Wheeler v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad

Citations

• 178 U.S. 321
• 20 S. Ct. 949
• 44 L. Ed. 1085
• 1900 U.S. LEXIS 1680

Syllabus

<p>Under a statute of Connecticut, a contract was entered into between the city of Bridgeport and a railroad company providing that the city should pay one sixth of the expense of abolishing grade crossings, and also of increasing the tracks of the company from two to four. Defendants, whose lands were sought to be condemned for this purpose, objected upon the ground that the agreement of the city to pay one sixth of the expense of increasing the number of tracks was a practical donation by the city to the railroad company in violation of the state constitution, and was also a taking of their property without due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Held, that the Supreme Court of the State having decided that the right to condemn the land did not depend upon the obligation of the city to pay a part of the expenses, and that the defendants could not prevent a condemnation by showing that the company might not afterwards obtain a reimbursement from the city, and also that the defendants, not alleging that they were taxpayers or specially interested, were not in any position to question the validity of the proceedings, it followed that their property was not taken without due process of law.</p>