Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Kentucky

Syllabus

<p>A power given in a charter of a railroad to connect or unite with other roads refers merely to a physical connection of the tracks, and does not authorize tlie purchase, or even the lease of such roads or road, or any union of franchises.</p> <p>The several statutes of Kentucky and of Tennessee relating to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Gompany, which are quoted from or referred to in the opinion of the court, confer upon that company no general right to purchase other roads, or to consolidate with them.</p> <p>The union referred to in those statutes is limited to a union with a road already connected with the Louisville and Nashville by running into the same town, and has and cquld have no possible relation to the acquirement of a parallel or competing line.</p> <p>The third section of the Kentucky act of 1856 reenacting the Tennessee act of 1855, and providing that the Louisville and Nashville Company may “ from time to time extend any branch road and may purchase and hold any road constructed by another company ” did not confer a general power to purchase roads constructed by other companies regardless of their relations or connections with the Louisville and Nashville road.</p> <p>A contemporaneous construction of its charter which ratified the purchase of a few short local lines does not justify the company in consolidating with a parallel and competing line between its two termini with á view of destroying the competition which had previously existed between the two lines.</p> <p>The Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad Company was never vested with the power to consolidate its capital stock, franchises or property with that of any other company owning a parallel or competing line.</p> <p>If, from reasons of public policy, a legislature declares that a railway company shall not become .the purchaser of a parallel or competing line, the purchase is not the less unlawful, because the parties choose to let it take the form of a judicial sale.</p>