Great Northern Railway Company v. State of Minnesota Ex Rel Railroad Warehouse Commission of the State of Minnesota

• Decision Date: 14 June 1915
• Docket Number: No. 225,225
• Citation: 59 L.Ed. 1337,35 S.Ct. 753,238 U.S. 340
• Parties: GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF MINNESOTA EX REL. RAILROAD & WAREHOUSE COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

238 U.S. 340

35 S.Ct. 753

59 L.Ed. 1337

GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v STATE OF MINNESOTA EX REL. RAILROAD & WAREHOUSE COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.

No. 225.

Argued April 16, 1915.

Decided June 14, 1915.

Messrs. E. C. Lindley and Sanford H. E. Freund for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 341 intentionally omitted] Mr. Lyndon A. Smith, Attorney General of Minnesota, and Mr. Alonzo J. Edgerton for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 342 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice McReynolds delivered the opintion of the court:

An order of the Minnesota Railroad & Warehouse Commission (October 26, 1911) directing the Great Northern Railway Company to erect within forty-five days at least a 6-ton scale in its stockyard at the village Bertha, Todd county, was sustained by the supreme court of the state (122 Minn. 55, 57, 58, 141 N. W. 1102); the cause is here by writ of error; and it is contended that enforcement of order, as promulgated, would deprive the railway of its property without due process of law, contrary to the inhibition of the 14th Amendment. The supreme court said:

'At the trial the appellant offered no evidence, but rested upon the evidence presented by the respondent and the facts are undisputed. They are in substance as follows: That in the year 1910 stock was shipped in carload lots from 259 of appellant's stations in the state of Minnesota; that the number of carloads so shipped from the different stations varied from 1 at each of 32 stations to 414 at the station of Jasper; that appellant has installed stock scales, each of 6-ton capacity, at 54 of these stations; that these scales are located adjacent to the stockyards, but are not adjacent to nor connected with the railway track or buildings; that they are convenient for and are used by dealers and stock raisers in buying and selling, but no obligation to ship over the railway is imposed by such use; that stock raisers who would otherwise market their stock at Bertha sometimes take it to Hewitt or Eagle Bend, a longer distance, in order to have the use of the scales installed at those places; that such scales tend to draw the stock business to and concentrate it at the places where they are located; that where these scales are available shippers are accustomed to weigh their stock, for their own convenience and information, immediately before loading for shipment, but these weights are not used as a basis for freight charges, nor in any transactions between the shipper and the railway company, nor in sales made at the terminal stockyards; that, after stock is loaded, the carload is weighed at some suitable point upon track scales which are under the supervision of the state, and the freight charges and all the transactions between the shipper and the company are based exclusively upon this weight; and that these stock scales are not used in any manner in the business transacted between the railway company and its patrons.

'The witnesses testifying for respondent insisted that stock scales were a convenience, if not a necessity, in dealing in stock, and that a town having such scales possessed an advantage, as a stock market, over a town that did not, but frankly admitted that these scales had no direct part in the business of transportation, nor in the business of selling at the terminal yards.

'As scales are a convenience, and, probably, a necessity in dealing in stock, and tend to cause stock to be collected for shipment at the places where they are available, to the disadvantage of those places where they are not available, and are undoubtedly furnished for the purpose and with the view of securing the transportation of stock from points at which they are located, it is the opinion of a majority of the members of the court that the evidence submitted, together with the fact that the company...