158 Iowa 137 | Iowa | 1912
The plaintiff owns a farm of three hundred acres outside of the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The body of the farm is upon the low lying land which borders the Missouri river, but one corner or portion thereof rises to a higher level, and at this point it has a frontage of one hundred and eighty feet upon the public highway. Owing to the topography of these lands, the more elevated portion of which we have just spoken constitutes the most favorable and desirable site for plaintiff’s buildings and improvements. At this place he has constructed a large and valuable house, and made many other improvements in harmony therewith. The house stands at a distance of about one hundred feet from the highway. Defendant has located and condemned for its right of way a strip of land along this highway, and between it and the plaintiff’s buildings, thus appropriating some thirty feet of his dooryard, and making it impossible for him to reach the public road except by crossing the railway track. The jury assessed his damages at $2,983.50. Defendant does not deny its liability for the damages thus occasioned, but contends that the amount is excessive. This result it is argued was made possible by error in the court’s charge to the jury.
By its articles of incorporation the defendant company declares its nature and the purposes of its organization to be among other things, “to purchase, acquire, lease, construct, maintain, and operate a street railway throughout, over, along, and upon the streets, avenues, and alleys of the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa; also from the city of Council Bluffs to Lake Manawa, a lake lying south of said city, and to and from such points within and in the vicinity of and suburban to said city of Council Bluffs as may be determined upon, whether the same shall be upon streets, avenues, alleys, or highways, or upon rights of way acquired by purchase or ip the exercise of the right of eminent domain or otherwise; also to purchase, acquire, lease, construct, maintain, and operate a street railway throughout, over, along, and upon the streets, avenues, and alleys of the city of Omaha, Neb., the suburban districts known as East Omaha, Neb., and East Omaha, Iowa; also between any of the cities and districts herein named, and to and from such points within and in the vicinity of and suburban to said cities and districts, and in the operation of
In assessing damages in favor of the landowner, the jury may take into consideration any and all uses which the company may rightfully make of the land which it condemns, or of the tracks laid thereon, and the injury, annoyance, danger,
If, therefore, in its organization the appellant herein had seen fit to incorporate with articles limiting its activities to the acquirement, construction, and operation of an interurban railway under the statute — that is, a railway operated by power other than steam — its assignment of error upon the thirteenth instruction to the jury would have to be sustained, and a new trial ordered. But its authority is not thus limited. Under the statutes governing the creation of corporation, it was entirely competent for the promoters of this enterprise to make the declared purpose of their organization broad enough to enable it to own and operate both interurban and other railways, and this we think is what they did. The nature of the corporation and the extent of its authority is neither defined nor limited by the name which it assumes, but by the power and authority with which it is clothed and the
There is no reversible error in the record, and the judgment below is Affirmed.