State of Georgia v. Pennsylvania Co

• Decision Date: 26 March 1945
• Docket Number: No. 11,O,11
• Citation: 65 S.Ct. 716,89 L.Ed. 1051,324 U.S. 439
• Parties: STATE OF GEORGIA v. PENNSYLVANIA R. CO. et al. riginal
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

324 U.S. 439

65 S.Ct. 716

89 L.Ed. 1051

STATE OF GEORGIA

v PENNSYLVANIA R. CO. et al.

No. 11, Original.

Argued and Submitted on Rules and Returns Jan. 2, 1945.

Decided March 26, 1945.

Rehearing Denied April 23, 1945.

See 324 U.S. 890, 65 S.Ct. 1018.

[Syllabus from pages 439-441 intentionally omitted] Mr. John Dickinson, of Philadelphia, Pa., for Pennsylvania R. Co. et al.

Mr. George S. Leisure, of New York City, for Chesapeake & O. Ry. Co. et al.

Mr. Sidney S. Alderman, of Washington, D.C., for Southern Ry. Co. et al.

Mr. Ellis Arnall, of Atlanta, Ga., for State of Georgia.

Mr. W.R.C. Cocke, of Norfolk, Va., for Seaboard Air Line Ry. Co.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The State of Georgia by this motion for leave to file a bill of complaint¹ seeks to invoke the original jurisdiction of this Court under Art. III, Sec. 2 of the Constitution. See Judicial Code § 233, 28 U.S.C. § 341, 28 U.S.C.A. § 341. The defendants are some twenty railroad companies. On November 6, 1944, we issued a rule to show cause why Georgia should not be permitted to filed its bill of complaint. Returns to the rule have been made and oral argument had.

Georgia sues in four capacities only two of which we need mention: (1) In her capacity as a quasi-sovereign or as agent and protector of her people against a continuing wrong done to them; and (2) in her capacity as a proprietor to redress wrongs suffered by the State as the owner of a railroad and as the owner and operator of various institutions of the State.

The essence of the complaint is a charge of a conspiracy among the defendants in restraint of trade and commerce among the States. It alleges that they have fixed arbitrary and noncompetitive rates and charges for transportation of freight by railroad to and from Georgia so as to prefer the ports of other States over the ports of Georgia. It charges that some sixty rate bureaus, committees, conferences, associations and other private rate-fixing agencies have been utilized by defendants to fix these rates; that no road can change joint through rates without the approval of these private agencies; that this private rate-fixing machinery which is not sanctioned by the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq., and which is prohibited by the anti-trust Acts has put the effective control of rates to and from Georgia in the hands of the defendants. The complaint alleges that these practices in purpose and effect give manufacturers, sellers and other shippers in the North an advantage over manufacturers, shippers and others in Georgia. It alleges that the rates so fixed are approximately 39 per cent higher than the rates and charges for transportation of like commodities for like distances between points in the North. It alleges that the defendants who have lines wholly or principally in the South are generally dominated and coerced by the defendants who have northern roads and therefore that even when the southern defendants desire, they cannot publish joint through rates between Georgia and the North when the northern carriers refuse to join in such rates.

It is alleged that the rates as a result of the conspiracy are so fixed as

'(a) to deny to many of Georgia's products equal access with those of other States to the national market;

'(b) to limit in a general way the Georgia economy to staple agricultural products, to restrict and curtail opportunity in manufacturing, shipping and commerce, and to prevent the full and complete utilization of the natural wealth of the State;

'(c) to frustrate and counteract the measures taken by the State to promote a well-rounded agricultural program, encourage manufacture and shipping, provide full employment, and promote the general progress and welfare of its people; and

'(d) to hold the Georgia economy in a state of arrested development.'

The complaint alleges that the defendants are not citizens of Georgia; that Georgia is without remedy in her own courts, as the defendants are outside her jurisdiction; that she has no administrative remedy, the Interstate Commerce Commission having no power to afford relief against such a conspiracy; that the issues presented constitute a justiciable question.

The prayer is for damages and for injunctive relief.

We will return later to the cause of action which Georgia seeks to allege. It is sufficient at this point to say that for purposes of this motion for leave to file we construe the allegation that defendants have conspired to fix the rates so as to 'prefer' the ports of other States over the ports of Georgia as a charge that defendants have conspired to fix rates so as to discriminate against Georgia. And we construe the allegation that the southern defendants are dominated and coerced by the northern roads and cannot publish joint through rates when the northern roads refuse to join as a charge that the northern roads use coercion on the southern roads in the fixing of joint through rates.

