Texas & N.O. R. Co. v. Northside Belt Ry. Co., 276 U.S. 475 (1928)
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Texas & New Orleans Railroad Company v.
The Northside Belt Railway Company
No. 231
Argued February 28, 1928
Decided April 9, 1928
276 U.S. 475
CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
Syllabus
1. A suit under paragraphs 18 to 20 of § 1 of the amended Act to Regulate Commerce, to enjoin a railroad company from prosecuting proceedings to condemn plaintiff’s land and from constructing, maintaining, or operating a railroad over it, upon the ground that the defendant has not obtained a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Interstate Commerce Commission, is not to be held moot because judgment of condemnation has been entered and the railroad actually constructed over the land in question, where the line has not been completed or in any part operated, and could not, physically, be operated in interstate commerce until completed. P. 478.
2. Where a defendant, with notice of the filing of a bill for an injunction, proceeds to complete the acts sought to be enjoined, the court may, by mandatory injunction, compel a restoration of the status quo. P. 479.
3. The Act to Regulate Commerce, § 1, pars. 18 to 22, does not apply to the building by wholly intrastate carriers of lines to be used wholly in intrastate commerce. P. 479.
4. A state cannot require a railroad corporation to engage in interstate commerce in violation of any law of the United States. P. 481.
5. A bill seeking to enjoin the construction and operation of a railroad over the plaintiff’s land, upon the ground that paragraphs 18 to 20 of § 1 of the Act to Regulate Commerce have not been complied with, may be properly dismissed, without prejudice, where the line in question is to be a short terminal railroad extending wholly within the state from a private plant to another local railroad and is to be built and operated by a local corporation organized for the purpose, and where its use in interstate commerce has not been threatened and could not occur until the line has been completed. P. 482.
16 F.2d 782 affirmed.
Certiorari, 274 U.S. 734, to a decree of the circuit court of appeals which affirmed, without deciding the merits, a decree of the district court, 8 F.2d 153, dismissing without prejudice a bill to restrain the above-named respondent from prosecuting condemnation proceedings and building and operating a railroad over the petitioner’s land.