Houston Texas Central Railroad Company v. John Mayes

• Decision Date: 02 April 1906
• Docket Number: No. 198,198
• Parties: HOUSTON & TEXAS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY et al., Plffs. in Err. v. JOHN A. MAYES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

201 U.S. 321

26 S.Ct. 491

50 L.Ed. 772

HOUSTON & TEXAS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY et al., Plffs. in Err.

v JOHN A. MAYES.

No. 198.

Argued and submitted March 8, 1906.

Decided April 2, 1906.

This was an action begun by Mayes in the district court of Llano county, Texas, against the Houston & Texas Central Railroad Company to recover a penalty of $475, by reason of defendant's failure to furnish seventeen stock cars, applied for in writing by the plaintiff under the provisions of certain statutes of Texas hereinafter referred to, for the purpose of shipping plaintiff's cattle from Llano, Texas, to Red Rock, Oklahoma, and for damages occasioned by defendant's negligence.

The petitioner alleged that the defendant company formed with two other railroad companies a continuous line from Llano to Red Rock, and were engaged as common carriers in the business of shipping live stock and other freight; that on April 9, 1903, plaintiff, being the owner of six hundred and twenty-five head of cattle, made application in writing to the local agent of the road for seventeen stock cars, to be delivered on April 20, and deposited with the agent one fourth of the freight on the same, namely, $268.82, promising to pay the remainder on demand, and that he afterwards paid the same; that upon the day named, April 20, he had cattle sufficient to load the cars, delivered them to the defendant at its stock pens at Llano for shipment, but the defendant failed to furnish the cars, and did not furnish the same until the afternoon of the 21st April, 1903.

The trial resulted in a judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $425 penalty for delay, and $500 damages to the stock while in the pens at Llano. This judgment was affirmed by the court of civil appeals, and an application for a writ of error to the supreme court of the state was overruled.

Messrs. Maxwell Evarts, James A. Baker, Robert S. Lovett, and Gordon M. Buck for plaintiffs in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 322-325 intentionally omitted] Messrs. T. W. Gregory and McLean & Spears for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the court:

This case involves the constitutionality of certain articles of the Revised Statutes of Texas, set forth in the margin, the

'Art. 4497. When the owner, manager, or shipper of any freight of any kind shall make application in writing to any superintendent, agent, or person in charge of transportation, to any railway company, receiver, or trustee operating a line of railway at the point the cars are desired upon which to ship any freight, it shall be the duty of such railway company, receiver, trustee, or other person in charge thereof to supply the number of cars so required, at the point indicated in the application, within a reasonable time thereafter, not to exceed six days from the receipt of such application, and shall supply such cars to the persons so applying therefor, in the order in which such applications are made, without giving preference to any person; provided, if the application be for ten cars or less, the same shall be furnished in three days; and provided further, that if the application be for fifty cars or more, the railway company may have ten full days in which to supply the cars. (As amended by the act of 1899, page 67.)

'Art. 4498. Said application shall state the number of cars desired, the place at which they are desired, and the time they are desired; provided, that the place designated shall be at some station or switch on the railiroad.

'Art. 4499. When cars are applied for under the provisions of this chapter, if they are not furnished, the railway company so failing to furnish them shall forfeit to the party or parties so applying for them the sum of $25 per day for each car failed to be furnished, to be recovered in any court of competent jurisdiction, and all actual damages such applicant may sustain.

'Art. 4500. Such applicant shall material requirement of which is that when the shipper of freight shall make a requisition in writing for a number of cars to be furnished at any point indicated within a certain number of days from the receipt of the application, and shall deposit one fourth of the freight with the agent of the company, the company failing to furnish them shall forfeit $25 per day for each car failed to be furnished, the only proviso being that the law 'shall not apply in cases of strikes or other public calamity.'

The defense was that this statute was not applicable to demands made for cars to be sent out of the state and to be used in interstate commerce; and as the shipment was intended for Oklahoma, the act did not apply, and the defendant was not liable. The question is whether the statute, applied, as it is by the Texas court, to interstate shipments, is an infringement upon the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.

That, notwithstanding the exclusive nature of this power, the states may, in the exercise of their police power, make reasonable rules with regard to the methods of carrying on interstate business, the precautions that shall be used to avoid danger, the facilities for the comfort of passengers and the safety of freight carried, and, to a certain extent, the stations at which stoppages shall be made, is settled by repeated decisions of this court. Of course, such rules are inoperative if conflicting with regulations upon the same subject enacted by Congress, and can be supported only when consistent with the general requirement that interstate commerce shall be free and unobstructed, and not amounting to a regulation of such commerce. As the power to build and operate railways, and to acquire land by condemnation, usually rests upon state authority, the legislatures may annex such conditions as they please with regard to intrastate transportation, and such other rules regarding interstate commerce as are not inconsistent with the general right of such commerce to be free and unobstructed.

The exact limit of lawful legislation upon this subject cannot, in the nature of things, be defined. It can only be illustrated from decided cases, by applying the principles...