Columbia Railway, Gas & Electric Co. v. South Carolina

This was an action brought by the State against the defendant (plaintiff in error)- to recover possession of a certain canal property, known- as the Columbia Canal, on the ground that the defendant had forfeited the same by reason of its failure to fulfill certain conditions subsequent upon which its continued title depended. Prior to the year 1887 a small canal, following the course of the one now in question, was owned by the State, the title being vested in the Board of Directors of the state penitentiary. In 1887 the legislature passed an act. incorporating the Board of Canal Trustees, to…