Oregon Short Line R. v. Teton Coal Co.

This suit is upon a bond executed in favor of the plaintiff (appellant) by defendants Teton Coal Company, H. F. Samuels, Robert H. Harlin, and Karl A. Reichert, as principals, and their eodefendants as sureties. In the court below there was a judgment of dismissal on the pleadings.

When the bond was given the coal company was the owner of a partially developed coal mine at Talbot, Idaho, and the other principals, named were operating it under a lease. The plaintiff is ánd was the owner of a railroad system in Idaho and other states, a part of'which was a branch or spur track about nine miles long extending from a junction at Tetonia, Idaho, to Talbot, its terminus. Plaintiff having abandoned the operaition of this spur, the coal company and its lessees, on April 7, 1924, filed a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission of Idaho representing that they would have coal available for transportation and praying for an order requiring plaintiff to repair and operate the spur. In a hearing had upon the petition in due course, it was made to appear that not only would repairs be required, but for safe operation, at least during a portion of the year, it would be necessary to…