Merchants' Exchange v. Knott

• Decision Date: 06 June 1908
• Parties: MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE OF ST. LOUIS et al. v. KNOTT et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

111 S.W. 565

212 Mo. 616

MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE OF ST. LOUIS et al. v. KNOTT et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

June 6, 1908.

1. PLEADING—DEMURRER—ADMISSIONS.

A demurrer to a bill admits all the allegations of fact well pleaded, but does not admit the legal conclusions of the pleader.

2. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW—LEGISLATIVE POWER —OFFICIAL FEES.

The general power to fix official fees is legislative in its character.

3. SAME—DELEGATION OF LEGISLATIVE POWER.

Rev. St. 1899, §§ 7654, 7657-7660, 7662, 7665, 7670, 7673, 7674 (Ann. St. 1906, pp. 3663-3665, 3667), and Laws 1907, p. 285, authorizing the Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners to establish state inspection of grain, with power to fix charges for such inspection, which charges shall be regulated in such manner as will produce sufficient revenue to meet the necessary expenses of inspection and no more, etc., are not unconstitutional as delegating legislative power to fix official fees.

4. SAME—"LEGISLATIVE POWER"—"LAW"— "RULE"—"PRESCRIBED."

"Legislative power," within Const. art. 4, § 1 (Ann. St. 1906, p. 175), providing that the legislative power shall be vested in the General Assembly, is the power to make laws; a "law" is a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power of a state; a "rule" is distinguished from whim, caprice, compact, agreement, or discretion, and "prescribed" means that the rule shall be manifested and published, so as to be known as a rule of civil conduct.

5. SAME—DELEGATION OF LEGISLATIVE POWER —STATUTES—VALIDITY.

Laws 1907, p. 285, authorizing the Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners to establish state inspection of grain, "at such places or in such territory * * * as in their opinion may be necessary," declaring that all buildings, elevators, or warehouses, located in any territory wherever state grain inspection may be established, shall be public warehouses, and all grain arriving in any territory "where state grain inspection may be established" shall be inspected, etc., is invalid as a delegation to the commissioners of legislative power to determine where and when the law shall be in force.

6. SAME — POLICE POWER — REGULATION OF QUASI PUBLIC BUSINESS.

The Legislature has the right, by the exercise of its police power, to regulate business and property devoted to a quasi public use.

7. SAME—DELEGATION OF LEGISLATIVE POWER.

The Legislature, though it cannot delegate its power to make a law, may delegate a power to determine some fact or state of things on which the law makes its own action depend.

8. EQUITY—GROUNDS—IRREPARABLE INJURY— MULTIPLICITY OF SUITS.

The danger of irreparable injury resulting from the fact that the wrongdoer has insufficient means to respond in damages and the danger of multiplicity of suits furnish grounds for jurisdiction by a court of equity.

9. INJUNCTION — GROUNDS—MULTIPLICITY OF SUITS.

A bill in equity to restrain the Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners from enforcing the grain inspection laws (Rev. St. 1899, § 7654 et seq. [Ann. St. 1906, p. 3663] and Laws 1907, p. 285), which alleges that the commissioners and employés are about to bring vexatious and expensive suits to enforce such laws, does not authorize the granting of relief in equity, on the ground of the danger of multiplicity of suits, since the statutes provide for criminal prosecutions only; there being no provision making it the duty of the commissioners or employés to bring civil suits.

10. SAME—DESTRUCTION OF BUSINESS.

A bill to restrain the Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners and employés from enforcing the grain inspection laws, which alleges that plaintiffs are engaged in the business of grain weighing and certification; that the business has been built up by them during a period of years; that their grain markets would be ruined, in ways pointed out, by the enforcement of the statutes, which they allege are unconstitutional —authorizes, as against a demurrer, relief in equity to prevent irreparable injury.

11. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW—POLICE POWER.

The police power must be exercised through a valid law.

12. STATES—ACTIONS AGAINST—OFFICERS.

A suit to restrain the Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners and employés from enforcing the grain inspection laws, on the ground that such statutes are unconstitutional, is not a suit against the state, for the commissioners and employés are ministerial officers only, and may be controlled by equity.

In Banc. Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Daniel G. Taylor, Judge.

