Kaufman v. Pittsburg & Castle Shannon Railroad

Citations

• 217 Pa. 599
• 66 A. 1108
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 766

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Lease—Power to lease — Act of May 25, 1871, P. L. 1170.</p> <p>A railroad company incorporated under the general railroad Act of April 4, 1868, P. L. 62, with additional powers, enabling it to own and operate coal mines, conferred by the special Act of February 21, 1872, P. L. 142, and to construct and operate inclined planes by a special Act of April 5, 1873, P. L. 546, may lease its railroad to a railway company organized with omnibus powers under the special Act of May 25, 1871, P. L. 1170.</p> <p>If a railroad company has the chartered power to construct a railroad for another company to operate, and to operate a railroad for itself, it has the power to lease a railroad for its own use for a term of years. The power to purchase outright includes the power to lease and operate for a definite term. The greater includes the lesser power.</p> <p>The question whether the legislature was improvident in conferring omnibus powers upon certain corporations chartered by special acts during the legislative sessions of 1870 and 1871, is a legislative, and not a judicial, one.</p> <p>The general railroad Acts of April 23, 1861, P. L. 410, and February 17, 1870, P. L. 31, requiring the railroads of a lessor and lessee to be “connected,” do not apply to the Act of May 25, 1871, P. L. 1170.</p> <p>Where- a railroad company under its act of incorporation has the power to take a lease of the property of another railroad company, and there is no limitation on the power of the second company to enter into the lease, the second company has an implied power to make the lease in question.</p>