State ex rel. Ellis v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad

Citations

• 53 Fla. 689

Syllabus

<p>1. While the courts, on a proper case made, will by mandamus require a railroad company to put and maintain its road- , bed and track in a condition that rend.ers them reasonably safe and adequate for the public purposes and uses to which they are devoted, yet the character, quality and quantity of the materials and appliances to be used will be left to the proper discretion of the railroad company.</p> <p>2. Where an alternative writ of mandamus, brought to compel a railroad company to put and maintain the roadbed and track on its main lines in. a safe and suitable condition for the public service required of it, states by definitely named termini the location of the several parts of the main lines of the respondent’s railroad and alleges “that said roadbed has an uneven and irregular surface; a large percentage of the crossties under the rails are rotten and wholly incapable of supporting the rails with the weight of one empty car thereon. At divers places along the said main lines of railroad and for great distances, the iron spikes which are driven into the cross-ties to support the rails can be lifted from the crossties with the naked hand; that many of the angle bars or plates on the main lines, and bolts used in the same, are broken, and that in many places the angle plates are not fastened with the requisite number of bolts,” such allegations, if true, show the main line of the road as a whole to be in an unfit and unsuitable condition for rendering the public service in which it is used, and are sufficient to be answered, since the duty is a general one due to the public and the breaches complained of are peculiarly within the knowledge of the respondent railroad company.</p> <p>3. A railroad company has a proper discretion in the performance of its duty to the public even when done in good faith under the command of judicial process; therefore, while mandamus will issue in a proper case to compel a railroad company to put and maintain its roadbed and tr