Collins-Dietz-Morris Co. v. State Corp.
| Decision Date | 02 June 1931 |
| Docket Number | Case Number: 21439 |
| Citation | 7 P.2d 123,154 Okla. 121,1931 OK 301 |
| Parties | COLLINS-DIETZ-MORRIS CO. v. STATE CORPORATION COMMISSION. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
¶0 1. Submission of Controversy--Agreed Case Submitted to Supreme Court--Constitutionality of Statute Determined Only as to Persons Shown by Agreed Case to Be Affected.
Where an agreed case is submitted to this court for determination pursuant to the authority of section 846, C. O. S. 1921, and a legislative act is therein attacked as being unconstitutional, this court will determine whether or not the legislative act involved is constitutional as to the persons shown by the agreed case to be affected by the legislative act and refuse to determine whether or not the legislative act is constitutional as to persons who are not shown by the agreed case to be affected by the legislative act, this court being unwilling to determine the effect of a legislative act except when the legislative act is called in question by persons affected thereby.
2. Carriers -- Wholesale Grocery Making Deliveries by Its Own Trucks Without Specific Charge to Customers Held not Subject to Provisions of Motor Carrier Act.
Under the provisions of chapter 253, Session Laws of 1929, a private corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Oklahoma and engaged in the conduct of a wholesale grocery business and the selling of its products to retail merchants over the state and the delivery thereof by trucks owned by itself over the public highways of the state, the cost of the delivery thereof being included in the general overhead expense and thereby augmenting to some extent the delivered price of the merchandise sold, is not operating for "compensation" and is not subject to the provisions of said act.
3. Same--Wholesale Grocery Subject to Provisions of Motor Carrier Act Where Customers Specifically Charged for Deliveries.
Under the provisions of chapter 253, Session Laws of 1929, a private corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Oklahoma and engaged in the conduct of a wholesale grocery business and the selling of its products to retail merchants over the state and the delivery thereof by trucks owned by itself over the public highways of the state, the purchaser being charged specifically for delivery, is within the provisions of said act and is subject to the provisions thereof.
4. Highways--Regulation of Traffic under Police Power of State.
The authority of the state to regulate traffic over the public highways is a part of the police power of the state and the state has the right to say what use shall be made of those highways and to prescribe reasonable restrictions on and conditions for their use.
5. Carriers--Statutes--Severable Provisions as to Classes of Motor Carriers in Motor Carrier Act--Decision of Court Limited to Validity of Statutory Provisions Relating to Class of Carrier Involved.
Chapter 253, Session Laws of 1929, by its terms, affects three classes of motor carriers, therein designated as class "A," class "B," and class "C" motor carriers. The language of the act is such as to show a legislative intent of severability with reference to the three classes. The provisions of the act with reference to each of the three classes are severable. A determination of the constitutionality of the act with reference to one of the classes does not require a determination of the constitutionality of the act with reference to the other classes or affect the validity of the act as to the other classes, and the act may be sustained as to one class although unconstitutional as to the other classes. Class "C," alone, is involved herein. As to that class the act is constitutional. The inclusion in the act of a provision that, if any section or part thereof, sentence, clause, or phrase of the act, for any reason is held to be unconstitutional, such holding shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of the act, does not render the act, as a whole, void for uncertainty if the provisions of the act as to any one class are not void for uncertainty.
6. Same--Motor Carrier Act Construed as to Exemption of Transportation of Farm Products and Other Commodities.
The provision in chapter 253, Session Laws of 1929, that the provisions of the act shall not apply to transportation of live stock and farm products in the raw state and trucks hauling road material, is a proviso relating to class "C" motor carriers as defined therein and has no reference to class "A" or class "B" motor carriers as defined therein.
7. Same.
The provision of chapter 253, Session Laws of 1929, with reference to class "C" motor carriers, that the provisions of the act shall not apply to transportation of live stock and farm products in the raw state and trucks hauling road material, applies only to class "C" motor carriers and, by reason thereof, applies only to carriers operated by the owners thereof for the transportation of their own property, goods, or merchandise, and does not apply to carriers or the owners thereof as to the transportation of live stock, farm products in the raw state and trucks hauling road material, where the live stock, farm products, or road material are not the property of the owner of the carrier.
8. Same--Limited Scope of Regulation by Corporation Commission of Carriers Transporting Their Own Property.
Under the provisions of chapter 253, Session Laws of 1929, class "C" motor carriers are not common carriers and are not subject to the regulation of the Corporation Commission of Oklahoma as to rates, fares, charges, and classifications, and the schedules, services, and accounts of class "C" motor carriers are not subject to regulation or supervision by the Corporation Commission, the authority of the Corporation Commission over class "C" motor carriers being limited to the regulation of the use of the public highways.
9. Same -- Provision of Act Exempting Transportation of Farm Products and Other Commodities Held not Unconstitutional.
The provision as to class "C" motor carriers that the provisions of the act shall not apply to the transportation of live stock, farm products in the raw state, and trucks hauling road material, does not constitute such an exemption from taxation as is prohibited by section 50, art. 5, of the Constitution of Oklahoma, or such an inequality as is prohibited by section 5, art. 10, of the Constitution of Oklahoma. It is a reasonable provision and the distinction shown thereby is justified by the nature of the property to be transported.
10. Same--Motor Carrier Act Held Constitutional as to Class of Carriers Involved--Applicability of Provisions to Classes of Transportation Involved.
Record examined and held that chapter 253, Session Laws of 1929, is valid and constitutional as to class "C" motor carriers, as defined therein; that under the facts stated in the agreed case and the law applicable thereto, the transportation described in the agreed case as "Specific Transaction Class 'Y'" is within the provisions of the act; that as to that class and transaction the judgment should be and it is for the defendant herein; that "Specific Transaction Class 'X'" is not within the provisions of the act, and that as to that class and transaction the judgment should be, and it is for the plaintiff herein.
Original proceeding in Supreme Court on agreed case by the Collins-Dietz-Morris Company against the State Corporation Commission. Judgment for defendant.
Keaton, Wells, Johnston & Barnes and Tomerlin & Chandler, for plaintiff.
E. S. Ratliff, Robert H. Ledbetter, J. Berry King, Atty. Gen., Fred Hansen, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Geo. J. Fagin, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant.
¶1 This cause is in this court on an agreed case and is submitted by the parties hereto for judgment and decision of this court pursuant to the authority of section 846, C. O. S. 1921. By their pleadings the parties have submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of this court, and this court, by consent, has taken jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the action. The parties will be referred to as plaintiff and defendant. The facts as agreed upon are as follows:
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