115 P. 872 | Okla. | 1911
This is an appeal from an order of the Corporation Commission requiring the appellant to remove such obstructions as would be dangerous to public travel, and put in a safe and adequate crossing across its track at Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth streets, in the town of Woodward. The complaint alleges, *798 in substance, that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company obstructed and blockaded a number of streets in said city by constructing and maintaining there railroad grades and constructing the tracks thereon, thereby making it impossible to cross the same in the transaction of the business interests of the citizens of the city of Woodward, and that such action thereby arbitrarily deprived said citizens of the free public use of said streets where they cross the right of way of such railway company; that by reason of said obstruction the lives of the citizens of the city are endangered, public business obstructed, and property deteriorated in value, and such obstructions are a public nuisance. The Corporation Commission found from the evidence:
"That the city of Woodward was platted and laid out and that Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth streets were regularly laid out and are public highways across the right of way of the defendant; that Second street is unobstructed other than the railroad track; Third street is obstructed by one telegraph pole and one switch stand; Fourth street, by one old stone foundation and the abandoned round house which projects forty-one feet into the street from the east; Fifth street obstructed by a switch stand and a reservoir, also by manhole leading to pipe; Sixth street obstructed by one switch and two water cranes."
The first assignment of error challenges the jurisdiction and authority of the Corporation Commission to make the order appealed from. This court, however, is of the opinion that, as the order complained of requires the correction of an abuse which affects the people of a particular community disconnected from their use of the railway for the transportation of themselves and their property, an appeal does not lie therefrom to the Supreme Court. It will be noticed that the language of section 18, article 9, of the Constitution, which confers original jurisdiction upon the commission, is considerably broader than the language of section 20, which provides for appeals to the Supreme Court; so it does not follow that an appeal lies in all actions over which the commission may have jurisdiction. St. Louis S. F. R. R. Co. v. State,
People ex rel. N.Y., N.H. H. R. Co. v. Willcox et al.,Com'rs. (N.Y.)
"Broad as are the powers conferred by the act, they are, by plain intendment, as I read them, such as are directed, exclusively, to the amplest supervision and regulation of railroad corporations, in such respects as concern their construction, maintenance, equipment, terminal facilities, and operations in the transportation of persons and property. The exercise of the powers is intended to be when rendered necessary, in the judgment of the commissions, by reason of unjust, unsafe, or inadequate, regulations, practices. equipment, appliances, or service, 'in respect to the transportation of persons, freight, or property.' The object of the Legislature, as fairly to be deduced from the enactment, was to regulate the management and the operations of common carriers, within the *800 state, in the interest of the public; that is, of the persons who should use the facilities for the transportation of themselves, or of their property, who should serve them, or who should be interested in them, as holders of their capital stock or obligations. The commissions were given extensive powers; but they should not be extended by implication beyond what may be necessary for their just and reasonable execution. They are not without limits, when directed against the management or the operations of railroads, and the commissions cannot enforce a provision of law, unless the authority to do so can be found in the statute * * * Nor should they reach out for dominion over matters not clearly within the statute."
The Supreme Court of Texas, in I. G. N. Ry. Co. v. Ry.Com.,
The appeal must be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
All the Justices concur. *802