Omnibus Railroad v. Baldwin

Citations

• 57 Cal. 160

Syllabus

<p>Street Railroads—Constitutional Law — Injunction.—Under the old as well as the new Constitution, a law of a general nature must have a uniform operation; and therefore an act exempting particular cases from the operation of a general law is unconstitutional. Held, accordingly, in an action by the plaintiff to enjoin the defendants from removing the plaintiff’s track, the former claiming under the 17th section of the Act of April 1st, 1874, authorizing them to construct a street railway on Montgomery avenue, and the latter under a grant of right of way by the Board of Supervisors, that the section of the act referred to was unconstitutional, being an attempt to exempt the corporation named from the operation of the general law of March 29th, 1870, and therefore destructive of its uniform operation.</p> <p>Id.—Franchise—Ordinance.—The defendants were granted a right of way for a street railroad over a portion of Montgomery avenue in San Francisco, and the plaintiff was granted a similar right of way for more than five blocks over the same portion of the street. Held, that, under the provisions of § 499 of the Civil Code, the grant to the plaintiff was void.</p> <p>Ld.—Forfeiture—Construction of Statute.—Section 502 of the Civil Code does not declare that a failure to comply with the provision which requires work to be commenced within one year shall work a forfeiture; but that a failure to comply with that, and also with the provision which requires the work to be completed within three years, shall have such effect.</p> <p>Id.—Constitutional Law—Case Explained.—McKinstrt, J., concurring, was of the opinion, that the Act of April 1st, 1872, was violative of § 31, article iv, of the old Constitution, as judicially construed in cases of San Francisco v. Spring Talley Water W. Co. 48 Oal. 493, and Waterloo Turnpike Co. v. Cole, 51 id. 381, and therefore, under the settled law of this State, void. Id.—Id.—Id.—Boss, J., dissenting, was of the opinion, that the provision