Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Co. v. Reno

Citations

• 123 Ill. 273
• 14 N.E. 195
• 1887 Ill. LEXIS 1038

Syllabus

<p>1. Reversal on the appeal of one of several defendants—whether a reversal as to all. Where a decree is jointly binding on several defendants, so that each is liable for the whole, a reversal on the appeal of one defendant vacates the same as to all the defendants; but when the decree, in form, is joint, but is several in its effect, it may be reversed as to a part of the defendants.</p> <p>2. So where a decree for the specific performance of a contract finds that the defendants are all bound by the contract, and requires one of the defendants to specifically perform the contract, and the other two defendants to permit its execution, and it appears that it is impossible for any one of the defendants alone to execute the contract without the co-operation of the others, a reversal of the decree on the appeal of any one of the defendants will operate a§ a reversal as to all, and such reversal can not be invoked as a defence to an action at law by the complainants against one of the defendants not joining in the appeal.</p> <p>3. Contract—as to continuing switch connections with certain premises by a railway company—contract construed. The owners of real estate sold a part thereof to a railway company, in consideration of a sum of money to be paid, and of the covenants in the contract expressed, that the purchaser should restore the switch connections then existing between the parties, and continue the same to the vendors the same as theretofore. At the date of the contract the railway company had switch connections with its road in a street and coal yards of the vendors, over which freights were ■carried free of charge by the purchasing company and other roads using its tracks and switches. In an action for a breach of the contract in refusing to continue such connections, it was claimed, that as the connections before were a mere matter of favor, depending on the will of the defendant company, they might, under the contract, be at any time discontinued, as before, t