20 Kan. 404 | Kan. | 1878
The opinion of the court was delivered by
On the 25th of September 1877, this court, upon the motion of Hon. Willard Davis, the attorney-general for the state, allowed an alternative writ of mandamus against the Republican River Bridge Company, of Davis county, commanding the company to reconstruct a bridge built in 1867 over the Republican river, on the public highway leading from Fort Riley to Junction City, in Davis county, or show cause why it had not done so. On the return of the process the defendant appeared, add moved to quash the writ, on the ground that the facts stated therein were not sufficient in law to constitute a cause of action against the company. The writ recited the original charter of the company, filed in the office of the secretary of state on November 11th 1864, and which set forth that the object for which the company was formed was the erection of a toll-bridge over the Republican river at the place above named; the joint resolution of congress, of 2d March 1867, releasing
The question is raised by the motion of the respondent, which is equivalent to a demurrer to a petition in an ordinary
A writ of mandamus may only issue to an inferior tribunal, corporation, board, or person, to compel the performance of an act which the law specially enjoins as a duty, resulting from an office, trust, or station, (civil code, § 688, as amended laws 1870, ch. 87, p. 28,) and may not issue in such cases where there is a plain and adequate remedy at law. (Code, § 689.) Now if there is a specific duty imposed by law upon the respondent, resulting from an office, trust, or station, and no other adequate or specific remedy is provided for its enforcement, the writ of mandamus may be granted in this case; but if no such duty is enjoined, or if, being enjoined, there is another adequate remedy, then the "writ does not lie. As the object of the bridge company, under its charter, was the erection of a toll-bridge, there is no obligation, either imposed or assumed, on the part of the corporation, within the terms of its charter, to maintain forever a bridge of the character named in the application before us. It cannot be said in this case, that the state may proceed by mandamus to compel the company to rebuild on the ground that the company, having entered upon the exercise of its charter franchises, owes a duty to the public which it cannot, at its caprice, abandon. It is conceded by the learned counsel for the state, that the charter of this company is permissive, and not obligatory; that the company could build the bridge or not, at its election; that the mere exercise of a permissive right to build the bridge would not create the legal duty to maintain it forever; and that the company is not precluded
The counsel for the state argue, however, that the acceptance of the act of 26th February 1867, by the bridge company, carried with it the implied agreement or understanding that the company would keep the bridge constructed by it in repair for all time. Admit that this was the expectation of the law-makers; yet they thought fit to protect the state’s interests only by a personal bond. A part of the land might have been retained as security; or a lien for repairs of the bridge might have remained upon the land for all time; and in other ways indemnification could have been amply secured. The state however deemed it advisable to accept a personal bond as its sole security; and the only relation the bridge company sustained to the state, arising upon the bond, is purely a contract relation, for the violation of which there is an adequate remedy at law. We look in vain through the charter of the company, the joint resolution of congress, and the act of 1867, for any duty unperformed, specially enjoined
If we adopt the conclusion which has been suggested, that