Louisville Nashville Railroad Company v. Erasmus Mottley

• Decision Date: 20 February 1911
• Docket Number: No. 246,246
• Citation: 31 S.Ct. 265,219 U.S. 467,55 L.Ed. 297
• Parties: LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in err., v. ERASMUS L. MOTTLEY and Annie E. Mottley, His Wife
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

219 U.S. 467

31 S.Ct. 265

55 L.Ed. 297

LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in err.,

v ERASMUS L. MOTTLEY and Annie E. Mottley, His Wife.

No. 246.

Submitted January 9, 1911.

Decided February 20, 1911.

Mr. Henry L. Stone for plaintiff in error.

[Syllabus from pages 468-470 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Lewis McQuown, Clarence U. McElroy, and G. D. Milliken for defendants in error.

[Argument from page 470 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Harlan, delivered the opinion of the court:

As the result of a collision in Kentucky of railroad trains belonging to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, which operated various lines extending through that commonwealth as well as into Tennessee and other states, the plaintiffs Mottley and wife received serious personal injuries. The collision, it is alleged, was caused by the gross carelessness and negligence of the agents and servants of the railroad company.

After the collision, the plaintiffs and the company, on the 2d of October, 1871, entered into a written agreement of which the following is a copy:

'The Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, in consideration that E. L. Mottley and wife, Annie E. Mottley have this day released said company from all damages or claims for damages for injuries received by them on the 7th day of September, 1871, in consequence of a collision of trains on the railroad of said company at Randolph's station, Jefferson county, Kentucky, hereby agrees to issue free passes on said railroad and branches now existing or to exist, to said E. L. Mottley and Annie E. Mottley, for the remainder of the present year, and thereafter to renew said passes annually during the lives of said Mottley and wife or either of them.'

The railroad company adhered strictly to this agreement for many years, but finally refused further to perform it, on the ground that the act of Congress of June 29th, 1906, amendatory of the act regulating commerce, approved February 4th, 1887, made its enforcement illegal. Thereupon Mottley and wife brought suit in the circuit court of the United States for the western district of Kentucky, to enforce the agreement, and obtained a decree in their favor. 150 Fed. 406. But upon a direct appeal to this court, that decree was reversed, and the case was remanded, with directions to dismiss the suit for want of jurisdiction. Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Mottley, 211 U. S. 149, 53 L. ed. 126, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 42; Metcalf v. Watertown, 128 U. S. 586, 32 L. ed. 543, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 173; Tennessee v. Union Planters' Bank, 152 U. S. 454, 459, 38 L. ed. 511, 513, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 654. the grounds upon which the Federal court was held to be without jurisdiction are not important here.

The present action was brought in the circuit court of Warren county, Kentucky. The relief sought was that the defendant company be required specifically to execute the above agreement by issuing passes to the plaintiffs for the year 1909, and for every year thereafter, so long as the plaintiffs should each live, over all its roads in and out of Kentucky.

The railroad company resists any judgment that would compel it further to perform the agreement sued on. It bases its defense mainly on the commerce act of Congress of June 29th, 1906, which became effective August 28th, 1906 (34 Stat. at L. 838, Pt. 1, Res. No. 47).¹ By that staute, Congress, among other things, provided:

'Sec. 1. . . . No common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall, after January first, ninteen hundred and seven, directly or indirectly, issue or give any interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation for passengers,' except to certain specified persons, the plaintiffs not being within any of the expected classes.

'Sec. 6. . . . No carrier, unless otherwise provided by this act, shall engage or participate in the transportation of passengers or property, as defined in this act, unless the rates, fares, and charges upon which the same are transported by said carrier have been filed and published in accordance with the provisions of this act; nor shall any carrier charge or demand or collect or receive a greater or less or different compensation for such transportation of passengers or property, or for any service in connection therewith, between the points named in such tariffs, than the rates, fares, and charges which are specified in the tariff filed and in effect at the time; nor shall any carrier refund or remit, in any manner, or by any device, any portion of the rates, fares, and charges so specified, nor extend to any shipper or person any privileges or facilities in the transportation of passengers or property, except such as are specified in such tariffs.' 24 Stat. at L. 379, chap. 104, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3154; 34 Stat. at L. 584, 586, Pt. 1, chap. 3591, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1909, pp. 1149, 1153.

