Interstate Consolidated Street Railway Company v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts

• Decision Date: 04 November 1907
• Docket Number: No. 13,13
• Citation: 28 S.Ct. 26,12 Ann. Cas. 555,207 U.S. 79,52 L.Ed. 111
• Parties: INTERSTATE CONSOLIDATED STREET RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

207 U.S. 79

28 S.Ct. 26

52 L.Ed. 111

INTERSTATE CONSOLIDATED STREET RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

No. 13.

Argued October 15, 16, 1907.

Decided November 4, 1907.

Messrs. Everett Watson Burdett and Joseph H. Knight for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 79-82 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Dona Malone and Fred T. Field for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 82 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

This was a complaint against the plaintiff in error for refusing to sell tickets for the transportation of pupils to and from the public schools at one half the regular fare charged by it, as required by Mass. Rev. Laws, chap. 112, § 72. At the trial the railway company admitted the fact, but set up that the statute was unconstitutional, in that it denied to the company the equal protection of the laws and deprived it of its property without just compensation and without due process of law. In support of this defense it made an offer of proof which may be abridged into the propositions that the regular fare was 5 cents; that during the last fiscal year the actual and reasonable cost of transportation per passenger was 3 86/100 cents, or, including taxes, 4 10/100 cents; that pupils of the public schools formed a considerable part of the passengers carried by it, and that the one street railway expressly exempted by the law transported nearly one half the passengers transported on street railways and received nearly one half the revenue received for such transportation in the commonwealth. The offer was stated to be made for the purpose of showing that the plaintiff in error could not comply with the statute without carrying passengers for less than a reasonable compensation and for less than cost. The offer of proof was rejected, and a ruling that the statute was repugnant to the 14th Amendment was refused. The plaintiff in error excepted and, after a verdict of guilty and sentence, took the case to the supreme judicial court. 187 Mass. 436, 73 N. E. 530. That court overruled the exceptions, whereupon the plaintiff in error brought the case here.

This court is of opinion that the decision below was right. A majority of the court considers that the case is disposed of by the fact that the statute in question was in force when the plaintiff in error took its charter, and confines itself to that ground. The section of the Revised Laws (chap. 112, § 72) was a continuation of Stat. 1900, chap. 197. Rev. Laws, chap. 226, § 2. com. v. Anselvich, 186 Mass. 376, 379, 380, 104 Am. St. Rep. 590, 71 N. E. 790. The act of incorporation went into effect March 15, 1901. Stat. 1901, chap. 159. By the latter act the plaintiff in error was 'subject to all the duties, liabilities, and restrictions set forth in all general laws now or hereafter in force relating to street railways companies, except,' etc. § 1. See also § 2. There is no doubt that, by the law as understood in Massachusetts, at least, the provisions of Rev. Laws, Chap. 112, § 72, Stat. 1900, chap. 197, if they had been inserted in the charter in terms, would have bound the corporation, whether such requirements could be made constitutionally of an already existing corporation or not. The railroad company would have come into being and have consentedto come into being subject to the liability, and could not be heard to complain. Rockport Water Co. v. Rockport, 161 Mass. 279, 37 N. E. 168; Ashley v. Ryan, 153 U. S. 436, 443, 38 L. ed. 773, 777, 4 Inters. Com. Rep. 664, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 865; Wight v. Davidson, 181 U. S. 371, 377, 45 L. ed. 900, 903, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 616; Newburyport Water Co. v. Newburyport, 193 U. S. 561, 579, 48 L. ed. 795, 800, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 553.

If the charter, instead of writing out the requirements of Rev. Laws, 112, § 72, referred specifically to another document expressing them, and purported to incorporate it, of course the charter would have the same effect as if it itself contained the words. If the document was identified, it would not matter what its own nature or effect might be, as the force given to it by reference and incorporation would be derived wholly from the charter. The document, therefore, might as well be an unconstitutional as a constitutional law. See Com. v. Melville, 160 Mass. 307, 308, 35 N. E. 863. But the contents of a document may be incorporated or adopted as well by generic as by specific reference, if only the purport of the adopting statute is clear. Corry v. Baltimore, 196 U. S. 466, 477, 49 L. ed. 556, 562, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 297. See Purdy v. Erie R. Co. 162 N. Y. 42, 48 L.R.A. 669, 56 N. E. 508.

Speaking for myself alone, I think that there are considerations on the other side from the foregoing argument that make it unsafe not to discuss the validity of the regulation apart from the supposition that the plaintiff in error has accepted it. See W. W. Cargill Co. v. Minnesota, 180 U. S. 452, 468, 45 L. ed. 619, 626, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 423. Therefore I proceed to state my grounds for thinking the statute constitutional irrespective of any disabilities to object to its terms.

The discrimination alleged is the express exception from the act of 1900 of the Boston Elevated Railway Company and the railways then owned, leased, or operated by it. But, in the first place, this was a legislative adjudication concerning a specific road, as in Wight v. Davidson, 181 U. S. 371, 45 L. ed. 900, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 616, not a general prospective classification as in Martin v. District of Columbia, 205 U. S. 135, 138, 51 L. ed. 743, 744, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 440. A general law must be judged by public facts, but a specific adjudication may depend upon many things not judicially known. Therefore the law must be sustained on this point unless the facts offered in evidence clearly show that the exception cannot be upheld. But the local facts are not before us, and it follows that we cannot say that the legislature could not have been justified in thus limiting its action. Covington & L. Turnp. Road Co. v. Sandford, 164 U. S. 578, 597, 598, 41 L. ed. 560, 566, 567, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 198. In the next place, if the only ground were that the charter of the elevated railway contained a contract against the imposition of such a requirement, it would be attributing to the 14th Amendment an excessively nice operation to say that the immunity of a single corporation prevented the passage of an otherwise desirable and wholesome law. It is unnecessary to consider what would be the effect on the statute by construction in Massachusetts if the exception could not be upheld. For, if in order to avoid the Scylla of unjustifiable class legislation, the law were read as universal (see Dunbar v. Boston & P. R. Corp. 181 Mass. 383, 386, 63 N. E. 916), it might be...