Bartlett v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.
Bartlett v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
The real ground on which the plaintiff bases ■his claim to recover is not entirely clear. It is certainly not among the general duties of a railroad company to furnish and operate spur tracks to the warehouses of its patrons. While it is its duty to carry, without discrimination, every man’s goods, when delivered for carriage at its depots or warehouses, it is under no obligation to receive them for carriage elsewhere. If any patron wishes special accommodations, he must buy them. He can compel them only by force of some contract or in pursuance of the statute. No ■doubt the burden is on the plaintiff to show affirmatively ■that the defendant, on one or the other ground, owed to Jaim the duty to maintain and operate the spur track. Unless his complaint state facts which show that the defendant owed him such duty, it is demurrable, and the demurrer was properly sustained.
The statute referred to (sec. 1802, R. S.) is as follows: “ The owner of any elevator, warehouse or mill, at or near any station or terminus of any railroad, may, at his own expense, construct a railroad track from such elevator, warehouse or-mill, to such railroad, and connect with the same by a switch at a point within a reasonable distance from •such station or terminus, and the railroad corporation shall allow such connection. Such side track and switch shall at all times be under the control and management of, and be kept in repair and operated for the benefit of, such owner •or his assigns by such corporation; but the actual cost of .so maintaining and operating the same shall be paid monthly by the owner thereof; and in case of his neglect to so pay
It does not appear by the complaint who constructed nor who owns this track. No facts are alleged from which such facts can be inferred. The only facts which might seem to bear on that question are that tfye track is in the street on which the plaintiff’s warehouse fronts, and was constructed for the benefit of the owner of the warehouse. But the defendant’s other tracks are in the same street, in front of the same warehouse, and were constructed for the benefit of its patrons. And, even if the defendant should have constructed this track especially for the benefit of the owner of the warehouse, that does not bring the case within the conditions of the statute, and does not establish a perpetual duty on tba defendant to operate it for the benefit of that property. The-improving and grading done by the plaintiff, after the track had fallen into disrepair, is of little significance; and, unless the plaintiff owned this track, there was no consideration for the defendant’s alleged promise to continue to operate it
By the Court.— The order of the circuit court is affirmed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings according to law.
Reference
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- Bartlett v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company
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