United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Toledo, D. & B. R. Co. v. Hamilton, 134 U.S. 296 (1890)

Toledo, Delphos and Burlington Railroad Company v. Hamilton

No. 184

Argued January 10, 1890

Decided March 17, 1890

134 U.S. 296

Syllabus

A recorded mortgage, given by a railroad company on its roadbed and other property, creates a lien whose priority cannot be displaced thereafter either directly by a mortgage given by the company or indirectly by a contract between the company and a third party for the erection of buildings or other works of original construction.

Whether a mechanic's lien could, under the statutes of Ohio in force at the time of the attempted filing of a lien in this case, be placed upon a railroad, quaere.

The priority of a mortgage debt upon a railroad has been sometimes displaced in favor of unsecured creditors when those debts were contracted for keeping up a railroad, already built, as a going concern, but those cases have no application to a debt contracted for original construction.

A mortgage with words of general description conveys land held by a full equitable title as well as that held by a legal title.

In equity. The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 134 U. S. 297