Wheeler v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad

A cause is not to be erased from the docket unless the want of jurisdiction plainly appears on the face of the record. The General Statutes permit an appeal from the decision of the board of railroad commissioners in the matter of the removal of a grade crossing, while a Special Act for the abolition of grade crossings in Bridgeport provides that the decision of the board of railroad commissioners shall be final and conclusive. Held that inasmuch as it did not appear from the record that the proceedings instituted by the railroad company were brought under the Special Act, the Superior Court erred in erasing the appeal from its docket.

Appeal from a decision of the railroad commissioners involving the condemnation of the plaintiff’s land, taken to the Superior Court in Fairfield County where the cause, upon motion of the defendant, was erased from the docket (Elmer, J.') for want of jurisdiction, and the plaintiffs appealed for alleged error in this ruling of the court. The material facts stated in the complaint are as follows : “ 1. The petitioners own a valuable piece of property situated in said Bridgeport, bounded southwest by Bridgeport harbor, northwest by the tracks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, north by Sterling street, east by Noble avenue, and south by land of Frank Miller and others. ... 6. On December 21st, 1895, said company and the directors thereof, whose road then did and ever since has crossed and was and is crossed by numerous highways at grade in said Bridgeport, brought their petition in writing to the railroad commissioners of this State, therein alleging that public safety required an alteration in said crossings, their respective approaches, the method of crossing the same, the location of the same, the closing of said highway crossings and the substitution of certain other crossings therefor, not at grade, and as a part of the method proposed by them for accomplishing said results they presented plans, one detail of which involved the-taking of a strip of land seventy feet wide through the middle of your petitioners’ said property and the construction of an elevated railroad structure thereon; and they prayed that said work might be ordered according to the plans so presented. . . . 10. On May 17th, 1897, said company and the directors thereof brought their supplemental petition in writing to the railroad commissioners, alleging by reference the same facts as in their original petition, and also then alleging for the first time that your petitioners had an interest in land needed for certain of said crossings. ... 13. On June 30th, 1897, said railroad commissioners determined and decided that said changes, alterations and removals should be made by said company, including that part thereof that involved the taking of your petitioners’ property and the destruction thereof and of their said business.” The complaint was duly served and returned to the Superior Court in and for the county of Fairfield on the first Tuesday of September, 1897, and was duly entered upon the docket of said’ court. On the 21st day of October the said railroad company moved the court that said “ cause be erased from the docket of the Superior Court, on the ground that said court had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter contained therein.” The court granted that motion, and the plaintiffs appealed.