125 Iowa 430 | Iowa | 1904
The motion by defendants is in the nature of a special demurrer to the petition. It *was so treated in the court below and may be so considered here. The question presented has relation solely to the character of the plaintiff company as disclosed by its petition, and the power of the executive council to. make assessments of its property for the purposes of taxation. The contention of plaintiff is that it is a street railway; that it acquired the right to construct its line from the city of Cedar Rapids to the city of Marion by virtue of the act of the Eighteenth General Assembly, page 28, chapter 32, now section 2026 of the Code, and that by the construction and operation of such line it did not lose its character as a street railway. The statute invoked reads as follows: “ Any corporation
Section 2033a. Interurban railway defined. Any railway operated upon the streets of a city or town by electric or other power than steam, which extends beyond the corporate limits of such city or town to another city, town or village, or any railway operated by electric or other power than steam, extending from one city, town or village to another city, town or village, shall be known as an interurban railway, and shall be a work of internal improvement.
Section 2033b. What statutes apply. The words railway, railway company, railway corporation, railroad, railroad company, and railroad corporation, as used in the Code and Acts of the General Assembly, now in force or hereafter enacted, are hereby declared to apply to and include all interurban railways, and all companies or corporations constructing, owning or operating such interurban street railways, and all provisions of the Code and Acts of the General Assembly, now in force or hereafter enacted, affecting railways, railway companies, railway corporations, railroads, railroad companies and railroad corporations, are hereby declared to affect and apply in full force and effect to alb interurban railways, and to all interurban- railway companies or railway corporations constructing, owning or operating such interurban railways.
Accordingly the record presents two questions of vital importance: Is the railway system owned and operated by the plaintiff company, an interurban railway within the meaning of the statute provisions last above quoted? And, if so, does such railway come within the operation of section 1334 of the Code Supplement, providing that “ on the second Monday in July in each year the executive council
We conclude tbat the district court was in error in overruling tbe motion of defendants, and accordingly its action is reversed.