East St. Louis Connecting Railway Co. v. East St. Louis Union Railway Co.

Citations

• 108 Ill. 265
• 1884 Ill. LEXIS 1474

Syllabus

<p>1. Bailboad ebanchise—not an exclusive right—competing lines allowable. The mere grant of the right to build a railroad between given termini creates no implied obligation by the State to not thereafter grant the right to build other railroads parallel with it between the same termini; nor does it imply an obligation on behalf of the State that other railroads, with their tracks and switches, shall not thereafter be granted the right to cross the State in a different direction, and thus pass over its tracks and switches.</p> <p>2. The public welfare requires that the business of carrying shall be open to competition, as far as possible, and no monopoly in that regard, however limited the sphere of its operation, can be presumed to have been intended by the legislature in the enactment of the general law for the formation of railroad corporations.</p> <p>3. Under the laws of this State a railway corporation already organized and operating its road can not enjoin another such corporation, organized under the same general Bailroad act, from building a rival road between the same termini, and parallel with the track of the former, for the transaction of the same business, although its main and lateral tracks and switches may be intersected and crossed by the proposed new road, no continuous portion of its track being sought to be taken. The fact that the construction of the new road may damage the business of the old one, and cause delay in operating its trains, affords no ground for enjoining proceedings to condemn for a right of way by the new corporation. Legal damages assessed as is provided ,by law will afford the old company an adequate remedy for all the injury it may sustain.</p>