Defendants in their returns pray that the motion for leave to file be denied on three grounds: (1) That the complaint presents no justiciable controversy; (2) that the complaint fails to state a cause of action; and (3) that two of the defendants are citizens of Georgia. Leave to file should of course be denied if it is plain that no relief may be granted in the exercise of the original jurisdiction of this Court. See State of Alabama v. Arizona, 291 U.S. 286, 291, 292, 54 S.Ct. 399, 401, 402, 78 L.Ed. 798; State of Arizona v. California, 298 U.S. 558, 572, 56 S.Ct. 848, 855, 80 L.Ed. 1331.

Justiciable Controversy. It is said that the bill does not set forth a justiciable controversy within the rule of Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447, 43 S.Ct. 597, 67 L.Ed. 1078, and State of Florida v. Mellon, 273 U.S. 12, 47 S.Ct. 265, 71 L.Ed. 511. We take the other view, for we are of the opinion that Georgia as parens patriae and as proprietor of various institutions asserts a claim within judicial cognizance. The complaint of Georgia in those respects is not of a political or governmental character. There is involved no question of distribution of powers between the State and the national government as in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Mellon and in State of Florida v. Mellon, supra. And, as we shall de- velop more fully when we turn to a consideration of the assertion that no cause of action has been stated, we are not asked to resolve a dispute which has been withdrawn from the judiciary or which by the charter of our government has been reposed in departments other than the judiciary. Cf. Coleman v. Miller, 307 U.S. 433, 456, 460, 59 S.Ct. 972, 983, 985, 83 L.Ed. 1385, 122 A.L.R. 695. The complaint alleges a conspiracy to restrain trade and commerce through the fixing of rates. The history of restraints of trade makes it plain that these problems present judicial questions with which courts have long dealt.²

It is of course true that Georgia does not have a right to invoke the original jurisdiction of the Court merely because there may be involved a judicial question. It is not enough that a State is plaintiff. The original jurisdiction is confined to civil suits where damage has been inflicted or is threatened not to the enforcement of penal statutes of a State. State of Wisconsin v. Pelican Ins. Co., 127 U.S. 265, 297-300, 8 S.Ct. 1370, 1377—1379, 32 L.Ed. 239. And though the suit is civil, leave to file will be denied where it appears that the suit brought in the name of the State is in reality for the benefit of particular individuals. State of Oklahoma v. Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co., 220 U.S. 277, 31 S.Ct. 434, 55 L.Ed. 465; State of Oklahoma v. Cook, 304 U.S. 387, 58 S.Ct. 954, 82 L.Ed. 1416; Jones v. Bowles, 322 U.S. 707, 64 S.Ct. 1043. Moreover, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Mellon and State of Florida v. Mellon, supra, make plain that the United States not the State represents the citizens as parens patriae in their relations to the federal government.

The present controversy, however, does not fall within any of those categories. This is a civil not a criminal proceeding. Nor is this a situation where the United States rather than Georgia stands as parens patriae to the citizens of Georgia. This is not a suit like those in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Mellon, and State of Florida v. Mellon, supra, where a State sought to protect her citizens from the operation of federal statutes. Here Georgia asserts rights based on the anti-trust laws. The fact that the United States may bring criminal prosecutions or suits for injunctions under those laws does not mean that Georgia may not maintain the present suit. As we have seen Georgia sues as a proprietor to redress wrongs suffered by it as the owner of a railroad and as the owner and operator of various public institutions. Georiga, suing for her own injuries, is a 'person' within the meaning of § 16 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 26; she is authorized to maintain suits to restrain violations of the anti-trust laws or to recover damages by reason thereof. State of Georgia v. Evans, 316 U.S. 159, 62 S.Ct. 972, 86 L.Ed. 1346. But Georgia is not confined to suits designed to protect only her proprietary interests. The rights which Georgia asserts, parens patriae, are those arising from an alleged conspiracy of private persons whose price-fixing scheme, it is said, has injured the economy of Georgia. Those rights are of course based on federal laws. The enforcement of the criminal sanctions of these acts has been entrusted exclusively to the federal government. See State of Georgia v. Evans, supra, 316 U.S. at page 162, 62 S.Ct. at page 974, 86 L.Ed. 1346. But when it came to other sanctions Congress followed a different course and authorized civil suits not only by the United States but by other persons as well. And we find no indication that, when Congress fashioned those civil remedies, it restricted the States to suits to protect...