Action by the Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis and others against John A. Knott and others, members constituting the Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners and others. From a judgment granting the relief prayed for on overruling a demurrer to the bill, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

The Attorney General and John Kennish, for appellants. Robert F. Walker, Judson & Green, Frank Hagerman, and Kimbrough Stone, for respondents.

LAMM, J.

Defendants stood on their demurrer to plaintiffs' bill, having for its life injunctive relief. Standing mute, and refusing to plead further, they appeal from a judgment nisi, overruling such demurrer and making perpetual a temporary injunction theretofore granted.

The demurrer challenges the bill, in that it fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, fails to state facts entitling plaintiffs to the relief prayed for, or to any relief, and shows on its face an adequate remedy at law. The bill is an elaborate pleading, developing in logical order, in more or less interdependent paragraphs, and delivering divers attacks upon the constitutionality of the grain-weighing and grain-inspecting laws in force in this state, to wit, sections 7654, 7657, 7659, 7660, 7662, 7665, 7670, 7673, 7674, art. 3, c. 117, Rev. St. 1899 (Ann. St. 1906, pp. 3663-3665, 3667), and an elaborate statute ordaining state inspection and weighing of grain, enacted by the General Assembly in 1907 (Laws 1907, pp. 285-298, et seq.), repealing all of article 3, supra, saving the sections above, and enacting 47 new sections, bearing, seriatim, the same numbers as those repealed. As the demurrer admits all allegations of fact well pleaded in the bill, but not those, in effect, legal conclusions of the pleader, we shall set down with particularity the allegations of fact and the grounds of alleged unconstitutionality.

The bill, in substance, alleged:

(1) That plaintiff, the Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis, is a domestic corporation doing business in the city of St. Louis and state of Missouri, and as such is entitled to sue and be sued, complain and defend in the courts. That it was created to promote the commercial and manufacturing interests of said city and vicinity, to inculcate just principles of trading, to establish and maintain fairness and uniformity in commercial usages, to acquire, preserve, and disseminate valuable information, to avoid and adjust controversies between traders, and facilitate the transaction of legitimate business between its members and between them and others, and is authorized to further the foregoing ends by adopting needful rules and by-laws. That as such corporation it is in active existence in the city of St. Louis.

(2) That plaintiff Cochran is a member of said Exchange, and is chairman of its department of weights, a department organized under the rules of the Exchange to secure correct weighing, and methods of weighing of property handled by the Exchange and by others requesting such service, and that said Cochran is actively engaged in that business. To that end he has a large number of assistants engaged in the correct weighing of grain handled by members of the Exchange as receivers or shippers; that said members are 500 or more, practically all the persons engaged in the grain trade in St. Louis.

(3) That plaintiff the Board of Trade of Kansas City is a voluntary association organized and controlled by dealers in grain and grain commission merchants in Kansas City, Mo., of a membership of about 200, having the plaintiffs Broadnax and Bigelow as president and secretary, respectively, who, in turn, have authority to sue in the name of said association for its members. That its members constitute practically all such dealers and brokers in Kansas City, and it has also established a department of weights, under its rules, for the purpose of securing correct weighing and methods of weighing of grain handled by its members and others requesting such service.

(4) That defendants Knott, Wightman, and Oglesby constitute the Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners of this state, having supervision of the inspection and weighing of grain into and out of public elevators in the state of Missouri, and having power to appoint a chief inspector of grain to act as such under said board. That defendant Nunn was by it appointed chief inspector, and is exercising duties as such in Kansas City. That Nunn has power to appoint deputy chief inspectors of grain, and under that authority appointed the defendant Miller as such, who has charge of the office of said board in St. Louis, and is engaged in the general supervision of the inspection and weighing of grain in said city.

(5) That said departments of weights of said Exchange and Board of Trade have, for a number of years, severally supervised the weighing of grain received in and shipped from said cities, which system of supervision has become vital to the commercial transactions therein, increasing the grain trade thereof, and increasing the reputation of the markets thereof for correct weighing and fair dealing, over a wide section of country, inclusive of all sources of grain shipments to said markets in Missouri and in the surrounding states. That by reason of said cities being on the boundaries of Missouri, a large part of the grain dealt in as aforesaid is stored in elevators in Illinois and Kansas, where, by reason of comity existing between the legal departments of Kansas...