Benjamin v. Brooklyn Union El. R.

Citations

• 120 F. 428
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 5316

Syllabus

<p>1. Federal Courts — Staying Proceedings in State Court — Priority of Jurisdiction.</p> <p>Where a property owner, entitled to compensation under the law of New York for the building and maintenance of a street railroad in front of his property, has been guilty of such laches in permitting the building and maintenance of such road without compensation having been made that he is not entitled to enjoin its continuance, he is still entitled to maintain a suit in equity for an injunction as an alternative remedy in ease the railroad company fails to pay compensation as fixed by the court; but the commencement of such a suit in a federal court does not give that court such exclusive jurisdiction as will authorize it to stay proceedings subsequently commenced by the railroad company in a court of the state to condemn the easement, in the exercise of the power of eminent domain conferred upon it by the state, since that proceeding does not deprive the court of equity of the power to award any past damages to which complainant may be entitled.</p> <p>¶ 1. Federal courts enjoining proceedings in state courts, see notes to-Gardner v. Second Nat. Bank, 16 C. C. A. 90; Central Trust Co. v. Grantham, 27 C. C. A. 575.</p>