State v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

Citations

• 127 Md. 434
• 96 A. 636
• 1916 Md. LEXIS 18

Syllabus

<p>B. & O. R. R.: charter rights; tax exemptions; when not , wiaved. Corporations: irrepealahle contracts with State. Duty of State.</p> <p>The same degree of fair dealing which is enforced between individuals must be applicable when the parties are the State and a corporation having contractual relations with it. p. 449</p> <p>The special charter of the B. & O. R. R. Co., granted by the Act of 1826, constitutes a contract between the Railroad Company and the State, and the tax exemption conferred by section 18 of the charter is not one which it is within the power of the Legislature to modify or repeal, without the assent of the Railroad Company. p. 437</p> <p>To affect a charter given before the Constitution of 1851, there must be both the action of the Legislature and the assent of the corporation. pp. 444-445</p> <p>The acceptance by the B. & O. R. R. Co. of the rights contained in certain ordinances of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, amounting to police regulations of the laying of tracks and'switches, which acts were in themselves no new grant of power, but only the regulations by the City of the exercise of powers contained in the B. & O.’s original charter, is not such an acceptance of rights and privileges as to bring the B. & O. R. R. within the amendment of the State Constitutions of 1851 and 1867, by Chapter 195 of the Acts of 1890, now known as Article 3, section 48, and which provided in substance that every corporation accepting new rights, privileges or powers should be presumed to assent to the repeal of its exemptions from taxation. pp. 438-439</p> <p>In a mortgage executed by the Railroad Company, there was a covenant that the Railroad Company would discharge all “taxes and assessments, etc., lawfully imposed upon the railroad and other premises or property hereby mortgaged, etc.,” provided nothing contained in the section should require the Company to pay any such tax, etc., so long as the Railroad Company in good faith contests the vali