Detroit Mackinac Railway Company v. Michigan Railroad Commission

• Court: U.S. Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Holmes
• Citation: Detroit Mackinac Railway Company v. Michigan Railroad Commission, 235 U.S. 402, 35 S.Ct. 126, 59 L.Ed. 288 (1914)
• Decision Date: 14 December 1914
• Docket Number: No. 209,209
• Parties: DETROIT & MACKINAC RAILWAY COMPANY, Appt., v. MICHIGAN RAILROAD COMMISSION, Churchill Lumber Company, Island Mill Company, Fletcher Paper Company, and Frank R. Gilchrist, William A. Gilchrist, Grace Gilchrist Fletcher, and Ralph E. Gilchrist, Executors of the Estate of Frank W. Gilchrist, Deceased

235 U.S. 402

35 S.Ct. 126

59 L.Ed. 288

DETROIT & MACKINAC RAILWAY COMPANY, Appt.,

v MICHIGAN RAILROAD COMMISSION, Churchill Lumber Company, Island Mill Company, Fletcher Paper Company, and Frank R. Gilchrist, William A. Gilchrist, Grace Gilchrist Fletcher, and Ralph E. Gilchrist, Executors of the Estate of Frank W. Gilchrist, Deceased.

No. 209.

Argued December 2, 1914.

Decided December 14, 1914.

Messrs. Fred A. Baker and James McNamara for appellant.

Mr. Edward S. Clark and Mr. Grant Fellows, Attorney General of Michigan, for appellees.

Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a bill brought by the appellant, alleging its railroad to be wholly within the state of Michigan, and subject to the jurisdiction of the Michigan Railroad Commission, to prevent the enforcement of two orders of the commission, respectively reducing certain rates and fixing minimum rates for the transportation of logs. The contention is that the orders take the appellant's property without due process of law, contrary to the 14th Amendment. The bill alleges that after the passing of the orders the appellant brought a bill in the state court upon the same ground among others; that the testimony before the commission was introduced with other additional evidence; that, as provided by the Michigan statutes, this further evidence was transmitted to the commission, which did not modify its orders, and that thereafter the orders were sustained and the bill dismissed by the state circuit court, and, on appeal, by the supreme court of Michigan. 171 Mich. 335, 137 N. W. 329. An application for a preliminary injunction in the present cause was heard by three judges, as required by the Judicial Code of March 3, 1911, chap. 231, § 266 [36 Stat. at L. 1162, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 1243], and on their denying the writ an appeal was taken to this court. The decision below is reported in 203 Fed. 864.

The ground of the decision below was that the petitioner was concluded by the judgment of the Michigan court; and, of course, if the matter properly can be said to be res judicata, there is an end of the case. The argument against its being so is drawn from Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co. 211 U. S. 210, 53 L. ed. 150, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 67; but the applicability of that decision depends upon whether the state courts, in the hearings before them, were acting in a legislative capacity or simply were fulfilling their ordinary function as courts. In Virginia the state Constitution itself provided for an appeal from an order by the commission to the supreme court of appeals, and gave that body power to substitute such order as, in its opinion, the commission should have made. 211 U. S. 224. It is with regard to an order upon such a preliminary appeal that it is said that even though issuing from a court, it would not be a judicial act or effect an adjudication, conclusive if questioned later in a suit. 211 U. S. 226, 227. But the Constitution of Michigan, art. 4, separates legislative, executive and judicial powers, by the Virginia Constitution to the Virginia by the Virginia Constitution to the Virginia supreme court of appeals, that, in the absence of a clear decision by the state court, we should not believe that the legislature attempted to grant or could grant such powers to the courts of Michigan.

The Michigan statutes, though they may not have a perfectly clear vision of the distinctions developed in Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., do not attempt to transgress the limits that the Constitution lays down. The important provisions are that any common carrier or other party in interest dissatisfied with the orders of the commission may bring a suit in the state circuit court in chancery to set aside the order on the ground that the rates fixed are unreasonable, and the court is given power 'to affirm, vacate, or...