Huffman v. State Roads Commission

Offutt, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The Susquehanna Power Company, herein referred to as the “power company,” a Maryland corporation, on November 2nd, 1925, duly executed a written “preliminary” agreement with the State Roads Commission of Maryland, herein called the commission, the Board of Public Works of the State of Maryland, the County Commissioners of Harford County, and the County Commissioners of Cecil County, for the relocation of the bridge now spanning the Susquehanna River at Conowingo> of the approaches thereto, and of certain public highways connecting therewith. Under that agreement the power company contracted (1) to provide a highway bridge across the Susquehanna River, connecting Cecil and Harford Counties, having a roadway twenty feet wide between curbs, a capacity of two twenty-ton trucks on each span, and with a sufficient clearance above flood level to insure safety to traffic. (2) At one of the three following locations: “(a) At or about the same location as the present Oonowingo bridge; (&) below the dam site near Share’s Landing; (c) over and supported on the dam structures.” (3) To, construct roads connecting each end of the proposed bridge with the present “Philadelphia-Baltimore Turnpike.” (4) To deed to the State Roads Commission a fifty-foot right of way for the new roads to- the new bridge.

(5) To convey to the commission the new bridge if constructed separately from the dam, or if constructed as an integral part of the dam structure to lease it to the commission at an annual rental of one dollar, for a term equal to the term of the federal license to the power company. (6) To' construct the road leading to the bridge on the east side of the river under or over the ⁵⁶⁹ Pennsylvania Railroad tracks so as. to avoid a grade crossing. And (7) until the new bridge is completed to keep unobstructed openings sufficient to take care of the normal high flow of the river. The commission and the counties on their part agreed as follows, that is to' say: “1.

They will convey to the company the present Conowingo bridge, and all land, abutments, approaches and rights connected therewith, and constituting said bridge property and premises, together with such parts of the state and county road approaches thereto, as may be necessary or useful to the Conowingo project, all to he free and clear of all encumbrances. It is understood, however, that the company will make a satisfactory substitution as shall be later agreed upon between the company and the commission for the toll houses and land appurtenant thereto at each end of the present Conowingo bridge and also for a strip of land in the Fifth District of Harford County acquired by the commission for a then contemplated road connecting with the Harford approach to said bridge. “2. They will also duly release the said company from any and all damages resulting from the overflow by said company’s dam of any and all state or county roads in the contiguous or nearby election districts of said counties which end at the water’s edge, but contiguous county roads so overflowed shall be relocated and new bridges provided at the expense of the company and satisfactory to the counties; yet by said releases restraining access in themselves respectively to the new pool along the river created by the company’s dam, and where such access is retained, providing reasonable parking ground. “The Board of Public Works joins in the agreement for the purpose of assenting thereto and certifying its approval thereof.” Assuming to act under that agreement, the commission elected to have the new bridge constructed on the» dam at Shure’s Landing, something over two miles below the present ⁵⁷⁰ Oonowingo bridge. Shortly after that action had been taken, on September 1st, 1926, John R. Huffman, and other citizens and tax payers of Harford and Cecil Counties, as individuals, and also as constituting the executive committee of the Conowingo Protective Association,' filed in the Baltimore City Court a petition for a writ of mandamus commanding and requiring the State Roads Commission “to observe, obey and carry out the said provision, direction and requirement of said Act of the General Assembly of 1910, ch. 116, to maintain the said Conowingo bridge, as aforesaid, and, to that end, preventing and restraining the said defendant commission from carrying out and executing the said alleged agreement with the Susquehanna Power Company, and particularly from disposing of and conveying said Conowingo bridge to said Susquehanna Power Company, and from permitting, authorizing or doing any act leading to or resulting in the relinquishment, abandonment, or destruction of said Conowingo bridge, or its removal from its present location at Conowingo, over said Susquehanna River between said Harford and Cecil Counties, and commanding and requiring said commission to obey, carry out and give effect to the direction and requirement of said Act of the General Assembly of 1910, ch. 116, with respect to the maintenance of said Oonowingo bridge over the Susquehanna River at Oonowingo as a part of the state roads system.” The defendant filed an answer to that petition, and to that answer the petitioners demurred.

The demurrer com ing on for a hearing, the court, on December 29th, 1926, overruled it, and being of opinion that the petition did not present a case upon which the writ of mandamus should issue as prayed, and the petitioners neither desiring nor applying for leave to amend their petition, it dismissed the petition and ordered judgment to be entered for the defendant, from which judgment this appeal was taken. Broadly speaking, it will be observed that the defendant, ⁵⁷¹ and the other parties to the agreement in this case, propose and are undertaking to do two things, (1) to discontinue and abandon the present Oonowingo bridge and the approaches thereto, and parts of the public highways connected by said bridge, to convey to the power company the entire present Oonowingo bridge and all property and rights connected therewith and comprising the same, and to release said company from all damages occasioned by the overflow of county or state roads by the waters impounded by the company’s dam; (2) to relocate said bridge and the highways connecting the same, so that the new bridge will be located at a point some two miles down the river from the present bridge; and the single question raised by the appeal is whether they have the power to do either or both of those things. Whether they have or not depends upon the force and effect to be given to the language (a.) of the Public General Laws of the state, creating and defining the powers and duties of the commission, (&) to the language of the charter and statutes creating and defining the powers of the power company, and (c) to the language of chapter 116 of the Acts of 1910, and (d) to some extent to the statutes creating and defining the powers and duties of the County Commissioners of Harford and Cecil Counties and of the Board cf Public Works. But before attempting any analysis of those statutes, we will refer briefly to the facts of the case as set out in the petition, because the case was disposed of on the theory that all the facts therein alleged are true, but that conceding their truth, they are insufficient to warrant the issuance of the writ of mandamus as prayed.

