Hendersonville Light & Power Co. v. Blue Ridge Interurban Railway Co.

Citations

• 243 U.S. 563
• 37 S. Ct. 440
• 61 L. Ed. 900
• 1917 U.S. LEXIS 1972

Syllabus

<p>Where the answer in a state condemnation case attacked the taking as a taking for private use in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and a dissenting opinion in the state Supreme Court bore evidence that the Federal Constitution was invoked against a construction of the state laws by which the taking was justified, Held, that this court had jurisdiction'to review.</p> <p>Charter and state laws authorized a corporation to build and operate an electric railroad, to condemn water power and employ it in gen- . erating electricity for use in running the road, to sell the surplus of current so generated and, in connection' with these objects, to construct buildings and factories, and operate machinery. In condemnation proceedings whereby the corporation took water rights of a riparian owner, the state court found that the purpose was in good faith to carry on the business of building and operating the road, that the taking of all the water power was necessary for that purpose, and that the purpose was public.</p> <p>Held: (1) That in the absence of definite proof that a surplus would result this court could not say that sale of surplus power was the real object of the enterprise or anything more than a possible incident, necessary to prevent waste, of the railway use.</p> <p>(2) Even if sale of surplus power were likely to occur, the taking, upon the case as made, would be justified by Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Co. v. Alabama Interstate Power Co., 240 U. S. 30, 32.</p>