Luxton v. North River Bridge Co

• Citation: 14 S.Ct. 891,153 U.S. 525,38 L.Ed. 808
• Decision Date: 14 May 1894
• Docket Number: No. 1,040,1,040
• Parties: LUXTON v. NORTH RIVER BRIDGE CO
• Court: United States Supreme Court

153 U.S. 525

14 S.Ct. 891

38 L.Ed. 808

LUXTON

v NORTH RIVER BRIDGE CO.

No. 1,040.

May 14, 1894.

[Statement of Case from pages 525-528 intentionally omitted] Gilbert Collins, for plaintiff in error.

Jos. D. Bedle, for defendant in error.

J. M. Vale filed a brief in behalf of John C. Crevier, by leave of court.

Mr. Justice GRAY, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

The validity of the act of congress incorporating the North River Bridge Company rests upon principles of constitutional law, now established beyond dispute.

The congress of the United States, being empowered by the constitution to regulate commerce among the several states, and to pass all laws necessary or proper for carrying into execution any of the powers specificially conferred, may make use of any appropriate means for this end. As said by Chief Justice Marshall: 'The power of creating a corporation, though appertaining to sovereignty, is not, like the power of making war, or levying taxes, or of regulating commerce, a great substantive and independent power, which cannot be implied as incidental to other powers, or used as a means of executing them. It is never the end for which other powers are exercised, but a means by which other objects are accomplished.' Congress, therefore, may create corporations as appropriate means of executing the powers of government, as, for instance, a bank for the purpose of carrying on the fiscal operations of the United States, or a railroad corporation for the purpose of promoting commerce among the states. McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 411, 422; Osborn v. Bank, 9 Wheat. 738, 861, 873; Pacific Railroad Removal Cases, 115 U. S. 1, 18, 5 Sup. Ct. 1113; California v. Central Pac. R. Co., 127 U. S. 1, 39, 8 Sup. Ct. 1073. Congress has likewise the power, exercised early in this century by successive acts in the case of the Cumberland or National road from the Potomac across the Alleghenies to the Ohio, to authorize the construction of a public highway connecting several states. See Indiana v. U. S., 148 U. S. 148, 13 Sup. Ct. 564. And whenever it becomes necessary, for the accomplishment of any object within the authority of congress, to exercise the right of eminent domain, and take private lands, making just compensation to the owners, congress may do this with or without a concurrent act of the state in which the lands lie. Van Brocklin v. Tennessee, 117 U. S. 151, 154, 6 Sup. Ct. 670, and cases cited; Cherokee Nation v. Southern Kansas Ry. Co., 135 U. S. 641, 656, 10 Sup. Ct. 965.

From these premises, the conclusion appears to be inevitable that, although congress may, if it sees fit, and as it has often done, recognize and approve bridges erected by authority of two states across navigable waters between them, it may, at its discretion, use its sovereign powers, directly or through a corporation created for that object, to construct bridges for the accommodation of interstate commerce by land, as it undoubtedly may to improve the navigation of rivers for the convenience of interstate commerce by water. 1 Hare, Const. Law, 248, 249. See acts of July 14, 1862, c. 167 (12 Stat. 569); February 17, 1865, c. 38 (13 Stat. 431); July 25, 1866, c. 246 (14 Stat. 244); March 3, 1871, c. 121, § 5 (16 Stat. 572, 573); June 16, 1886, c. 417 (24 Stat. 78).

The judicial opinions cited in support of the opposite view are not, having regard to the facts of the cases in which they were uttered, of controlling weight.

Mr. Justice McLean, indeed, in an opinion delivered by him in the circuit court, by which a bill by the United States to restrain the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi river was dismissed, no injury to property of the United States and no substantial obstruction to navigation being shown, and there having been no legislation by congress upon the subject, took occasion to remark that 'neither under the commercial power nor under the power to establish post roads can congress construct a bridge over a navigable water;' that, 'if congress can construct a bridge over a navigable water, under the power to regulate commerce or to establish post roads, on the same principle it may make turnpike or railroads throughout the entire country;' and that 'the latter power has generally been considered as exhausted in the designation of roads on which the mails are to be transported, and the former by the regulation of commerce upon the high seas and upon our rivers and lakes.' U. S. v. Railroad Bridge Co., 6 McLean, 517, 524, 525, Fed. Cas. No. 16,114.

The same learned justice repeated and enlarged upon that idea in his dissenting opinion in Pennsylvania v. Wheeling & B. Bridge Co., 18 How. 421, 442, 443, where, after the Wheeling bridge, constructed across the Ohio river under an act of the state of Virginia, had by a decree of this court, at the suit of the state of Pennsylvania, been declared to be, in its then condition, an unlawful obstruction of the navigation of the river, and in conflict with the acts of congress regulating such navigation, and therefore ordered to be elevated or abated, congress passed an act declaring the bridge to be a lawful structure in its then position and elevation, establishing it as a post road for the passage of the mails of the United States, authorizing the corporation to have and maintain the bridge at that site and elevation, and requiring the captain and crews of all vessels and boats navigating the river to regulate the use thereof, and of any pipes or chimneys belonging thereto, so as not to interfere with the elevation and construction of the bridge. Act Aug. 31, 1852, c. 111, §§ 6, 7 (10 Stat. 112).

But the majority of this court in that case held that 'the act of congress afforded full authority to the defendants to reconstruct the bridge.' 18 How. 436. Mr. Justice Nelson, in delivering its opinion, said: 'We do not enter upon the question whether or not congress possess the power, under the authority in the constitution to establish post offices and post roads, to legalize this bridge; for, conceding that no such powers can be derived from this clause, it must be admitted that it is, at least, necessarily included in the power conferred to regulate commerce among the several states. The regulation of commerce includes intercourse and navigation, and, of course, the power to determine what shall or shall not be deemed, in judgment of law, an obstruction...