Erie Railroad v. Albert Purdy

• Decision Date: 07 April 1902
• Docket Number: No. 171,171
• Citation: 185 U.S. 148,46 L.Ed. 847,22 S.Ct. 605
• Parties: ERIE RAILROAD, Plff. in Err. , v. ALBERT L. PURDY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

185 U.S. 148

22 S.Ct. 605

46 L.Ed. 847

ERIE RAILROAD, Plff. in Err.,

v ALBERT L. PURDY.

No. 171.

Argued and Submitted March 6, 1902.

Decided April 7, 1902.

Mr. Adelbert Moot for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Clarence A. Farnum and Albert L. Purdy in propria persona for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the court:

Twenty-one actions were brought by Purdy against the Erie Railroad Company, a corporation of New York, to recover penalties under what is known as the mileage book act of that state, being chapter 1027 of the laws of 1895, which took effect June 15th, 1895, as amended by chapter 835 of the Laws of 1896, which took effect May 22d, 1896.

The complaint and answer in each case were the same.

Each answer alleged 'upon information and belief that the said act, known as chapter 835 of the Laws of 1896, is unconstitutional and void because it is in violation of the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, which commit to Congress the sole power to regulate commerce between the several states; and that it is unconstitutional and void because it is in violation of various other provisions of the Constitution of the United States and of the Constitution of the state of New York.'

This was the only reference, special or general, in the answers, to the Constitution of the United States.

The twenty-one actions were consolidated into one action, subject to the plaintiff's right to recover in each one as if they had been separately tried.

At the conclusion of the evidence in behalf of the plaintiff, the railroad company moved for a nonsuit in each action upon various grounds, the only one that can be regarded as specially setting up or claiming a Federal right or immunity being the fifth, which stated that if the state legislation under which the defendant sought to recover penalties was intended to apply to the railway lines of defendant, the acts of the legislature were void 'because they undertake to interfere with or regulate commerce among the states and the acts of Congress in such case made and provided.'

It was not assigned as a ground of nonsuit that the statute in question was in violation 'of various other provisions of the Constitution of the United States.' Apparently that ground of defense was abandoned at the trial.

The trial court granted the motion for nonsuit in the last eleven cases, and directed a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $50 each in the first ten cases, and ordered that the exceptions of each party be heard in the appellate division in the first instance, all proceedings in the meantime being stayed.

In the appellate division the exceptions of the railroad company were overruled and judgment was ordered for the plaintiff, with costs, and that judgment was affirmed in the court of appeals of New York. Purdy v. Erie R. Co. 162 N. Y. 42, 50, 51, 48, L. R. A. 669, 672, 56 N. E. 508, 510.

That court, speaking by Judge Cullen, said: 'At the opening of the trial the defendant moved to dismiss the complaint because it failed to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action for a penalty. No particular ground for the attack on the complaint is stated. At the close of the evidence the defendant renewed its motion to dismiss the complaint, but the sole ground on which it assailed the validity of the statute itself was that it constituted an interference with the regulation of interstate commerce, and hence was in violation of the Constitution of the United States. The objection that the statute was an invasion of the defendant's property rights, and contravened for that reason either the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of this state, does not anywhere appear in the record, and the rule seems settled that such an objection, to be available here, must have been raised in the courts below. Vose v. Cockcroft, 44 N. Y. 415; Delaney v. Brett, 51 N. Y. 78.'

Again: 'The objection that the statutes of 1895 and 1896 are regulations of interstate commerce, and hence in conflict with the Federal Constitution, is satisfactorily dealt with in the very clear opinion of Mr. Justice Merwin, of the appellate division, delivered in the Beardsley Case, 15 App. Div. 251, 44 N. Y. Supp. 175. That such a statute, if limited in its scope to transportation wholly within the limits of the state, is a valid exercise of state authority, is settled by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Stone v. Farmers' Loan & T. Co. 116 U. S. 307, 29 L. ed. 636, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 334, 388, 1191, where it was said: 'It (the state) may, beyond all question, by the settled rule of decision in this court, regulate freights and fares for business done exclusively within the state.' This doctrine has never been overruled or limited; on the contrary, it is fully recognized in the later cases. Hennington v. Georgia, 163 U. S. 299, 41 L. ed. 166, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1086; Western U. Teleg. Co. v. James, 162 U. S. 650, 40 L. ed. 1105, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 934; Lake Shore & M. S. R. Co. v. Ohio, 173 U. S. 285, 43 L. ed. 702, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 465. In Wabash, St. L. & P. R. Co. v. Illinois, 118 U. S. 557, 30 L. ed. 244, 1 Inters. Com. Rep. 31, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 4, a statute of Illinois regulating fares was held void solely on the ground that the act, as interpreted by the supreme court of the state, included cases of transportation partly within and partly without the state. It was there stated: 'If the Illinois statute could be construed to apply exclusively to contracts for a carriage which begins and ends within the state, disconnected from a continuous transpor- tation through or into other states, there does not seem to be any difficulty in holding it to be valid.' There is nothing in the language of the statutes now before us that shows they were intended to affect any but intrastate transportation; but if their interpretation be doubtful 'the courts must so construe a statute as to bring it within the constitutional limits, if it is susceptible of such construction.' Sage v. Brooklyn, 89 N. Y. 189; People ex rel. Sinkler v. Terry, 108 N. Y. 1, 14 N. E. 815. Within this principle, these statutes must be construed as applying to transportation wholly within the state, and so construed they do not infringe upon the Constitution of the United States.'

In a petition for the allowance of a writ of error from this court, the railroad company for the first time expressly referred to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States as affording it protection against the statute of New York. The same ground was repeated in the assignments of error for this court.

We are asked to determine whether the judgment of the court of appeals of New York affirming the judgment of the supreme court of the state did not deny to the railroad company a right or immunity secured to it by that clause of the 14th Amendment declaring that no state shall deprive any person of property without due process of law, or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

This question cannot be determined by this court unless it has jurisdiction to review such final judgment of the court of appeals of the state.

The statute defining the authority of this court to re-examine the final judgment of the highest court of a state gives it jurisdiction 'where is drawn in question the validity of a statute of, or an authority exercised under, any state, on the ground of their being repugnant to the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, and the decision is in...