City of Chicago v. Chicago & North Western Railway Co.

This is an appeal by the city of Chicago from a judgment of the circuit court of Cook County entered in favor of the Chicago and North Western Railway Company, the defendant in an action brought by the city for a declaratory judgment enforcing a contract the parties had entered into on December 31, 1906.

The pertinent facts show that prior to 1884, North Halsted Street, at a point immediately south of the Chicago River, extended across railroad tracks at grade. In that year a viaduct for street traffic was constructed over the tracks, its northern terminal abutting the city’s bridge by which…