176 A. 401 | Conn. | 1935
The assistant city attorney of the city of New Haven filed an information in the City *325 Court against the defendant charging that, on September 8th, 1933, being an operator of a taxicab owned by the Terminal Taxi Company, he used a certain taxi stand on the easterly side of College Street in that city, in connection with the Hotel Taft, established by the board of police commissioners of the city acting as traffic authority and traffic commission of the city, with the approval of the owner of the hotel, the use of the stand being limited to taxicabs operated by the New England Taxi Cab Company, Incorporated, and the New Haven Yellow Cab Company, such cabs having been designated by the owner of the hotel. The defendant demurred to the information as insufficient in law and the trial court sustained the demurrer. The taxi stand was established under the provisions of § 56b of the General Statutes, Cum. Sup. 1933, which provides: "TAXI STANDS IN FRONT OF HOTELS. The traffic commission of any city or town is authorized to establish a public taxi stand in connection with any hotel within the limits of such city or town and may, with the approval of the owner or lessee of such hotel, limit the use of such public taxi stand to cabs of a company to be designated by such owner or lessee." The demurrer was sustained upon the ground that the portion of the statute authorizing a traffic commission, with the approval of the owner or lessee of the hotel in connection with which the stand was established, to limit its use to cabs to be designated by the owner or lessee, was unconstitutional and void. The only error assigned in the writ attacks the correctness of this conclusion, and while the briefs of counsel discuss other questions we shall not consider them. Practice Book, § 389.
It is incumbent upon any court, in the consideration of an attack upon the constitutionality of a legislative act, to approach the question with great caution, examine *326
it with infinite care, make every presumption and intendment in its favor, and sustain the act unless its invalidity is clear. Beach v. Bradstreet,
Under the law of this State the owner of land abutting upon a highway is presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to own the fee of the land to the center of the highway; the highway is but an easement for public travel and such uses as are incident thereto; the abutter retains all rights in the land not incompatible with the public easement; any person making a use of it beyond the scope of that easement commits a wrong against the owner of the fee, unless indeed he acts under legislative authority either in the furtherance of a public use and with compensation made or under a proper exercise by the State of its police power; and for one otherwise to maintain a place of private business in the highway in front of another's property is to commit a wrong against the *327
owner of the fee. Peck v. Smith,
Within the scope of the police power of the State to regulate traffic upon the highways is its right to exercise a reasonable control over the operation upon them of motor vehicles for hire; Modeste v. PublicUtilities Commission,
Had the Legislature authorized the municipal authorities to establish a taxi stand in connection with any hotel with the consent of the owner of the fee in the portion of the street to be occupied by it, such legislation would undoubtedly be valid; it would preserve the balance between the right of travelers to the fullest enjoyment of the public easement and the protection of the property rights of the adjoining owner in the fee of the highway. How does the limitation in the law we are considering differ in principle from such a supposititious enactment? In authorizing the limitation of the use of a taxi stand established under the provisions of the act to a company designated by one who holds the fee in the highway where the stand is located, the Legislature has but recognized the common-law right of the abutter to control the use of the land in front of his property and his right to prevent its use, except in the exercise of the public easement, by anyone else unless with his permission. The act does not purport to restrict in any way access of taxicabs of other companies to the hotel premises for the purpose of receiving and discharging passengers or for other purposes incident to the ordinary operation of such cabs upon the streets of a city. The limitation of the act to hotel property finds its justification in the fact that because of the large number of transients and others who patronize hotels there is an unusual need for such service as taxicabs afford, and because the continual succession of vehicles coming to and going from them makes it of interest to them to limit and control vehicles standing in their vicinity; and the same considerations make the situation one where the Legislature might reasonably conclude that there is a special need for their regulation. Waldorf-AstoriaHotel Co. v. City of New York, supra; Willard HotelCo. v. District of Columbia,
The terms of the act themselves provide for the establishment of taxi stands "in connection with" any hotel. Read broadly, this would authorize such stands upon other portions of a street than that of which the owner of a hotel had the fee. To construe the law as intending this would make it obnoxious to the very principles we have been discussing. We cannot impute to the Legislature an intent to pass an unconstitutional statute and a law should be construed, if it can reasonably be done, so as to make it valid. Connelly v.Deconinck,
So construed, the law presents no ground of unlawful discrimination against any taxicab company not designated by the owner or lessee of a hotel as an occupant of such a stand. The act in its essence is but an exercise of the police power of the State in such a way as not to infringe upon the right which an abutting owner has to prevent the use of property he owns by persons not having his permission to do so. The situation differs essentially from one where a taxi stand limited to a company or companies is established by *331 municipal authority upon a highway the fee of which is not owned by an individual, or where the Legislature has assumed, in the exercise of its police power, to establish a taxi stand in front of the property of an adjoining owner regardless of his consent, and it may be that in such situation a limitation like that in the statute would constitute an unlawful discrimination. The act as it stands is not unconstitutional.
In reaching this conclusion we have not overlooked the decisions in other jurisdictions upon this and related questions. It is to be remembered, however, that our law recognizes that the owner of land abutting upon a highway whose title extends to the center of it has a higher right in the land in front of his property than is granted him in some other States. Even so, the weight of authority supports the conclusion we have reached. Mader v. City of Topeka,
There is error, the judgment of the trial court is reversed and the case remanded to be proceeded with according to law.
No costs will be taxed in this court.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.