Illinois Supreme Court · 1890 · 133 Ill. 413

Heirs v. State — Toll Road Rights

The most valuable asset in the Snell estate was the toll franchise on the Northwestern Plank Road. The heirs assumed it was theirs. The Illinois Supreme Court disagreed.

For years, the Northwestern Plank Road had been the engine of the Snell fortune. Amos had purchased the toll franchise in 1870 and turned it into a monopoly on one of the most heavily traveled routes out of Chicago. Farmers, merchants, and travelers had no choice but to pay his tolls. The income was steady, substantial, and seemingly permanent.

When Snell was murdered in February 1888, his heirs moved quickly to continue toll collection. They argued that the franchise was a property right like any other — it had been purchased, it had value, and it should pass to the estate like the houses and lots and business interests. Their lawyers made the case in probate court, and then in the circuit courts, that the toll right was an inheritable asset.

The Illinois Supreme Court saw it differently. In 1890, the court ruled that the toll franchise was a personal life estate — a right granted specifically to Amos Jerome Snell, tied to his person, and extinguished by his death. It could not be inherited. It could not be sold. It died the moment he did.

"The toll right was a personal franchise. It died with the man who held it."

The ruling was devastating. The toll road had been the most lucrative single asset in the estate — the source of reliable income that had funded Snell’s real estate acquisitions for nearly two decades. With one decision, the court stripped it from the heirs entirely. The road reverted to public use. The gates came down. The tolls stopped.

The heirs refused to accept the ruling. They appealed to the highest court in the land.