Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Morgan's Louisiana & Texas Rail Road

Citations

• 51 La. Ann. 29
• 24 So. 803
• 1899 La. LEXIS 372

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>1. When a corporation undertakes to operate a railroad franchise it assumes all the duties and obligations which spring by law from the character of its business and from the customs incidental to it. It tenders a continuing oiler to the general public that it will perform these duties for the benefit of each and every one of them when demanded at its hands. When any member of the public makes a demand upon it under such general offer there Immediately results a civil obligation on the part of the company in favor of the party making the demand enforceable in the name of such party through the usual remedies by which contracts are enforced. The party seeking the enforcement of the obligation by mandamus can not be driven by the corporation to an action for damages, nor can It by the payment of money leave unperformed Us specific affirmative legal duty.</p> <p>2. When a common carrier refuses absolutely to recognize a certain duty which is claimed to rest upon it as suelr and to perform it under any terms and conditions, the party claiming the existence of such duty may test that fact by mandamus, leaving open tlie question as to the specific terms and conditions upon which it is to be performed.</p> <p>S. The Court will not permit a railroad company to tie itself up in the discharge of its duties as a common carrier and in its affording to the general public all the facilities which it can consistently render, and is willing, able and anxious to render by a contract with another corporation that it should not do so.</p> <p>4. ■ A contract made by a railroad company with a telegraph company to which the former had granted the exclusive right of way over and along its line that the railroad company would not, if it might lawfully refuse so to do, transport men or material for the construction, maintenance or operation of a line of poles and wires in competition -with the line of the telegraph company except at and for the railroad’s local rates, or