City of Iola v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 97 Kan. 242
• 155 P. 45
• 1916 Kan. LEXIS 274

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Railroads — Crossing Highway — Restoration of Highway. Under its common-law duty a railway company which constructs its road across a highway is bound to restore the highway, by some reasonably safe and convenient means, to its former condition.</p> <p>2. -Railroads — Crossing Public Street — Duty to Make and Maintain Crossings — Bridges. Under the statute which- requires a railway company that builds its road over a street or highway to restore it “to its former state, or to such a state as to have not necessarily impaired its usefulness” (Gen. Stat. 1909, § 1763, subdiv. 4), a railway company which constructs a railroad over a street of a city is bound not only to make a suitable crossing, but to maintain the same as long as it continues to occupy the street, and to that end it may be required to build and maintain a bridge at the crossing of a highway if such a structure is rendered necessary by the construction of the railroad.</p> <p>3. Railroads — Along Public Street — Duties in Relation to Crossings, Bridges and Watercourses. When a railway company is given permission to build its road along a street of a city upon the condition that the company will construct and maintain suitable crossings at all points of intersection with other streets, it is the duty of the company which builds along that street and over others to make crossings appropriate to the situation at the points of intersection; and where the company in the course of constructing its road diverts a small creek from its natural channel into an artificial one along the side of its track and across a street, using' the earth obtained in digging the channel to make an embankment or grade for its road, and the railroad and channel so made render the construction of a bridge over a street across which the railroad is built necessary for the safety and convenience of those using the street, it is incumbent upon the.railway company to construct and maintain such bridg