11 Minn. 414 | Minn. | 1866
By the Gowrt
The sole question in this case is, whether the Legislature, by an act approved March 10, 1862, entitled “ An act to facilitate the construction of the
Seo. 1. That all the rights, benefits, privileges, property, franchises and interests of the Minneapolis and Cedar Yalley Railroad Company, acquired by the State of Minnesota, * * be and the same are hereby continued, granted and transferred to Alexander Chambers, Sylvester Smith, William H. Dike, Charles A. Wheaton, Franklin Steele, Henry Chaffee, Thomas A. Harrison, Eli B. Ames, John M. Gilman, William G. Le Due and Rufus J. Baldwin, for the purposes and on the terms and conditions hereinafter in this act jirovided, free and clear of all hens or claims thereon by or to the State of Minnesota, and free and clear from any and all claims or liens whatever thereon, except' as herein provided.
Sec. 2. All the rights, privileges, franchises, lands, property and interests heretofore granted by the Territory of Minnesota to the Minneapolis and Cedar Yalley Railroad Company by the two several acts of the Legislature of said Territory, entitled, * * * are hereby continued and granted to and vested in the said Alexander Chambers, Sylvester Smith, Wm. H. Dike, Charles A. Wheaton, Franklin Steele, Henry Chaffee, Thomas A. Harrison, Eh B. Ames, John M. Gilman, Wilham G. Le Due and Rufus J. Baldwin, and their associates and successors, with all the immunities, rights, property, benefits and privileges which the said Minneapohs and Cedar Yalley Railroad Company had or might or could have by reason of the passage of said acts, or either or both of them, free and clear of all liens or claims of the State of Minnesota thereto, except such as are retained to the said State in or by said acts, or by the provisions of this act, and the said persons herein named and their associates and
Seo. 3. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose of quieting any outstanding claims, the Minneapolis and Cedar Talley Kailroad Company is hereby authorized to release to the persons hereinbefore mentioned, and their associates, or upon their default to comply with the provisions of this act, to such other persons and their associates, or to such other company as may comply with the provisions of this act, any right or title which it may claim to have in and to all the rights, privileges, franchises, right of way, road beds, depot grounds, culverts, bridges, turn-outs, and property of every character and kind, belonging to, or in any manner appertaining to, said line of railroad; and such persons to whom such release shall be executed, are 'hereby authorized and empowered to reorganize under the original charter of said Minneapolis and Cedar Talley Kailroad Company, and under the name of the Minneapolis, Faribault, and Cedar Talley Kailroad Company; which said company, so reorganized, shall have all the powers, privileges, franchises, rights, and immunities of every character and kind, which were possessed by the said Minneapolis and Cedar Talley Kailroad Company; provided, that nothing in this act contained shall be construed as impairing the validity of the. foreclosure and
Section 4. And he it fwriher enacted, That if it should be deemed advisable by the parties herein named, to correct any defects in the foreclosure and sale of said Minneapolis and Cedar Yalley Railroad Company, made by the trustees of the first mortgage bond holders, on the 16th day of July, 1860, that William R. Marshal and John G. Forbes, who are the trustees of the first mortgage bond holders of the Minneapolis and Cedar Yalley Railroad Company, are hereby authorized and empowered to forclose and sell said Minneapolis and Cedar Yalley Railroad, in accordance with the provisions of the trust deed, together with all the privileges, immunities, right of way, road bed, and all the property of said Minneapolis and Cedar Yalley Railroad Company, which it had or has, if any * * * and upon the sale of the same the purchaser or purchasers and their associates shall have the right to reorganize under said charter of said Minneapolis and Cedar Yalley Railroad Company, and have and use and exercise all the powers, privileges, rights and franchises of said original company, and shall have power to construct and complete said railroad and its branch road to St. Paul and Hastings, as provided in the charter of the Minneapolis and Cedar Yalley Railroad Company, and the act entitled, ‘An Act to execute the trust created by an act of Congress.’ * *
The plaintiff’s counsel does not doubt but that this is the true meaning of the words of the statute, but he insists that it is not their only meaning. It is a well settled rule of statutory construction, that when we have discovered one true sense of the words, which is their obvious and natural sense, we cannot properly seek for, or apply to them, any other, and this is especially true” where the meaning claimed can only be drawn from the words by a forced and unnatural construction. McCluskey v. Cromwell, 1 Kern. 653.
This statute partakes of the nature of a contract, or agreement, and therefore, its construction ought to be close, the presumption being that its terms are fully and intelligently ex-' pressed. It is not reasonable to suppose that if the Legislature intended to revive the old corporation, subject to all its debts and liabilities, that that intention could only be gathered from the act by a forced construction, unsupported by the language of a single section. The nature of the act, being a contract between the State and the defendant, the great pecuniary interest involved, and the importance of such provision to the State, to the old company, to the defendant, and to private individuals, forbid'such supposition.
The affirmative provisions of the statute also point unerringly to the samé conclusion. At the time of the passage of the
The only ground on which the plaintiffs claim the right to recover is, that the defendant is the old corporation revived by said act, (under a new name,) subject to all its debts and liabilities. Either the language of the statute means that the defendant is not liable for any debts of the old company, or it is, as to such liability, meaningless or inoperative; for to free the property and franchises of the company from the claims and liens against them, leaving the company subject to its debts, and its property and franchises therefore subject to levy and sale for such debts, would be idle, and if the Legislature had not the power to absolve the old company from its ordinary debts and liabilities, it clearly had not to free its property from all claims or liens thereon, each being equally forbidden by that clause of the constitution which declares that no law shall be passed impairing the obligation of contracts. We are not at liberty to presume, unless the language of the statute clearly leads to such conclusion, that the Legislature acted in ignorance or disregard of this inhibition of the constitution, and this presumption is inevitable, if we hold the defendant identical with the old company. If the act of 1862 revived the old corporation, it revived it with all its rights, privileges, property and franchises, and no such provision as is found in section 2, was necessary “for the purpose of carrying out and effecting the objects of the act.” The provisions of section 3 are also meaningless, if the act was intended to operate as a revival of the old company. A proposition that the company should release to itself.\ and that such release should be made for the purpose of quieting outstanding claims made by that company, is too absurd to permit us for a moment to suppose that it was intended by the Legislature, and when we bear in mind that the Minneapolis
The plaintiff’s counsel argues that the identity of the franchises is proof of the identity of the corporation, but this cannot be admitted. The Legislature had the right to convey the property and franchises which had been forfeited to, or acquired by, the State, to either the old company or a different one.
The State recognized no claim on the part of the old company, either legal or equitable, to such property and franchises, and there was no presumption that the State would assign to it, in preference to a different company. The possession of the franchises, therefore, hy transfer from the State, does not furnish the least evidence that the possessor is identical with the old corporation. The plaintiff attaches great significance to the use of the words “ conformed” in the first and second sections of the act, and “reorganize” in the third section; arguing that the use of the former shows an intention to confórme the franchises in the old, rather than to grant them to a different company, and that the use of the latter shows that a previous organization existed, and arguing that this was the Minneapolis and Cedar Talley Eailroad Company. We do not think that this is the natural or true meaning of the words as used in this act. Franchises are created and given by the State, and when forfeited, they revert to it. When thus forfeited, the State may either confórme and keep them alive, or
In this case, from a view of the whole act, we think the conclusion irresistible, that the Legislature did not intend thereby to revive the old corporation, or to re-grant to it its forfeited property .and franchises, and so far as the decision of this case is concerned, that it is a question of no importance, whether the Legislature had, or had not, the power to create a new corporation.
The order appealed from is affirmed.