Central Union Telephone Co. v. City of Edwardsville

Background

The City of Edwardsville gave a telephone company permission in 1882 to put poles and wires in city streets. The company accepted a city resolution promising a free telephone for the city, discounted rates, and free attachment of alarm wires. The company maintained about 1,000 poles. In 1914 the city passed an ordinance taxing 50 cents per pole and sued to collect the tax; a lower court entered judgment for $3,000 against the company.

Reasoning

The key question was whether the telephone company could raise federal constitutional objections to the tax in this Court after taking the case to an intermediate state appellate court instead of directly to the Illinois Supreme Court. The Court held the company had waived those federal constitutional claims by following the state appellate route set by Illinois law. The Illinois statute requires cases involving the validity of a statute or construction of the Constitution to be taken directly to the state supreme court. The Court accepted the state court’s construction that this rule applies to federal as well as state constitutional questions and found the company had a fair opportunity to use that route but did not, so federal review was barred.

Real world impact

Because of that waiver, the company’s federal constitutional challenges were not considered here, and the city’s tax judgment remains in place. The decision emphasizes that state appellate rules can prevent later federal review when a litigant knowingly takes a different state appeal path. The ruling decides the procedure, not the deeper constitutional merits of the tax itself.