Chicago Ry Co v. Perry, No. 19

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: PITNEY
• Citation: 66 L.Ed. 1056,259 U.S. 548,42 S.Ct. 524
• Docket Number: No. 19
• Decision Date: 05 June 1922
• Parties: CHICAGO, R. I. & P. RY. CO. v. PERRY. Re

259 U.S. 548 42 S.Ct. 524 66 L.Ed. 1056 CHICAGO, R. I. & P. RY. CO.

v.

PERRY.

No. 19. Reargued and Submitted October 6, 1921. Decided June 5, 1922.

Page 549

Messrs. C. O. Blake and W. R. Bleakmore, both of El Reno, Okl., John W. Willmott and R. J. Roberts, both of Wewoka, Okl., and T. P. Littlepage and Sidney F. Taliaferro, both of Washington, D. C., for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Phil D. Brewer and Ed. S. Vaught, both of Oklahoma City, Okl., for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice PITNEY delivered the opinion of the Court.

This writ of error was sued out to test the validity, in view of the due process and equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, of the Service Letter Law of Oklahoma (Act April 24, 1908; Oklahoma Laws 1907-08, p. 516; Revised Laws Oklahoma 1910, § 3769), applicable to public service corporations and the like, in a case that arose under the following circumstances.

Daniel J. Perry, defendant in error, brought suit against Jacob M. Dickinson, then receiver of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company (the company itself afterwards was substituted in his place while the cause was pending in the Supreme Court of the state. Plaintiff alleged that while in the employ of the company,

Page 550

which operated a railway in Oklahoma and by which he had been employed continuously for a period of years, and while in the performance of his duties as switchman, he received severe personal injuries caused by a defect in a car brake, which either was known or in the exercise of due care by its employees would have become known to the railway company; the latter acknowledge responsibility for his injuries, settled with him through its claim agent on the basis of the company's negligence, furnished him with hospital treatment before and after the settlement, after some months dismissed him from the hospital as able to resume work, then refused to re-employ him on the ground that he was ineligible by reason of physical incapacity, and after he had unavailingly sought re-employment at intervals during two years, furnished him through its superintendent with a service letter certifying (correctly) that he had been employed upon the company's lines as switchman for a period named, and (contrary to the fact) that he had been dismissed on account of his responsibility in a case of personal injury to himself June 30, 1913, his service being otherwise satisfactory, and he averred that because of this letter he had been unable to secure employment, although competent, able, and willing.

Defendant, besides a general denial, averred that the statute upon which the action was based was void, because it deprived defendant of the due process of law, and denied to it the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, and also because it violated a section of the state Constitution in denying to defendant freedom of speech, including the right to remain silent. A trial by jury resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff, which on appeal was affirmed by the Supreme Court. Dickinson v. Perry, 75 Okl. 25, 181 Pac. 504.

That court overruled the contention that the proof failed to show that the service letter given to plaintiff

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did not truly state the cause of his discharge, then proceeded to discuss the constitutional questions, sustained the act, and affirmed the judgment.

Defendant in error moves to dismiss the writ of error on the ground that the constitutionality of the act was not really at issue; that the trial judge's instructions to the jury show that the only substantial question was whether the statements made in the letter actually given by the defendant were false and derogatory, and whether plaintiff had suffered damage thereby. But since the court of last resort of the state actually dealt with and passed upon the question raised by plaintiff in error as to the validity of the statute upon the ground of its being repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, and decided in favor of its validity, it is clear that, under the first paragraph of section 237, Judicial Code, as amended by Act of September 6, 1916, c. 448, 39 Stat. 726 (Comp. St. § 1214), we have jurisdiction to pass upon the question, and the motion to dismiss must be denied. Miedreich v. Lauenstein, 232 U. S. 236, 243, 34 Sup. Ct. 309, 58 L. Ed. 584; North Carolina R. R. Co. v. Zachary, 232 U. S. 248, 257, 34 Sup. Ct. 305, 58 L. Ed. 591, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 159.

Again, in discussing the merits, defendant in error insists that the federal question is not necessarily involved; that the constitutional objection was waived when the company, instead of refusing to give a letter, of its own volition gave to Perry upon his dismissal a service letter which was false and derogatory, and which caused special damage that was pleaded and proved. At first blush, it seems somewhat strange for the company to aver that it acted under compulsion of a void statute, when what it did was contrary to the command of the statute; it almost looks as if it were merely held in damages for what ordinarily might be called a libel. But...