McDonald v. State
| Decision Date | 20 July 1887 |
| Citation | 2 So. 829,81 Ala. 279 |
| Parties | MCDONALD v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from city court, Montgomery county.
Prosecution for operating locomotive engine without license.
Lorenzo McDonald, the appellant, was arrested, on affidavit before the county court of Montgomery, and, upon conviction therein appealed to the city court of Montgomery. The complaint filed in the latter court charged that "he, being an engineer of a railroad train in said state, did drive, operate, or engineer a train of cars or engine upon the main line or road-bed of the Western Railway of Alabama, which said Western Railway was a railroad in said state, and was at the time used for the transportation of persons, passengers, or freight, without having first undergone an examination and obtained a license, as required by law." A second count in the indictment charges the same offense, concluding "without first having applied to the board of examiners provided by law, to be examined by said board, and without having first been examined by said board, or by two or more members thereof, in practical mechanics, and concerning his knowledge of operating a locomotive engine, and his competency as an engineer, as required by law." The defendant pleaded not guilty.
The evidence tended to show that on May 24, 1887, the defendant was an engineer in the state of Alabama, on a railroad therein; that he was not nor had he been so employed in said state previous to January 28, 1887; that he had never applied to the board of examiners provided by law, nor been examined nor obtained a license as an engineer; that on said May 24 1887, he operated an engine and train in said state on the Western Railway of Alabama, and in the county of Montgomery; that the Western Railway of Alabama was and is operated under one management with the Atlanta & West Point Railroad in the state of Georgia, the two railroads forming a continuous line from Montgomery, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia, for the transportation of passengers and freight and the United States mail; that said train, so operated by defendant, was a through train from Atlanta to Montgomery; that said engine and train were and are used in transporting freight shipped from Atlanta, and points beyond, to Montgomery, and points beyond, in the state of Alabama, and in other states west and south of the state of Alabama.
This being substantially all the evidence, the court refused to give the general charge, at the request of defendant, and gave the general charge at the request of the state. The defendant excepted to such actions of the court. Verdict and judgment having been rendered against the defendant, he appeals to this court.
The first two sections of said act are as follows: Acts Ala. 1886-87, pp. 100-102.
T. N. McClellan, Atty. Gen., contra.
The act of 1886-87, pp. 100-102, requires locomotive engineers in this state to be licensed, after examination as to competency and fitness, by a board authorized to be appointed by the governor for that purpose. Acts 1886-87, pp. 100-102. It is insisted that the act is unconstitutional for several reasons.
The first objection is that it is a regulation of commerce between the states, and, for this reason, violative of the clause of the United States constitution which vests in congress the power to regulate such commerce. In our opinion it is a mere internal police regulation, which was competent to be provided for by the state, as a proper mode of preserving the safety of the traveling public, and other persons, whose lives may well be imperiled by the negligence of ignorant and incompetent engineers. It incidentally affects interstate commerce, but does not amount to a regulation, any more than laws licensing, by state authority, pilots of vessels engaged in such commerce, which have always been held free from constitutional objection. The laws of the several states have undertaken, not only to license pilots in such cases, but have gone so far as to regulate the whole subject of pilotage, and pilots; fixing their qualifications, employment, and pay, including the tender of services, and, on refusal to employ, authorizing the recovery of half pay. These laws have been sustained, not on the ground that congress had recognized them as valid, for it is clear that no such recognition could confer any constitutional power on the states which they did not already possess, but upon the ground that they were necessary police regulations, having in view the public safety, or, if regulations of commerce in a certain sense, they were local regulations, of such a nature as to be permissible until congress itself undertook to exercise the same power by legislating on the subject. Cooley v. Board of Wardens of Philadelphia, 12 How. 323; Ex parte Niel, 13 Wall. 236.
There are many police regulations of this nature, incidentally affecting commerce, which have been sustained by the courts. It is well settled that the states may pass laws requiring railroads running from one state to another to fence their tracks, to ring a bell, or blow a whistle on approaching a crossing or highway, to erect gates or bridges, and keep...
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