21 Minn. 339 | Minn. | 1875
This is an action in which it is sought to enjoin the collection of certain taxes, and to set aside the assessments of the same. Without entering into details, it will be sufficient to refer to First Division St. P. & P. R. Co. v. Parcher, 14 Minn. 297, and to Huff v. Winona & St. P. R Co., 11 Minn. 180, and to add that, mutatis
Defendants contend that the taxes in question should be sustained, because the plaintiff has sold and conveyed the lands upon which the same were assessed. Whether such sale and conveyance have been made, is the only question necessary to be considered in this case. The facts bearing upon the question are as follows: On June 22, 1867, the plaintiff, by deed (Exhibit A) duly executed, granted and conveyed to the McGregor Western Eailway Co. “all of their (the Minnesota Central Eailway Company’s) roadway, rolling stock, equipments and supplies, embracing and including all their railroad from the state line to Austin, thence in a northerly direction to Minneapolis, and embracing' the branch
On August 5, 1867, by deed (Exhibit B) duly executed, the McGregor Western Railway Company granted and con
By section 1 of an act of the legislature, approved March-7, 1867, (Sp. Laws 1867, ch. 8,) the McGregor Western Railway Company is authorized to extend and construct its line of railway from its terminus in Iowa to Owatonna, and for that purpose it is authorized to exercise within this state all the rights, privileges and powers, not repugnant to the constitution or laws of this state, conferred upon it by its charter and the laws of Iowa. By section two, it is further provided that “ the said railway company, having acquired, by purchase or otherwise, the capital stock of the Minnesota Central Railway Company, may exercise within this state all the rights, privileges and franchises which have heretofore-been or which shall hereafter be conferred upon the Minnesota Central Railway Company, and shall be subject to all the duties and liabilities incurred by or imposed upon said company.” It does not appear that anything has been done under the provisions of this latter section. It is undisputed that the plaintiff does not own or operate or have any interest in any railroad in this state, nor any property in the state, except the lands acquired as aforesaid.
We have no occasion, in this case, to inquire Avhether these positions of defendants’ counsel are well taken or not. Admitting, for the purposes of this case, that they are Avell taken, they have no tendency whatever to show that the plaintiff has sold, conveyed, or contracted to sell, the lands to Avhich this action relates. If they show, (and we are not to be understood as intimating whether they do or not,) that the plaintiff has done or omitted anything which would subject it to a forfeiture of its franchises and corporate existence, in a proceeding properly instituted for that purpose, this is a matter with which ive have no concern in this case.
It is further argued that the plaintiff, in selling its road, etc., to the McG-regor Western Bailway Co., “abandoned
As there is nothing in this case going to show that the McGregor Western Railway Company ever acquired the stock of the plaintiff company, it is not necessary for us to consider the defendants’ position that, upon such acquisition, the plaintiff became “extinct.”
The order denying the defendants’ motion to dissolve the temporary injunction allowed in this case, is affirmed.
Cornell, J., did not sit in this case, which was begun while he was Attorney General.