Covington & Lexington Turnpike Road Co. v. Sandford

Citations

• 164 U.S. 578
• 17 S. Ct. 198
• 41 L. Ed. 560
• 1896 U.S. LEXIS 1891

Syllabus

<p>The legislature of Kentucky, by an act passed in 1834, created the Covington and Lexington Turnpike Road Company with authority to construct a turnpike from Covington to Lexington. One section prescribed the rates of tolls which might be exacted; another provided “ that if at the expiration of five years after the said road has been completed, it shall appear that the annual net dividends for the two years next preceding of said company, upon the capital stock expended upon said road and its repairs, shall have exceeded the average of fourteen per cent per annum thereof, then and in that case, the legislature reserves to itself the right, upon the fact being made known, to reduce the rates of toll, so that it shall give that amount of dividends per annum, aud no more.” In 1851 two new corporations were created out of the one created by the act of 1834, one to own and control a part of the road, and the' other the remaining part, and each of the new companies was to possess and retain “all the powers, rights and capacities in severalty granted by the act of incorporation, and the amendments thereto, to the original company.” In 1865 an act was passed reducing the tolls to be collected on the Covington and Lexington turnpike. Til 181)0 another act was passed largely reducing still further the tolls which might be exacted. Held,</p> <p>(1) That the new corporations created out of the old one did not acquire the immunity and exemption granted by the act of 1834 to the original company from legislative control as to the extent of dividends it might earn;</p> <p>(2) That the statute of Kentucky passed February 14, 1856, reserving to the legislature the power to amend or repeal at will charters granted by it, had no application to charters granted prior to that date;</p> <p>(3) That an exemption or immunity from taxation is never sustained unless it has been given in language clearly and unmistakably evincing a purpose to grant such immunity or exemption;</p> <p>(4) Tha