251 U.S. 396 (1920), 38, Brooks-Scanlon Company v. Railroad Commission of Louisiana

• Citation: 251 U.S. 396, 40 S.Ct. 183, 64 L.Ed. 323
• Party Name: Brooks-Scanlon Company v. Railroad Commission of Louisiana
• Case Date: February 02, 1920
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

Page 396

251 U.S. 396 (1920)

40 S.Ct. 183, 64 L.Ed. 323

Brooks-Scanlon Company

v.

Railroad Commission of Louisiana

No. 38

United States Supreme Court

Feb. 2, 1920

Argued January 6, 1920

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA

Syllabus

A common carrier cannot, under the Fourteenth Amendment, be compelled by a state to continue operation of its railroad at a loss. P. 399.

Where a railroad serving the public is owned and operated by a lumber company in connection with its lumber business, it is the business of the railroad, and not the entire business of the company, which determines whether the railroad may be abandoned as unprofitable. Id.

A mere suggestion in the opinion of a state court, unsupported by evidence, cannot be taken as a finding of fact in determining the scope and ground of its decision. Id.

Nor can a statement that the court has not jurisdiction to consider relief claimed under the federal Constitution, because the plaintiff has not complied with formalities under the state law, be taken as placing the decision on a state ground when the court actually passes upon and denies the merits of plaintiff's claim, gives relief against plaintiff, and devotes its opinion almost entirely to explaining and justifying such course. P. 400.

Forms imposed by local law cannot enable court and commissions to do what the federal Constitution forbids. Id.

144 La. 1086 reversed.

The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 397

HOLMES, J., lead opinion

MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a suit by the Brooks-Scanlon Company, a Minnesota corporation organized to manufacture and deal in lumber and to carry on other incidental business, against the Railroad Commission of Louisiana. It seeks to set aside an order (Number 2228) of the Commission requiring the plaintiff, either directly or through arrangements made with the Kentwood and Eastern Railway Company, to operate its narrow gauge railroad between Kentwood and Hackley in Louisiana upon schedules and days to be approved by the Commission. The plaintiff alleges that the order cannot be complied with except at a loss of more than $1,500 a month, and that to compel compliance would deprive the plaintiff of its property without due process of law, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, with [40 S.Ct. 184] other objections not necessary to be mentioned here. The defendant denies the plaintiff's allegations, and, in reconvention, prays for an injunction against the tearing up or abandoning of the road and for a mandate upholding the order. In the court of first instance, a preliminary injunction was issued in favor of the Commission, but was dissolved upon bond. Subsequently a judgment was entered denying a motion of the Commission to set aside the order dissolving the injunction, and, after a trial on the merits, judgment was entered for the plaintiff declaring the order void. The defendant appealed from both judgments to the supreme court of the state. That court reversed the decision below and reinstated the injunction granted on the defendant's prayer.

Page 398

It seems that the Banner Lumber Company, a Louisiana corporation, formerly owned timber lands, sawmills, and this narrow gauge railroad. The road was primarily a logging road, but it may be assumed to have done business for third persons as a common carrier. The Banner Lumber Company sold the whole property to the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company...