Detroit United Railway v. City of Detroit

Citations

• 229 U.S. 39
• 33 S. Ct. 697
• 57 L. Ed. 1056
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2421

Syllabus

<p>Franchises granting rights of the public must be in plain language, certain and definite in terms and containing no ambiguities. They are to be strictly construed against the grantee. Cleveland Electric By. Co. v..Cleveland, 204 U. S. 116.</p> <p>An ordinance requiring a street railway company to comply with certain conditions on all of its lines until the expiration of the franchises of longest duration, held not to constitute a contract, extending all the franchises to the date of such expiration, within the protection of the contract clause of the Federal Constitution.</p> <p>Where a street railroad company is operating in the streets of a city for a definite period and has enjoyed the full term granted, the municipality may, upon failure of renewal of the grant, require the company within a reasonable time to remove its tracks and other property from the streets, without impairing any contractual obligation protected by the Federal Constitution or depriving the company of its property without due process of law.</p>