In Chicago & Alton R.R. Co. v. Tranbarger, 238 U.S. 67, 59 L. Ed. 1204, 35 S. Ct. 678 (1915), the plaintiff contended it had no duty to comply with a statute requiring railroads to construct transverse openings in roadways for drainage, because its tracks had been laid prior to the enactment of the statute. The Court disagreed, stating the following: "The plaintiff in error is subjected to a penalty not because of the manner in which it originally constructed its railroad embankment, nor for anything else done or omitted before the passage of the act of 1907, but because after that time it maintained the embankment in a manner prohibited by that act." Tranbarger, 238 U.S. at 73, 59 L. Ed. at 1209, 35 S. Ct. at 680.