Chicago, Milwaukee St Paul Railway Company v. State of Iowa

• Decision Date: 13 April 1914
• Docket Number: No. 176,176
• Citation: 58 L.Ed. 988,34 S.Ct. 592,233 U.S. 334
• Parties: CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE, & ST. PAUL RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF IOWA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

233 U.S. 334

34 S.Ct. 592

58 L.Ed. 988

CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE, & ST. PAUL RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v STATE OF IOWA.

No. 176.

Argued March 3, 1914.

Decided April 13, 1914.

Messrs. O. W. Dynes, C. S. Jefferson, and Burton Hanson for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 335-337 intentionally omitted] Mr. George Cosson, Attorney General of Iowa, and Mr. Henry E. Sampson for appellee.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 337-339 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Hughes delivered the opinion of the court:

This suit was brought by the state of Iowa to obtain a mandatory injunction requiring the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railway Company to comply with an order of the State Railroad Commission promulgated December 22, 1909. The defendant answered, denying the validity of the order, and also filed a cross petition to set it aside, alleging that it was repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, as an attempt to regulate interstate commerce and to deprive the company of its property without due process of law, and, further, that the Commission was without authority under the laws of the state to make the order. Judgment, sustaining the action of the Commission and directing compliance, was affirmed by the supreme court of the state. 152 Iowa, 317, 130 N. W. 802.

It appeared that the railway company, in 1909, had refused to accept shipments of coal in carload lots at Davenport, Iowa, for points in that state when tendered in cars of other railroad companies by which the coal had been brought to Davenport from points in Illinois. The railway company insisted that it was entitled to furnish its own cars. The Clark Coal & Coke Company, operating a branch at Davenport, complained of this rule to the Railroad Commission, stating that it was a departure from the practice which had obtained for several years with respect to such shipments, that the Clark Company paid all charges to Davenport, and on receiving orders from its customers tendered written billing for transportation from Davenport to the designated points, and that it was unreasonable for the railway company to require in such cases that the coal should be unloaded and reloaded in its own cars. A hearing was had before the Commission at which other shippers intervened, adopting the coal company's complaint. The facts were presented in an agreed statement, as follows:

'The Clark Coal & Coke Company of Davenport, Iowa, have been making shipments of coal from points in Illinois to Davenport by the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific Railway Company and the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad Company; that said coal is then placed by the railroad bringing it into Iowa on an interchange track at Davenport; that all charges from point of origin in Illinois to Davenport, Iowa, are paid by the Clark Coal & Coke Company to the railroad company bringing said coal; that thereupon complainant has notified the respondent railway company of the placement of said coal, and that it desired to ship said coal by the respondent railway company to different points on its own line, and tendered a written billing from Davenport to the point so designated; that thereupon respondent railway company has accepted said billing from Davenport to said point, and taken said cars from said interchange track to its own line, and transported the same in accordance with said written billing; that the respondent railway company has changed its method of doing business in the above respects by its printed order, and now refuses to accept said written billing and take said cars from said interchange track and transport them over its own line to the point designated by said billing, unless said coal is loaded in equipment belonging to respondent railway company. Respondent railway company, by its answer to the complaint, alleges that it 'will furnish cars for shipment of coal from Davenport to any point in Iowa, as provided by Iowa Distance Tariff, but will not accept shipments originating at Davenport, billed from Davenport, in the equipment of other carriers,' and its readiness and ability to furnish cars of its own for shipment is not controverted and will therefore be taken to be true. It will thus be observed that before the respondent railway company will take coal for transportation on its own line, in equipment other than its own, it requires that the same shall be unloaded and reloaded into its own cars.'

Thereupon, the Commission rendered a decision in favor of the shipper and entered the following order, to which this controversy relates:

'In accordance with the conclusions heretofore expressed, it is therefore ordered by the Board of Railroad Commissioners of Iowa that upon arrival of loaded cars of coal at the city of Davenport, upon any line of railroad, when said cars are placed upon the interchange track at Davenport, as ordered or requested by the owner or consignee of said cars, and the freight paid thereon, and the ordinary billing in use by the respondent railway is tendered to it for a billing of said cars so placed to a point on its own line within the state of Iowa, that the respondent railway company be and is hereby ordered and required to accept said billing, receive said car or cars so billed, and transport them on its own line to the point designated by the owner or consignee in said billing; and that it receive said car or cars in whatever equipment the same may be loaded, without requiring an unloading and reloading into its own equipment, and transport said car or cars over its own line to points within this so loaded, without unloading and reloading as above set forth, in the same manner that it receives cars from connecting lines, loaded in its own...