The act of June 29th, 1906, regulating commerce and enlarging the powers of the interstate Commerce Commission, made its provisions applicable to 'any common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property . . . by railroad . . . 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, etc.;' and in this respect it has not been amended. It also provides that a common carrier violating the clause forbidding it after January 1st, 1907, directly or indirectly to issue or to give any interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation for passengers, should pay to the United States a penalty of not less than $100 nor more than $2,000. Any person (other than those of the excepted classes) who used any such interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation, became subject to a like penalty. Id. 585, § 1.

The state circuit court, giving the relief asked, by its judgment required the railroad company to issue to the plaintiffs and to each of them a pass over its lines and branches for the year 1909, and thereafter to renew such passes annually during their respective lives.

Upon appeal to the court of appeals of Kentucky, that judgment was affirmed. Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Mottley, 133 Ky. 652, 118 S. W. 982.

It may be, as suggested, that a refusal to enforce the agreement of 1871 will operate as a great hardship upon the defendants in error. But that consideration cannot control the determination of this controversy. Our duty is to ascertain the intention of Congress in passing the statute upon which the railroad company relies as prohibitive of the further enforcement of the agreement in suit. That intention is to be gathered from the words of the act, interpreted according to their ordinary acceptation, and, when it becomes necessary to do so, in the light of the circumstances as they existed when the statute was as they existed when the statute was passed. Platt v. Union P. R. Co. 99 U. S. 48, 64, 25 L. ed. 424, 429. The court cannot mold a statute simply to meet its views of justice in a particular case. Having, in the mode indicated, ascertained the will of the legislative department, the statute as enacted must be executed, unless found to be inconsistent with the supreme law of the land.

In our consideration of the case it will be assumed—indeed, the parties themselves assume—that the agree- ment of 1871 was not, when made, in conflict with the Constitution or laws of the United States. But we must first inquire whether such an agreement, if made after the passage of the original and amendatory commerce acts, would have been valid under those acts. If those acts forbid agreements of that character, we must then inquire whether the one in suit can be now enforced simply because it was valid when made.

The act of February 4th, 1887, regulating commerce, declared it to be an unjust and unlawful discrimination for any carrier subject to the provisions of that act, directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, to charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person or persons 'a greater or less compensation' for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property than was charged, demanded, collected, or received from any other person or persons for doing him or them a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions. 24 Stat. at L. 379, chap. 104, § 2, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3154. But the act of June 29th, 1906, made a material addition to the words of the act of 1887; for it expressly prohibited any carrier, unless otherwise provided, to demand, collect, or receive 'a greater or less or different compensation' for the transportation of persons or property, or for any service in connection therewith, than the rates, fares, and charges specified in the tariff filed and in effect at the time. We cannot suppose that this change was without a distinct purpose on the part of Congress. The words 'or different,' looking at the context, cannot be regarded as superfluous or meaningless. We must have regard to all the words used by Congress, and, as far as possible, give effect to them. Washington Market v. Hoffman, 101 U. S. 112, 115, 25 L. ed. 782, 783. The history of the acts relating to commerce shows that Congress, when introducing into the act of 1906 the word 'different,' had in mind the pur- pose of curing a defect in the law, and of suppressing evil practices under it by prohibiting the carrier from charging or receiving compensation except as indicated in its published tariff. 11th Ann. Rep. Interstate Com. Com. 141; 19th Id. 78, 15; 40 Cong. Rec. Pt. 7, p. 6608; Id. 6617; Id. 7428, 7434; Rept. of Confer. Com., 40 Cong. Rec. 9522; 42 Cong. Rec. Pt. 2, p. 1746.

In our opinion, after the passage of the commerce act, the railroad company could not lawfully accept from Mottley and wife any compensation 'different' in kind...