United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Great Northern Ry. Co. v. Clara City, 246 U.S. 434 (1918)

Great Northern Ry. Co. v.

Minnesota ex rel. Village of Clara City

No. 185

Submitted March 12, 1918

Decided April 15, 1918

246 U.S. 434

Syllabus

Railroad companies may be required, under the state police power at their own expense, to make streets and highways crossed by their tracks reasonably safe and convenient for public use.

Upon this principle, where a village street with business houses on both sides was intersected by a railroad right of way of which the central portion only was occupied by roadbed and tracks and was sufficiently planked for crossing purposes, held that a requirement

Page 246 U. S. 435

(under Minnesota Laws, 1913, c. 78, § 1) that a sidewalk be built to extend the street sidewalk across the right of way on either side of the planking, along one side of the street where people must frequently cross, could not be regarded as a arbitrary or unreasonable requirement depriving of due process or denying the equal protection of the law.

132 Minn. 474 affirmed.

The case is stated in the opinion.