State ex rel. Wausau Street Railroad v. Bancroft
State ex rel. Wausau Street Railroad v. Bancroft
Opinion of the Court
The statute in question is entitled “An act to amend section 1596, and to create section 1596a of the Statutes, relating to the construction and maintenance of dams in or across navigable waters, and to create sections 1596 — 1 to 1596 — 76, both inclusive, of the Statutes, relating to the granting of franchises authorizing the improvement of navigation and the development of hydraulic power created by such improvement, providing for a franchise fee therefor, and making an appropriation.”
In this opinion the sections of this act will be referred to as secs. 1596, 1596a, and by the subsection numbers 1 to 76.
Epitomized, the act in question presents a comprehensive plan by which all existing dam charters capable of repeal are repealed, and henceforward the matter of new charters for dams in navigable waters is committed to the Railroad Commission to determine the facts, issue certificates, make and enforce conditions, exercise supervision, etc. Upon the finding of the Commission that the requisite facts do not exist, a franchise is refused. Upon the Commission's finding of the existence of the requisite facts, the statute grants a franchise
The pleadings present that relators are property owners whose property is threatened by this act with destruction or ■confiscation, and placed without the protection of law by ■declaration that, it is a public nuisance and the imposition of penalties for using the same. This is a private wrong calling for the interposition of equity quia timet. The pleadings also .show that all improvements to navigation recognized by former statutes as such and so recognized in the statute in question, and made in all the navigable rivers in the state within , the last sixty or seventy years and now existing, are threatened with abatement and destruction and their up-keep and use f penalized except upon conditions charged to be invalid and j ■unenforceable. This is a threatened public wrong affecting the sovereignty and prerogatives of the state and calling for redress by injunction. Att’y Gen. v. Eau Claire, 37 Wis. 400; State v. Eau Claire, 40 Wis. 533. There may be other .grounds for the exercise of original jurisdiction and other questions publici juris in the case, but the foregoing is suffi■cient. There cannot be much doubt of this as regards the de
We approach the grave questions involved with the utmost deference to the co-ordinate branches of government which have passed upon the same. We shall treat the enactment as a measure in aid and regulation of navigation as it purports to be, and, except where convinced beyond a reasonable doubt to the contrary, shall hold its requirements constitutional and valid. We shall not attempt to define the extent or set the limits of the reserved right of repeal contained in the constitution of this state (sec. 1, art. XI) or in a charter further than to say that such power does not authorize the confiscation or destruction of property or its taking without just compensation. It is to be construed like all constitutional provisions to harmonize with other commands and restrictions of the same instrument, and it must always yield to that paramount provision of the federal constitution which forbids the state to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law and to the substantial equivalent of the latter in our state constitution. Sec. 9, art. I; Janesville v. Carpenter, 77 Wis. 288, 46 N. W. 128; State ex rel. Kellogg v. Currens, 111 Wis. 431, 435, 87 N. W. 561; Adirondack R. Co. v. New York, 176 U. S. 335, 20 Sup. Ct. 460; People ex rel. Schurz v. Cook, 148 U. S. 397, 13 Sup. Ct. 645; Pearsall v. G. N. R. Co. 161 U. S. 646, 16 Sup. Ct. 705; Bank of Commerce v. Tennessee, 163 U. S. 416, 16 Sup. Ct. 1113; Shields v. Ohio, 95 U. S. 319; Greenwood v. Freight Co. 105 U. S. 13; Wilmington City R. Co. v. Wilmington & B. S. R. Co. 1 Del. Ch. App. 468, 46 Atl. 12. We may now take up. for analysis the details of the act in question.
Sec. 1596 as amended extends somewhat the former statutory description of what streams are navigable, forbids obstructions therein, declares dams, bridges, or other obstruc- ■ tions maintained in violation of this section to be public nui-
“Improvements” is defined in tbe act to mean tbe dam itself and all weirs, tunnels, races, flumes, sluices, pits, locks, chutes, boat hoists, marine railways, fishways, and other structures, machines, and devices necessary or essential for tbe development of hydraulic power and for tbe generation of mechanical energy or electrical energy, or both, constructed ■witbin or made part of sucb dam or dams. Tbis word in tbe act also means sucb machines, connections, regulations, and transmission devices as may be found by tbe Railroad Commission to be necessary for tbe utilization of energy in connection witb tbe proposed improvement. It also includes all reservoir, flowage, and other rights and easements and all lands necessary and used under sucb franchise for. tbe main
“Any appropriator by the acceptance of a franchise granted under the provisions of this act shall be deemed, by the acceptance thereof, to have agreed that any municipality or the state may acquire all dams and improvements acquired, erected, and maintained or used or useful under the franchise of said appropriator by paying just compensation therefor, and that in determining such just compensation no allowance shall be made to such appropriator for any increase in the ■value of any lands acquired or used or useful under such franchise, over and above the value of such lands at the time of the granting of such franchise, if the same were previously acquired, or' at the time of acquisition, if the same were acquired subsequent to the granting of such franchise, and that no allowance shall be made for such franchise or any rights or privileges included therein
Here we may consider sec. 23.
