Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. State

• Decision Date: 19 November 1918
• Docket Number: 8752.
• Citation: 176 P. 393,71 Okla. 167,1918 OK 641
• Parties: ATCHISON, T. & S. F. RY. CO. et al. v. STATE et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

176 P. 393

71 Okla. 167, 1918 OK 641

ATCHISON, T. & S. F. RY. CO. et al. v. STATE et al.

No. 8752.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

November 19, 1918

Syllabus by the Court.

The Corporation Commission is vested with authority to require all reasonable and proper facilities to be furnished by a railroad company, such as Pullman cars, and the fact that an order of the commission requiring such facilities may incidentally affect interstate commerce does not render the order a nullity; but where a railroad company has furnished all proper and reasonable facilities of the character required by the order, the commission has not the power to require the furnishing of additional facilities, where its order will interfere with interstate commerce.

What is or is not reasonable and adequate facilities or service to be furnished by a railroad company must be determined in the light of conditions existing at the time and in relation to all surrounding circumstances.

Where reasonable and adequate Pullman service has been furnished by a railroad company to accommodate all intrastate traffic between two points within this state, an order which requires additional Pullman service between said points is unreasonable, when such additional service can only be furnished at a loss to the railroad company.

The order in the instant case held to be unreasonable under the circumstances.

Appeal from Corporation Commission.

Proceeding by the State of Oklahoma and others against the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fé Railway Company and the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé Railway Company. From an order of the Corporation Commission, requiring them to operate a Pullman car between certain stations on certain trains to determine whether the revenue therefrom would be remunerative, the respondents appeal. Order reversed.

J. R Cottingham and S.W. Hayes, both of Oklahoma City, for appellants.

Paul Walker, of Oklahoma City, for defendants in error.

HARDY J.

Appellants own a line of railway extending through the state between Oklahoma City and Ardmore, and to points outside the state, both north and south, over which it operates three passenger trains per day, two of which, both north and south bound, pass through the points named during the daytime. One train, hereinafter referred to as No. 405, leaves Oklahoma City for the south at 12:01 at night, and one north-bound train, referred to as No. 406, arrives at Ardmore at 12:30 at night. No. 405 carries regularly, between Oklahoma City and Ardmore, and to points beyond in the state of Texas, terminating at Cleburne, Tex., two Pullman cars, one of which is known as the Chicago-Cleburne Pullman, carried for the purpose of accommodating passengers between the two points and intervening points. The second is operated from Oklahoma City to Cleburne, and is known as the Oklahoma-Cleburne car. This latter Pullman is picked up by train No. 405 at Oklahoma City, and a like Pullman is carried by train No. 406 from Cleburne to Oklahoma City, arriving at Ardmore at 12:30 a. m. and at Oklahoma City at 4:21 a. m., where it is set out. Persons taking passage on train No. 405 at Oklahoma City may enter the Pullman at 9 o'clock p. m., and desiring to disembark at Ardmore are required to get up at 3:58 a. m. Passengers coming from Ardmore to Oklahoma City can embark on the Pullman at 12:30 a. m., and remain therein until 7 o'clock a. m., after arrival at Oklahoma City.

A number of residents of the various towns on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company, between Ardmore and Hugo, and a number of citizens in the city of Ardmore, filed a complaint with the Corporation Commission, wherein they sought to procure an order requiring an extra Pullman to be attached to train No. 405, and carried to Ardmore, and set out to be picked up by the St. Louis & San Francisco passenger train, and carried over that line to Hugo, and for a Pullman to be attached to the train of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company leaving Hugo in the afternoon and arriving at Ardmore about 8 o'clock at night, to be picked up by train No. 406 of appellants and carried to Oklahoma City and there set out. The evidence in support of the complaint is all by residents of towns along the line of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company, and is largely based upon complaints that the passenger trains of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company do not carry sufficient coaches to accommodate the passengers traveling over that road, and that the Pullman car would furnish additional accommodations for said passengers. There were two hearings upon this complaint, the first hearing being continued to permit representatives of Ardmore to testify, but no witness from Ardmore to testify, but no witness from Ardmore testified to any necessity or demand for extra Pullman service. The commission ordered appellants to operate a Pullman car between Ardmore and Oklahoma City upon trains Nos. 405 and 406 until the 10th day of January, 1917, to determine whether the revenue from the operation thereof was remunerative, from which order appellants prosecute this appeal.

This order can be complied with only in one of two ways, either by stopping one of the through interstate cars now operated on their trains, or by attaching an additional Pullman to each of these two trains. The evidence conclusively shows that Pullman accommodations between Oklahoma City and Ardmore have at all times been adequate. Indeed, it appears that for a period of six months or more, about the first of the year 1916, vacant berths, both upper and lower, might be had at all times on any of the Pullmans operated on trains Nos. 405 and 406, between the two points, and no witness had testified that he ever applied for a berth and failed to obtain one. One witness testified that at one time he and a number of other persons applied for accommodations at Ardmore, and that...