Bridal Veil Lumbering Co. v. Johnson

Mr. Justice Bean,

after stating the case in the foregoing language, delivered the following opinion of the •court:

1. There being no bill of exceptions in the record, the only question for our determination is whether the findings of fact support the judgment. The right of eminent domain is a right of sovereignty, and can be exercised only by legislative authority, and for a public use or benefit. When, therefore, a particular corporation claims the right to take private property without the consent of the owner, it must show not only a legislative warrant, but, if its right is challenged on that ground, it must be able to establish the fact that the enterprise in which *209 it is engaged is one by which a public use or benefit is to be subserved or promoted, so that such taking can be said to b¿ for a public and not a private use. The necessity or expediency of taking private property for public use, the instrumentalities through which it may be done, and the mode of procedure, are legislative and not judicial questions. But, whether the proposed use thereof is in fact public, so as to justify its taking without the consent of the owner* has always been a question for the courts to determine, and, in doing so, they are not confined to the description of the objects and purposes of the corporation as set forth in its articles of incorporation, but may resort to evidence aliunde showing the actual business proposed to be conducted by it: Lewis on Eminent Domain, § 158; Matter of Niagara Falls & Whirlpool R. Co., 108 N. Y. 375 (15 N. E. 429); Chicago & E. I. R. R. Co. v. Wiltse, 116 Ill. 449 (6 N. E. 49).

2. Now, in this case, from the findings of fact, it clearly appears that plaintiff is a corporation organized for the construction of a railroad for the transportation of freight and passengers, and therefore 'sections 3239 and 3240, Hill’s Code, invest it with authority to exercise the power of eminent domain, if the use it intends to make of the property sought to be taken is in fact public. Bearing upon this question, the findings are that it has already constructed five and a half miles of road, and is now and has been operating the same for the use and benefit of the general public in carrying freight and passengers, and there is nothing in the record anywhere to indicate that the road has ever been used or is intended to be used for any other or different purpose, or that it was built or intended for a logging road, or has ever been used for that purpose; or, in fact, that it is in any way connected with or a part of the mill enterprise; or, indeed, except by inference, that it belongs to the mill company. We are, there *210 fore, unable to say that the court was in error in holding that the railroad of plaintiff is public so as to justify the exercise in its behalf of the power of eminent domain. The fact that it has not been fully completed between the termini indicated in its articles of incorporation, or that there is at present no town, city, or settlement, or other railroad at its proposed southeastern terminus, or that its proposed route is through a rough, mountainous, and sparsely settled country, or that the plaintiff has not yet fully equipped the road, or supplied itself with complete and perfect terminal facilities, or that it has not charged the passengers upon its railroad any fare, does not affect its right to exercise the power of eminent domain. The question of public use is not determined, as a matter of law, by any of these things, but by the fact that the proposed road is intended as a highway for the use of the public in the transportation of freight and passengers. And it can make no difference that its use may be limited by circumstances to a small part of the community. Its character is determined by the right of the public to use it, and not by the extent to which that right is exercised: De Camp v. Hibernia Railroad Co., 47 N. J. Law, 43; Phillips v. Watson, 73 Iowa, 28 (18 N. W. 659); Ross v. Davis, 97 Ind. 79.

If every one having occasion to use the road as a passenger or for transportation of freight may do so, and of right may require the plaintiff to serve him in that respect, it is a public way, although the number actually exercising the right is very small. The findings of the court show that the enterprise in which plaintiff is engaged, and for which it requires the land in question, is of this character, and therefore we have no alternative but to affirm the judgment. In doing so, however, we do not desire to be understood as holding that a railroad constructed by a mill company for the evident purpose of transporting logs to *211 its mill can become a public highway, so as to justify the exercise of the power of eminent domain in its behalf, because of any declaration in its articles of incorporation to that effect, or on account of any right of the public to use it for the transportation of freight and passengers. No such question is presented by this record. The findings of the court by which we are bound negative such an inference, and this decision is based upon the facts as found by the court below. The judgment must therefore be affirmed.

Affirmed.