No objection was made in this court to the right of the appellants to maintain this proceeding, if their contention that the acts of the appellees were wholly ultra, vires and void is correct, and as we are of the opinion that in such a case they would have such a right, we need not notice those allegations of the petition which deal with the status of the several petitioners. ⁵⁷² The petition, after referring to various public general and public local laws, and charters pertinent to the questions before us, and after outlining the history of the Conowingo bridge for approximately “three quarters” of a century, in part alleges that— “As a consequence of said conditions and the said location of said bridge at its present situation through so many years and generations, all the established and principal interests of the people, including your petitioners and many others in the same situation and plight with themselves, who have settled in communities in said Harford and Cecil Counties, respectively, upon each side of the Susquehanna River in the vicinity of said Conowingo bridge, have developed, adapted themselves to, and become substantially, if not vitally, dependent upon, the continued maintenance of said bridge at said location. These interests of your petitioners and of the large number of said people in the said communities settled upon each side of said river, near said bridge, include their agricultural, mercantile and occupational pursuits and employments, the use and avail of their property, the convenience and enjoyment of their homes and residences, as well as the value thereof, their family, church and educational interests, and a large measure of their community and inter-community activities and relations. “That if said bridge were destroyed or removed, your petitioners and said numerous other persons, including citizens, property owners and taxpayers as aforesaid, in said community on both sides of the river in the vicinity of said bridge, would suffer great and irreparable hardship, privation, loss, injury and damage in all their agricultural, mercantile, business and occupational interests aforesaid, and in loss, damage and injury to their property, as well as in and to their various personal, family, social, community and inter-community interests aforesaid, all of which are, and for many years and generations last past have been, deeply adapted to and dependent upon the said Cono ⁵⁷³ wingo bridge and its said present and historic location.” It then alleges chapter 116 of the Acts of 1910 and the conveyance of the bridge and the approaches thereto to the State Roads Commission in 1911, and its incorporation with the state roads system, as an integral part thereof. It also alleges the execution and substances of the agreement referred to above for the relocation of the bridge, and the approaches thereto, denies the power of the power company or the county commissioners to execute the same, refers to ineffectual efforts of two of the petitioners to’ secure a timely hearing of their objections to the relocation of the bridge, and the definite determination of the State Roads Commission to relocate it at Shure’s Landing. It further alleges that the agreement is void (I) because it is contrary to the Act of 1910, ch. 116; (2) because the State Roads Commission is usurping legislative powers; (3) (4) because the commission is prohibited by law from, disposing of the Oonowingo bridge or relocating it; (5) because the power company has no power to execute or perform the agreement; (6) because it is the legal duty of the commission to maintain the bridge at its present location; (7) because the execution of the decision of the commission would deprive the petitioners of their property without due process of law in violation of the statutory law, as well as the state and federal Constitutions; (8) because it would illegally discriminate against the petitioners “with respect to their property, their personal security and their rights to the pursuit of happiness, and deny them, in each and all of said respects, the equal protection of the laws in violation of the Constitution of the United States”; (9) because the performance of the agreement would illegally increase the “burdens of taxation for both state and county purposes upon” the petitioners; (10) because the performance of the agreement and the relocation of the bridge in accordance with the decision of the commission would injure substantially “the agricultural, ⁵⁷⁴ mercantile, business, and occupational pursuits and employment of your petitioners and of many other citizens residing in said Harford and Cecil Counties in the vicinity of said Conowingo bridge, and greatly depreciate the value of their property and businesses, and greatly prejudice, impair, and injure the proper and due use, enjoyment, and avail of their property, and seriously and permanently injure the personal and community interests of your petitioners and those similarly situated with them, without authority or warrant of law * * * and in denial to these petitioners and those in the same situation with them of the equal protection of the laws, and in deprivation of their property and their right to the pursuit of happiness without due process of law,” and (11) because “the execution of said determination and intention of said defendant commission would so actually, seriously, and completely destroy the property and the property rights of your petitioners and of said other owners of property in the communities aforesaid, by preventing and destroying the proper .and reasonable use, enjoyment, and avail of their said property for purposes of residence, agriculture, and other businesses and pursuits, as to constitute a taking of their said property without compensation therefor, as required by article 3, section 40, of the Constitution of Maryland, as well as by article 23 of the Declaration of Rights of Maryland, and in violation of said provisions of the Constitution and Declaration of Rights.” It then alleges that the “uncompensated” destruction and loss of the present bridge and the highway approaches thereto, and the necessity for constructing new highways to approach the proposed bridge, would illegally increase the “burdens of both state and county taxes upon” the petitioners and the other taxpayers of the two counties, and that it would be practicable and economical to utilize the structure of the present bridge in constructing another bridge in the same location at a sufficient elevation to permit traffic to use it in safety.

