Pittsburgh Coal Co v. State of Louisiana Charity Hospital of New Orleans, 10

• Decision Date: 04 March 1895
• Docket Number: No. 10,10
• Citation: 39 L.Ed. 544,156 U.S. 590,15 S.Ct. 459
• Parties: PITTSBURGH & S. COAL CO. v. STATE OF LOUISIANA to Use of CHARITY HOSPITAL OF NEW ORLEANS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

156 U.S. 590

15 S.Ct. 459

39 L.Ed. 544

PITTSBURGH & S. COAL CO.

v STATE OF LOUISIANA to Use of CHARITY HOSPITAL OF NEW ORLEANS.

No. 10.

March 4, 1895.

In 1888 the legislature of Louisiana passed an act for the appointment of two coal and coke boat gaugers, to fix their compensation, and define their duties. It provided that they should be appointed by the governor of the state, with the approval and consent of the senate, to hold their offices in the city of New Orleans, with a proviso that the governor should have the power to remove any one of them upon satisfactory proof to him of negligence and official misconduct. The act further provided that each of the gaugers should give a bond payable to the governor, or his successor in office, with two sufficient sureties, in the penal sum of $5,000, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties. The act declared that it should be the duty of the gaugers, when called upon for that purpose, to gauge any coal or coke boat or barge in the port of New Orleans or the state of Louisiana; that such gauging should consist in reducing the length, breadth, and depth, inside measurement, of boats or barges, deducting all obstructions and displacements, into cubic inches, and dividing the cubic inches by 2,688, thus ascertaining the net measurement in bushels; and that two bushels and six-tenths of a bushel should constitute a barrel; that in all cases it should be the duty of the gaugers, or either of them, to respond promptly to any call made for their or either of their services, and to furnish a full and detailed certificate of the gross measurement of the boat or barge gauged and the allowance for obstructions or displacements; that the fee for gauging or regauging should be $10 for each boat, and $5 for each barge, to be paid by the seller, except as subsequently provided; that the purchaser of any boat or barge of coal or coke should have the privilege of calling upon the said gauger or gaugers to regauge boats or barges, in all cases where the original gauge was not satisfactory, and such regauge should be adopted as the correct measure; that, if the original gauge should be found to be correct, then the purchaser should pay the fee for regauging; but, if the regauge should show a less measure, then the seller should pay the fee.

The law also declared that no boat load of coal or coke should be sold in the city or state until it had been inspected, as provided for in the act, and that any person who should sell a boat load of coal or coke that had not been gauged as required should be liable to a penalty of $50 for each boat or barge thus sold, to be recovered, with costs of suit, in any court of competent jurisdiction, for the benefit of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans.

The term of office of said gaugers was made four years, the act to take effect from its passage.

The present action was brought by the state of Louisiana against the Pittsburgh & Southern Coal Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Pennsylvania, and domiciled in the city of Pittsburgh, of that state, in which it was a citizen, to recover the penalty of $50 for selling in New Orleans one boat of coal in violation of section 8 of the act. It was commenced in the First city court of New Orleans by the attorney general of the state, for the use of the Charity Hospital of the city.

The defendant appeared by counsel, and answered, alleging, besides, that it was a corporation under the laws of Pennsyl- vania, and domiciled in the city of Pittsburgh in that state, and a citizen thereof; that its business was that of coal mining, buying and selling coal and coke; that coal and coke were the products of the state of Pennsylvania, and were by respondent loaded in boats and barges on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and navigated down to the South on those rivers, and sold to purchasers along the banks thereof and of their various southern tributaries; that it every year sends down the Mississippi river, a navigable river of the United States, a number of barges and boats with cargoes of coal, and moors the same in the river, retaining them, as the property of the respondent, in the vessels in which they are brought down the rivers to the city of New Orleans and other points, and holds the same until they are sold to its customers, which is the object with which the boats and barges are loaded and navigated from the state of Pennsylvania to the state of Louisiana and other states, the vessels always remaining on the navigable waters of the United States and sold thereon.

Respondent averred that the demand herein made was by virtue of Act No. 147 of the Acts of 1888 of the state of Louisiana; and that the coal boat No. 1098, for selling which a penalty of $50 was claimed, had been gauged by gaugers employed by the respondent; and that the boat, at the time of sale, was upon the Mississippi river, a navigable stream of the United States, within the jurisdiction of the United States, and the measurement thereof made by the gaugers was in accordance with section 4 of the act; and that the firm of W. G. Coyle & Co., to whom the boat of coal and coke had been sold, were satisfied with the measurement, and desired no further measurement thereof, and no certificate of the amount of coal therein; and that the price was agreed on between the respondent and W. G. Coyle & Co., and any further gauging of the boat and coal was totally unnecessary, uncalled for, and would have been productive of no good or benefit to anybody.

Respondent further averred that the coal boat No. 1098 was laden with a cargo of coal which was mined in Pennsylvania, and was by the respondent navigated down the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers to a point or place thereon within the boundaries of the state of Louisiana, for the purpose of selling the vessel and cargo upon the river, in pursuance of the trade or commerce which is carried on by respondent thereon, and within the body of the various states through which it flows between Pennsylvania and the Gulf of Mexico.

The respondent further averred that Act No. 147 of 1888, making the gauging of the boat compulsory, and exacting $10 on each boat sold in Louisiana, under which the attorney general, in the name of the state, proceeded, was contrary to the constitution of the state of Louisiana, and void upon various grounds, four of which were based upon the alleged repugnance of the act to certain provisions of the constitution of the state. These were not considered, as they were deemed immaterial to the disposition of the case. The other grounds were as follows:

(1) That it was in violation of section 10 of article 10 of the constitution of the United States, in that it impaired the obligation of a contract, in this: that respondent had paid to the state of Louisiana the sum of $250 as a license for permission to carry on its business of selling coal and coke within the state; that the $250 being accepted by the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, and a license issued to the respondent thereunder, the same constituted a contract between the respondent and the state and the city, which has also issued a license to the respondent in payment of the sum, giving to them the right to sell coal and coke in the city and state during the year 1888, without further opposition or hindrance or imposition of any charge or claim or impost on the part of the state or city; that the license was obtained and granted by the state and the city prior to the passage of Act No. 147 of the regular session of 1888.

(2) That it was in violation of section 10 of article 1 of the constitution of the United States, in that it seeks to lay an impost or duty on imports in the state of Louisiana from the state of Pennsylvania, which was not necessary for the execution of any inspection law.

(3) That it was in violation of the fifth amendment to the constitution of the United States.

(4) That it was in violation of section 1 of the fourteenth amendment of the constitution of the United States.

(5) That it was in violation of section 8 of article 1 of the constitution of the United States, in that it was a regulation of commerce among the serveral states, and it sought to regulate upon the Mississippi river the sale of the vessels and coal of respondent, which are the subjects of commerce and trade carried on by the respondent on the river between the state of Pennsylvania and other states of the Union and foreign countries.

The respondent averred that the act was repugnant to the provisions of the constitution of the United States and the laws thereof, in that it was a discrimination against imports brought into the state of Louisiana, in boats upon the navigable waters of the United States in favor of those brought in by land to the state, in that it subjected the one to the payment of duties, imposts, and exactions set forth in the act which were not imposed upon those brought in by land.

Respondent averred:...