Fulton Ferry & Bridge Company v. Huckins

• Decision Date: 21 March 1927
• Docket Number: 296
• Parties: FULTON FERRY & BRIDGE COMPANY v. HUCKINS
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

292 S.W. 353

173 Ark. 301

FULTON FERRY & BRIDGE COMPANY
v.
HUCKINS

No. 296

Supreme Court of Arkansas

March 21, 1927

[292 S.W. 354] [Copyrighted Material Omitted] [292 S.W. 355]

Appeal from Miller Circuit Court; James H. McCollum, Judge; reversed.

STATEMENT BY THE COURT.

This appeal comes from a judgment of the Miller Circuit Court affirming the judgment of the county court fixing rates of tolls or ferriage for the ferry operated across Red River at Fulton by the Fulton Ferry & Bridge Company.

The ferry company made application to the Miller County Court, in December, 1925, for license to continue operation of a public ferry at Fulton for the next year, from the expiration of its license on the 31st of December. Paul J. Huckins et al. were permitted to intervene as taxpayers and residents of Miller County, using the ferry and paying the tolls, and alleged that the tolls collected by the ferry company were unreasonable and exorbitant, and prayed the court to put into effect reasonable and fair rates of toll for ferries.

The ferry company, on May 6, 1926, wrote the county clerk, inclosing its check in payment for the license and fees, and a schedule of tolls or rates fixed by the county court for former years and rates fixed by the Hempstead County Court for the present year, stating: "While the rates allowed us $ 1 for crossing a two-horse team and wagon and same amount for crossing an automobile, we do not charge more than 75c for one-way passage and $ 1 for round trip. Making the rate $ 1, we are protected from people who load up their automobiles and wagons with foot passengers to avoid paying ferriage. The schedule also gives us a night rate that would give us a chance of coming out on. Will you please explain these matters to the court. Dated Mav 6. 1926."

This schedule showed:

Automobiles	$ 1.00
Trucks (per ton)	$ 1.00

The ferry company responded, denying that the tolls set forth in its schedule are unjust, exorbitant or excessive; alleged that they are reasonable, and necessary to allow a reasonable rate on the investment, and similar to those charged by ferries in the State of Arkansas, especially in Miller County, where anything like similar services to those offered by respondent are maintained, and, because of the character of the river banks, the ferry landing and approaches are unstable and have to be changed from time to time during high waters, causing large expenditures in keeping and maintaining such approaches in a safe condition for operation of the ferry.

The court, on July 12, fixed the license fee, and continued the matter of making rates and fixing schedule of tolls, and, on August 16, found the rates suggested in the schedule of the ferry company excessive and unreasonable, and fixed a schedule of rates for ferriage over Red River for Miller County as follows:

Sheep and goats	$ 0.05
Hogs	.08
Loose cattle	.12
Horses and mules	.10
Persons on foot	.10
Man and horse	.15
Single buggy and horse	.25
2-horse team and wagon	35
4-horse team and wagon	.60
6-horse team and wagon	1.00
8-horse team and wagon	1.25
Automobiles	.35
Trucks (per ton)	.50

"The night rate shall be double the rates above set forth, which are to be collected during the day."

The ferry company appealed from this order, and petitioned the circuit court to suspend the rates fixed by the county court; alleged that they were unreasonable and confiscatory, and prayed that they be permitted to charge, pending the appeal, the same rates as were allowed to be charged for travel from the Hempstead County side of the ferry, showing a schedule the same as that inclosed to the county court with the application for license, in which the rate for automobiles was $ 1 and trucks (per ton) $ 1. The important and controlling rate or toll is the rate on automobiles.

The testimony shows that, for more than forty years prior to June, 1922, the Fulton Ferry had been owned and operated by J. B. Shults of Fulton, or members of his family; that, at that time, he sold a one-half interest in the ferry to the Conways for $ 15,000. An Arkansas corporation, the Fulton Ferry & Bridge Company, appellant, was organized June 1, 1922, and took over the ferry and its assets, issuing stock therefor to members of the Shults and Conway families in the sum of $ 30,000.

Later, without additional capital being paid in, the capital of the company was increased from $ 30,000 to $ 150,000, and stock issued in that amount. No dividends were ever paid after the stock was increased, all profits being consumed in paying bonds and interest and salaries to the officials of the corporation.

During the spring of 1926 George T. Conway, who had previously sold for $ 7,500 a fourth interest in the ferry to Joe Chatfield, only delivering him $ 25,000 in stock therefor, bought it back for $ 5,000.

In the spring or summer of 1923 George T. Conway and J. B. Shults secured from the county courts of Miller and Hempstead counties franchises to construct a toll bridge across Red River near Fulton, and in November J. B. Shults and George T. Conway, president and vice president of the Fulton Ferry & Bridge Company, sold these franchises, which had been obtained from the county courts of said counties for nothing, to their bridge company for $ 100,000, themselves being two of the three directors of the corporation, and Brooks Shults, son of the president, J. B. Shults, being the third. No tolls or rates for ferriage had been fixed by the Miller County Court since the formation of the corporation, the schedule as last made by it, April 5, 1922, allowing $ 1 for automobiles and $ 1 for trucks (per ton), when Shults owned the ferry, as attached to the petition for the license, was the same as the schedule of rates fixed by the Hempstead County Court, and had been kept posted by the Ferry Company, which was charging 75c for carrying automobiles in the daytime and $ 1.50 for ferriage at night.

The gross receipts of the ferry for the calendar year 1922, the year prior to the formation of the corporation, were $ 20,927.09. The appellant's fiscal year ends May 31, and increase of traffic and income is reflected in the gross receipts for the fiscal years since...