“Every license, permit, or franchise authorizing the erection and maintenance of any dam in or across any navigable stream, heretofore granted and which by the. terms thereof or otherwise is subject to repeal, is hereby repealed, such repeal to take effect and be in force six months after the passage and publication of this act.”
Tbe right of tbe riparian owner to use tbe water of tbe river on bis own land within bis boundary determined by ordinary high-water mark, for tbe purpose of creating power or, as tbe act in question puts it, “developing energy,” returning tbe water again to tbe stream, is unquestionably a private right appurtenant to tbe riparian land. Tbe idea of. a legal ownership of the “energy” of falling water by one who owns neither tbe water which falls nor tbe land tbe declivity of which causes tbe fall has been analyzed and criticised by counsel for relators. But counsel for defendants disclaim any such meaning for tbe statute in question, no doubt finding a different position, in their opinion, untenable. • It is conceded there is such a riparian right as tbe right to use tbe water for power, and also that this right is to be exercised in subordination to tbe public right of navigation and tbe necessary accessories of the latter. We say that if tbe exercise of this riparian right, in tbe judgment of tbe legislature, interferes with tbe public right of navigation, it may be forbidden. But as has been said by Judge Cooley in Middleton v. Flat River B. Co. 27 Mich. 533: “Each right should be enjoyed with due regard to tbe existence and protection of tbe other.” Or, as be says in Buchanan v. Grand River & G. L. R. Co. 48 Mich. 364, 367, 12 N. W. 490: “Each right modifies tbe other and may perhaps render it less valuable, but this fact, if tbe enjoyment of tbe right is in itself reasonable and considerate, can furnish’ no ground for complaint.” Where tbe ownership of tbe barde is essential to tbe construction^ a dam or tbe creation or development of a water power, tbe state is as helpless to use, sell, or lease such right without condemnation and compensation as tbe riparian owner is to intrude into tbe navigable stream without consent of tbe state. It requires tbe concurrence of tbe riparian owner and tbe state in such case to make the water power efficient, and this right of tbe riparian owner
All the features of this act, aside from those specifically mentioned, are mere details or administrative features of the act. Thus the all-pervading necessary effect of such chapter is to take property which is in' fact private, for a purpose declared to be public, without rendering any compensation therefor. The necessary effect, if enforced, — -and so the purpose in a legal sense, — of ch. 652, Laws of 1911, being state appropriation of the private property rights of riparian proprietors owning the banks of navigable rivers, in a manner not warranted by the fundamental law, and those portions of the act which do not directly deal with the assertion of state title, being merely features designed to render such assertion efficacious, it all forms an inseparable and an unconstitutional entirety.
By the Court. — A writ of injunction is awarded restraining the defendants from acting under or attempting to enforce the provisions of this act except sec. 1596 thereof.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Water Power Cases. State ex rel. Wausau Street Railroad Company v. Bancroft, Attorney General, and others State ex rel. Jackson Milling Company v. Same State ex rel. Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Company v. Same State ex rel. Koenig and another v. Same State ex rel. Southern Wisconsin Power Company v. Same State ex rel. Chippewa Valley Railway, Light & Power Company and another v. Same
- Cited By
- 33 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Equity: Injunction: Confiscation or destruction of property: Invalid statute: Public wrong: Supreme court: Original jurisdiction: Navigable rivers: Authorized dams: Control: Sovereignty of state: Ownership of water powers: Charters: Reserved power of repeal: Eminent domain: Taking of private property: Just compensation: Due process of law: Riparian rights: Regulation: Legislative power: Declaring property a nuisance, or use a public use: Judicial questions: Statutes: Partial invalidity. 1. An averment that property in the possession of complainant is threatened with destruction or confiscation by unwarranted statutory declaration that it is a public nuisance and by the imposition of penalties for the use of such property, sets forth a private wrong calling for the interposition of equity quia timet against ministerial officers charged with the execution of the statute. 2. Where it is averred that all improvements to navigation constructed under former statutes and existing in the navigable rivers of the state are still recognized as such improvements by a new statute, but also by the latter declared to be public nuisances and threatened with abatement and destruction, and their maintenance, use, and up-keep penalized except upon conditions plausibly charged to be invalid and unenforceable, a threatened public wrong affecting the sovereign prerogatives of the state and calling for prevention by injunction is sufficiently averred. 3. In the case last cited the supreme court will exercise its original jurisdiction. 4. A statute declaring that all energy, developed or undeveloped, of the navigable waters of the state is subject to the control of the state for the public good, that the beneficial use and natural energy of the navigable waters of the state for all public uses are held by the state in trust for all the people, should be sustained as an assertion of the sovereignty of the state and the power of regulation instead of an assertion of proprietorship, especially when such construction is essential to uphold the statute. 5. The reserved power of repeal of charters contained in the constitution or in a charter must be construed so as to harmonize it with other commands and restrictions contained in the constitution, and it does not authorize the taking without compensation of the physical property acquired under said charter. This reserved power of repeal is also subject and subordinate to the provisions of the federal constitution which forbid the state to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law and to the substantial equivalent of the latter contained in the state constitution. ¡6. Where a charter reserving therein no right of repeal is granted to a natural person, authorizing the construction of a dam in a navigable river in aid of navigation and' accepted by such grantee by construction of the required dam, the charter is not repealable at the pleasure of the legislature; but before acceptance it is so repealable. When such chartér is granted to a natural person, reserving to the state a right of repeal, or where it is granted to a corporation, and in either case accepted by construction of the required improvement, while there exists the power of repeal this does not include confiscation or destruction of any property which can exist notwithstanding the repeal, but all such property is protected by the usual constitutional guaranties applicable to other property. 