These suits present substantially the same questions, and may properly be considered together. They were each brought by an express company against a railway company to restrain the railway company from interfering with or disturbing in any manner the facilities theretofore afforded the express company for doing its business on the railway of the railway company.
1. The St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company. This suit was begun May 21, 1889, and the business of the express company is thus described in the bill: 'Your orator, the Southern Express Company, is a corporation duly created, organized, and now existing under the laws of the state of Georgia, for the purpose, and with the powers necessary thereto, of receiving and forwarding upon railroads, steam-vessels, and other vehicles of rapid transportation, in a safe and secure manner, and with the greatest practical expedition, in the special, care and custody of its own employes, and at destination personally delivering packages of money or currency, gold and silver bullion, bonds, bank-notes, deeds, and other valuable papers, jewels, silks, laces, and other articles of great value, requiring for their security extraordinary care and precaution, and also parcels of goods, wares, and merchandise requiring great dispatch or careful handling, and also fruit, vegetables, fresh meats, fish, oysters, fish spawn, and other articles liable to decay or other injury from delay; and also live animals requiring particular care and attention during transportation; and also for receiving and forwarding for collection bills, notes, drafts, and accounts, and receiving and returning payment thereof; and also for receiving and forwarding all articles of trade and commerce with the bills and charges of the shipper thereto attached, to be collected of the consignee on delivery of such articles, and returned to shipper; and in so doing to afford the public, under a single contract, and on assured responsibility, safe, reliable, and speedy transportation from and to all points accessible only over two or more railroads, and generally to perform for the public all offices that by usage are incident to the class of carriers now well known, recognized, and designated by the public as 'express carriers."
The St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company is a railway corporation existing in the states of Missouri and Arkansas, formed by the consolidation of the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad Company, the Cairo & Fulton Railroad Company, and the Cairo, Arkansas & Texas Railroad Company. Its railway extends from St. Louis, and from a point on the Mississippi opposite Cairo, through Missouri and Arkansas, by way of Little Rock, to Texarkana, on the boundary between Arkansas and Texas, with certain branches.