State v. Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City Railroad

Citations

• 86 Miss. 172

Syllabus

<p>1. Railboads. County seats. Constitutionl890, sec. 187. Natural obstacles. Bight of way. ■Depot grounds. Demand.</p> <p>Under Constitution 1890, sec. 187, providing that no railroad should be constructed so as to pass within three miles of a county seat without passing through the same and establishing a depot there, unless prevented by natural obstacles, if the town or its citizens should grant the right of way through its limits and sufficient depot grounds:</p> <p>(а) The words “county seat” mean the municipality at which the county seat is located according to its boundaries when the road is constructed; and</p> <p>(б) The terms “natural obstacles” mean such obstacles as cannot reasonably be overcome, and neither increased costs nor greater engineering difficulties will alone and of themselves excuse non-performance of the duty; and</p> <p>(c) It is no excuse to the railroad company for failing to build through a county site that it has not been tendered a conveyance of the right of way and depot grounds, unless it shows that it made a demand for such conveyance and had been refused; and</p> <p>(d) A county seat is not required to furnish a right of -way and depot grounds to a railroad already built to it, upon its extension from it; and</p> <p>(e) A county seat which is a terminus of a railroad already constructed is not required to furnish a right of way and depot grounds for an extension of the road.</p> <p>2. Same. Change of route. BaiVroad commission.</p> <p>Where a railroad has located and constructed its line so that property rights have become fixed with reference thereto, it cannot abandon any portion of the line so located except on the score of imperious necessity, nor abolish or disuse and cease to maintain a depot in a town traversed by it without the consent of the railroad commission, unless demanded by business necessity or public convenience; and, in case a change of the depot site is thus necessary, the railroad must still locate a new depot