State ex rel. Dodson v. Baltimore & Lehigh Railroad

Bryan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This suit was brought against the Maryland Central Railroad Company and the Baltimore and Lehigh Railroad Company to recover damages ensuing from the death of James A. Dodson, for the benefit of the equitable plaintiffs, the widow and children of the deceased. A demurrer was filed by the defendants and sustained by ⁴⁹¹ the Court; hut the plaintiff obtained, leave to amend its declaration, and afterwards filed two successive amended declarations; the second of them is involved in this appeal. The Court sustained a demurrer to this last mentioned declaration, and rendered judgment for the defendant.

It was averred in the declaration that Dodson was a conductor in the employment of the Maryland Central Eailway Company; and that he was killed while in the discharge of his duty by the falling of a trestle, part of the track of said corporation, which, by its negligence, wrongful act, neglect, and default, was suffered to be and remain in a dangerous and unsafe condition, insufficient and improper for the purpose for which it was erected, namely, for the passage of a train of cars over it; whereby it broke and fell under a train of cars, and the said Dodson was killed. It was also averred, that shortly after the killing of Dodson, a consolidation was effected between the Maryland Central Kailwav Company and the York and Peach Bottom Railway Company, so that these two corporations became one, known as the Baltimore and Lehigh Kailroad Company. And it was further averred, that by the consolidation, said last mentioned corporation acquired the rights and franchises of the said Maryland Central Kailroad Company, and became subject to its obligations and liabilities then existing. The legal consequences of this consolidation must depend on the Act of Assembly by which it was authorized.

The Act of 1890, chapter 553, contains very few details; it enables two railroad companies, whose tracks form a continuous line, to consolidate with each other. It must be the result of this proceeding that the two original corporations cease to exist, and a third one comes into being, which comprehends both of them. It is composed of both; it is in effect both united into one. Nothing is destroyed by the consolidation; whatever appertained to either of the constituent bodies, ⁴⁹² now, in the same measure- and under the same conditions, appertains to the composite body.

It was the intention of the Legislature to enable the consolidating corporations to do more efficiently what they had the power to do before. It could not have been the purpose to deprive them of any rights, property or credits which they previously had; neither was it the purpose to relieve them from any