President of the Baltimore & Fredericktown Turnpike Road v. Baltimore, Catonsville & Ellicott's Mills Passenger Railroad

Citations

• 81 Md. 247
• 31 A. 854
• 1895 Md. LEXIS 52

Syllabus

<p>Eminent Domain — Condemnation of the Property of One Corporation by Another — Constitutional Law.</p> <p>Property owned by a corporation is held subject to the power of eminent domain.</p> <p>Where the law is constitutional, under which condemnation is sought, a Court of Equity has no power to arrest the proceedings by injunction, since a special tribunal is empowered to determine all the questions arising under the inquisition.</p> <p>A railway company was authorized by an Act of the Legislature to construct and operate an electric railway upon the road of a turnpike company; to alter the grade of the road and change the location of tracks which the railway company was already operating as a horse railway under a contract with the turnpike company; and the railway company was empowered to acquire the necessary easement and estate by condemnation. The turnpike company filed a bill to enjoin the prosecution of condemnation proceedings, after damages had been assessed by a jury, upon the ground that the statute was in violation of the Constitution of the -United States. Held,, that the Legislature had the power to determine when the grant to the turnpike company must yield to the grant made to another corporation for a public purpose, and that the railway company had the right to condemn the property of the turnpike company, including that embraced in its contract with the horse railway company, for the purpose of constructing the electric railway. -</p>