7. Sec. 1596, Stats. (Laws of 1911, ch. 652), is prospective only in its operation and, so far as it refers to streams not theretofore within the purview of the statute it purports to amend, it affects only dams, etc., placed in such streams after the act of 1911 went into effect. 8. The right to use the water of a navigable river for the creation or development of power upon his own land is a riparian right appurtenant to the riparian land and belongs to the owner of such land. The gwosi-private ownership of the bed of a navigable river and all incorporeal riparian rights are subject and subordinate to the public right of navigation, but not so the ownership of the bank. Where the ownership of the hank is necessary for the construction of a dam in aid of navigation the state is powerless to construct or authorize the construction of such dam without the.consent of the riparian owner or expropriation with compensation to such owner, and the riparian owner is powerless to obtrude a dam into such navigable waters without the consent of the state. Where by joint consent of the riparian owner and of the state the riparian owner constructs such dam at his expense in aid of navigation, the consideration moving to the state is the improvement of the navigation and to the riparian owner is the creation or development of the water power. This water power and the right of the riparian owner thereunto does not in such case conflict with the public right of navigation, but is rather promotive of such right, and it continues to he a riparian right as before and the private property of the riparian owner subject to regulation 'by the state to a degree commensurate with its character and situation. It is in no sense the property of the state. Whether one person or another owns this resulting water power is not material to the interests of navigation. 9.An act of the legislature which forbids any person to conduct or maintain or operate or use any dam or other improvements in or across any navigable stream without a franchise; which defines the word “franchise” to be one obtained under the act; which defines the word “improvements” as used in the-act to include much valuable property including the riparian land; which declares such dam and “improvements” a public nuisance subject to abatement as such and penalizes the use and maintenance of such property, — constitutes, as regards owners of formerly authorized dams, a taking of the property, if in order to obtain a franchise under the act in question the owner of the property is obliged to consent to the surrender of valuable property rights belonging to him. 10. The legislature cannot conclusively declare property existing at. the time the statute goes into effect a public nuisance and penalize the use and enjoyment thereof. 11. The legislature has no power to conclusively declare that a given use of property is a public use. 12. The matters covered by the two preceding paragraphs present judicial questions, for otherwise the legislature could confiscate-property without making compensation. 13. The act in question by declaring the property a public nuisance,.' providing for its abatement, and penalizing its use conditionally; and without any physical change in the property or its condition recognizing it as a lawful structure in aid of navigation, and allowing it to remain on condition that some other person apply for it or that the owner relinquish valuable property rights without compensation and make certain payments to the state, operates to deprive such owner of his property without due process- of law, unless just compensation to such owner is provided. 14. The just compensation required by the constitution is not provided by permitting compensation only if some one at some indefinite time after the taking shall appear and want the property in question. 15. The just compensation required by the constitution is not provided by a statute limiting the compensation to be awarded so as to exclude all increase in value of the property after a given date long prior to the taking. 16. Neither is such compensation provided where a riparian owner, having no dam or charter for a dam, is for a taking of the bank not allowed the full value of his riparian rights, including the use of water for power purposes and the advantage which the land presents for creating a water power by construction of a dam; nor is such compensation provided where a riparian owner who has lawfully constructed a dam and owns the resulting water power, but whose charter to maintain the dam is repealed, is not allowed to recover the value of his water power thus improved and in that condition. 17. To declare property a public nuisance, provide for its abatement, and penalize its use without making compensation, but at the same time permitting the owner to obviate these consequences by applying for and obtaining a franchise under which he must consent that his hitherto private property be impressed with a public use, that after a stated interval some other person may take the property for a private use, that the state or a municipality may take it for a public use, and that in the latter case he forego part of the compensation required by the constitution and pay a franchise fee to the state, is depriving such owner of his property without due process of law contrary to the federal constitution, and is invalid legislation under the state constitution as well. 18. Private property taken by one who has the right to use so much thereof as may be reasonably necessary for his own purpose or purposes is taken for a private use. 19. In order for part of an act to be upheld as separable it is essential that such part found to be within the constitutional power of the legislature forms, independently of the invalid portions, a complete law in some reasonable aspect so that it may fairly be concluded that the legislature would have enacted the same without the invalid portion. Where a legislative enactment has an all-pervading purpose coupled with minor details and administrative features and this purpose is unconstitutional, such minor details and administrative features cannot survive condemnation of the main purpose. [Syllabus by Timlin, J.]