Interstate Commerce Commission v. United States of America Ex Rel Humbolt Steamship Company

• Decision Date: 29 April 1912
• Docket Number: No. 859,859
• Citation: 224 U.S. 474,32 S.Ct. 556,56 L.Ed. 849
• Parties: INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION. Plff. in Err., v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX REL. HUMBOLT STEAMSHIP COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

224 U.S. 474

32 S.Ct. 556

56 L.Ed. 849

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION. Plff. in Err.,

v UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX REL. HUMBOLT STEAMSHIP COMPANY.

No. 859.

Argued April 16, 1912.

Decided April 29, 1912.

Mr. P. J. Farrell for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 475-477 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Charles D. Drayton, James Wickersham, and John B. Daish for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

The ultimate question in the case is whether Alaska is a territory of the United States within the meaning of the interstate commerce act as amended.

The Interstate Commerce Commission resolved the question in the negative and dismissed the petition of the Humboldt Steamship Company, the relator, which alleged violations of the act by the White Pass & Yukon Railway Company, operating in Alaska, applying its decision in Re Jurisdiction Over Rail & Water Carriers Operating in Alaska, 19 Inters. Com. Rep. 81.

The steamship company instituted an action in the supreme court of the District of Columbia, praying for a mandamus against the Commission to require it to take jurisdiction and proceed as required by the act and grant the relief for which the steamship company had petitioned hereinafter specifically mentioned. The proceeding was dismissed. The court expressed the view that the Commission had 'ample authority to assume jurisdiction over common carriers in Alaska, the same as in any other territory, and over those carriers operating between the state of Washington and Alaska, and between Alaska and Canada, and if they took jurisdiction no one could successfully question their right to do so.' The court, however, held that it had no power 'to require the Interstate Commerce Commission to act contrary to its own judgment in a matter wherein, after investigation, it had reached a conclusion, honestly and fairly, which might be contrary to the conclusion which the court would reach.'

The court of appeals, to which court the case was taken by the steamship company, entertained the same view of the interstate commerce act as that expressed by the supreme court, but took a different view of the power of the courts to compel action upon the part of the Commission, and reversed the judgment of the supreme court and remanded the cause, 'with directions to issue a peremptory writ of mandamus directed to the Interstate Commerce Commission, requiring it to take jurisdiction of said cause and proceed therein as by law required.' To this ruling the Interstate Commerce Commission prosecutes this writ of error.

The proceedings before the Commission were instituted by the steamship company filing a petition (No. 2,578) against the White Pass & Yukon Route, consisting of the Pacific & Arctic Railway & Navigation Company, British Columbia-Yukon Railway Company, British-Yukon Railway Company, and British-Yukon Navigation Company, to require said companies to file with the Commission, in the form prescribed by the act to regulate commerce, and to print and keep open for public inspection, schedules showing their rates and charges for transportation of passengers and property between points in Alaska and points in the Dominion of Canada and other places; to establish through routes and joint rates in conjunction with the petitioner between certain named places in Alaska and Seattle, in the state of Washington; to afford all reasonable, proper, and equal facilities for the interchange of traffic between their respective lines; and to cease and desist from preventing by sundry devices the carriage of freights from being continuous from place of shipment to place of destination when such freight is originated or in any wise handled by the Humboldt Steamship Company.

The companies proceeded against filed answers. There were intervening companies on both sides of the controversy.

A hearing was assigned and had in October, 1909, and subsequently, July 6, 1910, the Commission decided that it was 'without jurisdiction to make the order sought by complainant,' resting its ruling upon the authority of its decision in Re Jurisdiction over Rail & Water Carriers Operating in Alaska, supra.

Section 1 of the interstate commerce act provides that the provisions of the act 'shall apply to any . . . common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad (or partly by railroad and partly by water, when both are used under a common control, management, or arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment), from one state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or from one place in a territory to another place in the same territory, . . . or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States. . . . ' 34 Stat. at L. 584, chap. 3591, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1909, p. 1150.

The pivotal words are: 'Fron one state or territory of the United States . . . to any other state or territory, . . . or from one place in a territory to another place in the same territory,' 'territory' being the especially significant word.

If we may venture to reduce to a single proposition an elaborate discussion of elements and considerations, we may say that the Commission gave to the word 'territory' the signification of 'organized territory,' the chief and determining feature of which is a local legislature, as distinguished from a territory having a more rudimentary and less autonomous form of government which it considered Alaska possessed.

To this signification and distinction the arguments of counsel are addressed, and much of the reasoning of the lower courts. That field, however, has been traversed by cases in this court, and it need not again be passed over. We may accept and apply the conclusions which have been reached and expressed.

In the case of The Coquitlam v. United States, 163 U. S. 346, 41 L. ed. 184, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1117, the relation of the courts of Alaska to the Federal judicial system, and the applicability of certain statutes concerning the same, were decided, after a review of those statutes and those defining the status of Alaksa.

By the 15th section of the act of March 3, 1891, creating the circuit court of appeals, it is provided that the circuit court of appeals, in cases in which the judgments of the circuit courts of appeal are made final by this act, shall have 'the same appellate jurisdiction, by writ of error or appeal, to review the judgments, orders, and decrees of the supreme courts of the several territories, as by this act they may have to review the judgments, orders, and decrees of the district court and circuit courts; and for that purpose the several territories shall, by orders of the Supreme Court, to be made from time to time, be assigned to particular circuits.' 26 Stat. at L. 826, 830, chap. 517, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 547, 554.

In execution of the duty imposed by that section, this court, by an order promulgated May 11, 1891, assigned Alaska to the ninth judicial circuit.

Subsequent to this order, the United States brought a suit in admiralty in the district court of Alaska for the forfeiture of the steamer Coquitlam because of an alleged violation of the revenue laws. A decree was rendered for the United States, and an appeal was prosecuted to the circuit court of appeals for the ninth circuit. The United States disputed the jurisdiction of the court on the grounds: (1) that the district court of Alaska was not a district court within the meaning of the 6th section of the circuit court of appeals act; and (2) that the district court of Alaska was not a supreme court of a territory, within the meaning of that act and the order of this court assigning Alaska to the ninth circuit.

The court certified the question to this court. We answered the first in the negative and the second in the affirmative. We said, through Mr. Justice Harlan, that the circuit court of appeals act was necessarily interpreted by this court as conferring appellate jurisdiction upon the circuit court of appeals when, by the 'order of May 11 (139 U. S. 707, 34 L. ed. 1128b, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. IV.), Alaska was assigned to the ninth...