Finally, it alleges the necessity for the issuance of the writ of mandamus to protect the petitioners from the ⁵⁷⁵ alleged wrongful and illegal acts threatened by the defendants. The validity of the agreement involved in this case depends to some extent upon the powers of the several public agencies and corporations which executed the same, and as those powers are either immediately or derivatively statutory, it is necessary to examine the statutes creating them to ascertain their extent. The State Roads Commission was created by chapter 141 of the Acts of 1908, which provided for the establishment of a “system of public roads and highways in Maryland” and which undertook to grant to such commission “full powers to construct, improve, and maintain public roads and highways” in the several counties in this state. And by that act the following specific powers were expressly conferred upon the commission, that is to say, in sub-section 32B it provided that, in addition to its other powers, the commission— “shall have full powers and be charged with the full duties to select, construct, improve and maintain such a general system of improved state roads and highways, as can reasonably be expected to be completed with the funds herein provided in and through all the counties of this state; * * * condemn, lay out, open, establish, construct, extend, widen, straighten, grade and improve, in any manner, any main road of the system in any county of this state, and establish or fix the width thereof; * * * acquire for the State of Maryland, by agreement, gift, grant, purchase or condemnation proceedings as prescribed by sections 251 to 256, inclusive, or by section 360 to 366, inclusive, of article 23 of the Code of 1904, of the Public General Laws, any private roads or roads whatsoever, or private property or rights of drainage for public use, whether belonging to private individuals, or to turnpike companies or other corporations, and including any avenues, roads, lanes or thoroughfares, rights or interests, franchises, privileges or easements, that may be, in its judgment, desirable or necessary to complete said system of roads or to carry out the purposes of ⁵⁷⁶ this act; contract with any person or persons, company or corporation, either private or quasi-public, or municipal, in furtherance of the duties and objects of this act or any of the same; * * * make and enter into any and all contracts, agreements or stipulations germane to the scope of its duties and powers under this act.” By chapter 116 of the Acts of 1910 (section 48, article 91, C. P. G. L. of 1911) omitted from the edition of 1924, it was granted these additional powers: “Sec. 32-P. For the purpose of making and maintaining connections between any highways or the parts of any highway constructed or improved under the provisions of the preceding sections, the State Roads Commission shall have the power to build bridges; and to acquire by purchase, condemnation or otherwise (and to maintain when so acquired) any existing bridges along the line of, or connected with any such highway or' highways.

And in the exercise, but not in limitation of the power hereby granted, the State Roads Commission is authorized and directed for the purpose of connecting the system of state roads in Harford and Cecil Counties, to acquire by purchase, condemnation or otherwise (and when so acquired to maintain) the Conowingo bridge across the Susquehanna River, together with all land, roads, approaches, rights, franchises and easements belonging to any person or corporation, and necessary or convenient for the purpose aforesaid; or in case the judgment or verdict of condemnation shall be deemed excessive, with reference to said Conowingo bridge, by the State Roads Commission, the said commission may within thirty days after the final judgment or verdict of condemnation shall have been entered, reject the same and then shall proceed by way of purchase or condemnation, or both, to acquire any and all necessary approaches for a bridge across the Susquehanna River and at such point in the vicinity of the said Conowingo bridge as may seem best for the public advantage in judgment of said commission, and the said commission to ⁵⁷⁷ proceed after acquiring the necessary approaches and other property rights to erect a new bridge at that point out of the money available for any purpose under this section; provided, however, that should the purchase or condemnation of said bridge, or the building of a new bridge in lieu thereof aggregate more than sixty-five thousand dollars, then such amount as shall exceed said sum of sixty-five thousand dollars shall be contributed equally by the counties of Harford and Cecil.” In sub-section 32-X, chapter 501, Acts of 1910 (Bagby’s Code, art. 91, sec. 41), it is provided: “It shall be lawful for the State Roads Commission to make, from time to time, such changes as it may. seem desirable in the projected locations of any road authorized to be constructed hereunder.” Section 29, article 91, Bagby’s Code, provides: “If the State Roads Commission shall determine that the public necessity or convenience, or that the purpose of this act require * * * that any public road in whole or in part in any county or counties, and forming a section of a through route or continuous thoroughfare between two or more important points in the state, should be taken charge of by said commission for the state for the purposes of this act; * * * said commission thereupon without any further procedure shall acquire and take over any such and all county roads, turnpikes or sections thereof or interests or rights therein, as in its judgment may be necessary or proper for the purposes of this act, and with full power to widen, relocate, change or alter the grade or location thereof.” Section 92, article 91, Bagby’s Code, provides that— “The State Roads