnel was constructed with the assent of the city, and when constructed was sufficient for purposes of navigation by vessels, of whatever size, then engaged in commerce on the Chicago river. But these facts are not all that must be considered in this discussion. They cannot be considered apart from other matters of a vital character, namely: That the city was under the duty of. protecting the free navigation of the river and its branches — a duty from the discharge of which it could not be exempted by any agreement it might make with the railroad company; that the city granted the right to construct the present tunnel under the river subject to the condition, necessarily implied by the statute of 1874 in force when the ordinance of 1888 was adopted, that the tunnel should not interrupt navigation; that if the assent of the company to such a condition was important, it must be held to have given such assent by accepting the ordinance of 1888, into which, as already indicated, must be read the requirement in the statute of 1874 that navigation should not be unnecessarily interrupted; and that the provision in
In addition to these considerations we may suggest the important one that the rights of the company, as the owner of the fee of land on either side of the river or in its bed, were subject to the paramount right of navigation over' the waters of the river. Weber v. Harbor Com’rs, 18 Wall. 57, 66; Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. Illinois, 146 U. S. 387, 458; Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. 1, 30; Gibson v. United States, 166 U. S. 269, 276; Scranton v. Wheeler, 179 U. S. 163; C., B. & Q. Ry. Co. v. People, 212 Illinois, 103; Brazen v. Bressler, 64 Illinois, 488; People v. Vanderbilt, 28 N. Y. 396; Sage v. Mayor, 154 N. Y. 61; State v. Parrott, 71 N. Car. 311; State v. Dibble, 4 Jones (N. C.), 107; Diedrich v. Northwestern &c. Ry. Co., 42 Wisconsin, 248; Parmeter v. Attorney General, 10 Price, 412; Williams v. Wilcox, 8 Ad. & El. 314; Colchester v. Brooke, 7 Q. B. 339. The principle is thus declared by a leading text-writer: "The privilege of- navigation upon all waters which are capable of such use in their natural condition and are accessible without trespassing upon private lands, is a common and paramount right. . . . At common law the right of navigating a public stream is paramount to the right of passage across the stream by means of a bridge/’ Gould on Waters, §§ 86, 88.
If, then, the right of the railroad company to have and maintain a tunnel under the Chicago river is subject to the paramount public right of navigation; if its right to maintain a tunnel in the-river is a qualified one, becáuse subject to the specific condition in the act of 1874 that no tunnel should interrupt navigation; if the present tunnel is an obstruction to
Further discussion of the general question will5' be found in
Another matter requires no ticé. The railroad company con-. tends that the city had no power to require or authorize any changes in the bed of the river without the approval of the Secretary of War. River and Harbor Act of 1899/ § 10; 30 Stat. 1151. The same act contains directions for the improvement- of Chicago river. Construing all the provisions together, we think it clear that when Congress declared in the River and Harbor Act of 1899, under the' heading of “ Improving Chicago riverin Illinois,” p. 1156, that “all the 'work of removing and reconstructing bridges and piers and lowering tunnels necessary to permit a navigable channel” with.the prescribed “project” depth of twenty-one feet in Chicago river should be done by the city, without expense to the United States, it meant to give the assent of the United States to any work done by the city towards accomplishing the end which the Government had in view. The state court properly said that “ the city has power, under-its charter, to deepen the channel, and as a preliminary to doing so, to require' this tunnel to be. lowered or removed, and the act of Congress permits it to proceed, so far as the lowering of the tunnel is concerned. ” .
As showing that the action taken by the city of Chicago is in accordance with the will of Congress, wé may refer to the act of Congress of April 27, 1904, relating to. certain tunnels under Chicago river, including the particular tunnel here in question. That act provides: “That the tunnels under the Chicago river in the State of Illinois at La Salle street, Washington street, and near Van Burén street, in the city of Chicago, in said State of Illinois, áre, and each of them is hereby, declared' to be, as now constructed, an unreasonable obstruction to the free navigation of said Chicago river, and each of said tunnels is hereby declared to be a public nuisance. And it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to give notice to the persons or corporations owning or controlling said tunnels, or any of them, so to
For the reasons we have stated, and in Conformity with the principles announced in Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R.
It is so ordered.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- WEST CHICAGO STREET RAILROAD COMPANY v. PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS Ex Rel. CITY OF CHICAGO
- Cited By
- 44 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Although the judgment of the state court rests-partly on grounds of local or general law, and although the opinion may not expressly refer to the Constitution of the United States, if by its necessary operation the judgment rejects-a claim, based on a constitutional right specially set up in the answer, that the relief prayed cannot, in any view of the case, be granted consistently with the contract or due process clauses of the Constitution,-this, court has jurisdiction to review under § 709, Rev. Stat. In a navigable stream the public right is paramount, and the owner of the soil under the- bed can only use it so far as consistent with the public right; and a municipality, through which a navigable stream flows, cannot grant a right to obstruct the navigation thereof nor bind itself to permit the continuance of an obstruction, and this rule is not affected by the fact that the person claiming a right to continue such an obstruction is the owner in fee of the bed of the stream. A municipal ordinance giving permission to a street railroad company, to construct a tunnel under a.navigable stream, the law of the State providing that railways shall not be constructed so as to interrupt the navigation of any water, in. the State, does not amount to a contract under the contract clause of the Constitution, so that the city could not subsequently require the company to lower the tunnel so as not to interfere with the increased demands of navigation; nor, in the absence of any provision to that effect, would it be construed as containing an implied covenant that the municipality would bear the expense of such alterations required by subsequent ordinances. A municipality is under the duty of protecting the unobstructed- navigation of navigable rivfers under its jurisdiction; and it cannot be ‘exempted 1 therefrom by making agreements in regard thereto. Courts may look through and behind mere forms, and interfere,, whenever ■ necessary, for the protection of private rights against an illegal; arbitrary exercise of governmental power. , The right' of a railroad company to maintain a tunnel under a navigable river is subject to the paramount public right of navigation, and where it has been constructed under municipal ordinance and state law that it shall not interrupt navigation, the duty of not obstructing the navigation is a. continuing one; and,,if the increased demands of navigation at any time require a deeper channel than when the tunnel was originally-constructed, it is within the power of the municipality to compel the railroad'company at the latter’s own expense to either remove the tunnel or lower, it to conform with the necessities of commerce, and,.as in; this case, to the rule established by act of Congress, and such action, of the municipality is not unconstitutional, and does not amount either to taking the property for public use without compensation, or depriving the company of its property without due process of law. C., B. & Q. R. R. Co. v. Drainage Commission, 200 U. S. 251, followed.