Detroit United Railway v. Michigan

Citations

• 242 U.S. 238
• 37 S. Ct. 87
• 61 L. Ed. 268
• 1916 U.S. LEXIS 1515

Syllabus

<p>Plaintiff in error, in 1900, under the Michigan Street Railway law (Laws 1867, vol. 1, p. 46; Comp. Laws 1897, c. 168), acquired by purchase certain street railway lines in the City of Detroit, with their franchises, and, soon afterwards, certain suburban lines, with their franchises. The latter lines connected with the former at the city boundary, but lay wholly within adjacent village and township territory. The franchises for the city lines had arisen through ordinances of the city, among them ordinances passed in 1889, which placed special restrictions on fares, and were accepted by the then owners of the city properties. The franchises for the suburban lines had arisen through village and township ordinances which fixed the fares upon a basis more favorable to the respective grantees. Until all were acquired by the plaintiff in error, the city properties had been owned and held independently of the suburban properties.</p> <p>• Plaintiff in error united the properties thus acquired under one organization. Thereafter, by acts of the legislature passed in 1905 and 1907, the limits of the city were so extended that portions of the two outlying railways were embraced theréin. These acts ■ contained no reference to existing contracts nor specific mention of street railway rights, but each provided that the territory annexed should be subject to all the laws of the State applicable to the city ■ and to all the ordinances and regulations of the city, with exceptions not here material. This litigation resulted from the contention of the city, (which the state court sustained), that the outlying lines, in so far as they had come within the city through its' extension, came also within the fare restrictions of the city ordinances of 1889.</p> <p>Held, (1) Upon consideration of the village and township grants and the law under which they were made (Act of 1867, §§ 13, 14 and 20), that the right to charge fare as therein permitted, upon the lines covered by those grants