Mayor of Baltimore v. President of Baltimore & Yorktown Turnpike Road

Citations

• 80 Md. 535
• 31 A. 420
• 1895 Md. LEXIS 17

Syllabus

<p>Turnpike Companies — Cession of Roadbed to Baltimore City — Requisites of Cession — Changing Grade of Road — Police Power of the State — Equity Practice — City Solicitor.</p> <p>Under Code of Public Local Laws, Art. 4, sec. 818, when a Turnpike Company cedes to the city of Baltimore any portion of its road lying within the corporate limits, it thereby becomes a public street without any act of acceptance on the part of the municipal authorities.</p> <p>This power to cede is not restricted to those portions of the turnpike roads which were within the city limits at the time the Act was passed, but the statute, being in general terms, includes the right to cede to the city such parts of the roads as are within the city limits as extended subsequently.</p> <p>But when a Turnpike Company exercises this power, it must make the cession without the reservation of any rights, and the road ceded must not be burdened with any easements.</p> <p>The defendant company executed and placed on record a deed to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore granting and ceding to the city that portion of its road within the city limits, subject to certain railway franchises previously granted to other corporations. This deed was not accepted by the city. Held, that the deed should be declared null and void since the road ceded was burdened with easements in favor of the Railway Companies.</p> <p>A Turnpike Company, incorporated in 1804, was authorized by charter to grade its road. Subsequently the limits of Baltimore City were extended so as to include a part of the road. The company graded its road so that it was made to run some feet below the surface of certain public streets intersecting the same. Held,</p> <p>1st. That the charter of the company (having been granted without a statutory or constitutional reservation of the right to alter) could not be impaired by subsequent legislation; that consequently the right of the company to change the grade of its road continued, but that th