Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Clough

Background

A group of landowners in Indiana asked a court to approve a large drainage plan that would cut a new channel along the Little Calumet River, reverse its flow in places, and carry water north to Lake Michigan. The plan required digging a deep, wide ditch that would cross a sandy ridge where two railroad companies run parallel tracks and would require rebuilding a bridge where a third railroad crosses the river. State drainage commissioners approved the plan, damages were assessed, the trial court confirmed the project, and state and federal courts reviewed legal challenges brought by the three railroad companies.

Reasoning

The main question was whether the State could require railroads to provide and pay for safe crossings over a publicly authorized drainage ditch without paying those railroads compensation under the Constitution. The Court pointed to the railroads' charters and long-standing state law that required railroads to keep crossings safe and to submit to reasonable public regulations. It also held the drainage law served public health and utility purposes, was not arbitrary or privately motivated, and that treating public entities differently from private corporations had a reasonable basis. For those reasons, denying additional compensation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's due process or equal protection protections.

Real world impact

The ruling lets the planned drainage proceed and requires the affected railroads to rebuild or adapt their crossings at their own expense. Landowners and the public will receive the drainage and related health and road benefits. The decision is a narrow application of existing state charter obligations and upholds the State's power to regulate infrastructure for public benefit.