Kanawha & Michigan Railway Co. v. Public Utilities Commission

Citations

• 96 Ohio St. (N.S.) 414

Syllabus

<p>Railroads—Trackage agreement — Connection of disconnected portions of railroad — By lease of uniting road — Grantee no right to take local business, when — Limitation of duties to public — Grantee cannot be required to furnish cars, when — Prohibited contracts—Section 8983, General Code, inapplicable, when — Public utilities commission.</p> <p>1. Where, under a trackage agreement between two railroad companies the object of which as expressed in the agreement is to enable one of the companies to connect disconnected portions of its railroad, to form a continuous line and to operate trains to and from points on its own road, the other company grants the right to use in connection with it a part of the railroad owned and operated by it, “including the main tracks, sidings, passenger and freight stations, Y’s, inclines and other appurtenances and terminal and station facilities connected therewith,” and in the agreement it is provided that the grantee company shall have no right to take any business from or to any station upon the railroad of the owning company for any point reached by that company or its connections, the grantee company has no right to the use of a switch track built by the owning company on its right of way and connecting its main track with the mine tracks of a coal company, which switch track was not built for the general use of the railroad companies but for the convenience of the coal company. 2. The rights acquired by the grantee company under such an agreement are contract rights subject to the limitations and restrictions contained in the agreement and the duties of such company to the public are not the general duties of a common carrier operating upon its own road.</p> <p>3. Such railroad company cannot be required to furnish cars to a coal company whose mine is located on the part of the railroad over which the railroad company is operating under the trackage agreement, if in the rendition of such service there would be a violation of a