Merchants Exchange of St Louis v. State of Missouri Barker

• Decision Date: 07 January 1919
• Docket Number: No. 116,116
• Citation: 248 U.S. 365,39 S.Ct. 114,63 L.Ed. 300
• Parties: MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE OF ST. LOUIS v. STATE OF MISSOURI ex rel. BARKER, Atty. Gen
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

248 U.S. 365

39 S.Ct. 114

63 L.Ed. 300

MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE OF ST. LOUIS

v STATE OF MISSOURI ex rel. BARKER, Atty. Gen.

No. 116.

Argued Dec. 19, 1918.

Decided Jan. 7, 1919.

Messrs. Percy Werner, of St. Louis, Mo., and Frank Hagerman, of Kansas City, Mo., for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. John T. Gose, of Shelbina, Mo., and Frank McAllister, of Jefferson City, Mo., for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.

A statute of Missouri relating to the inspection and weighing of grain, approved March 20, 1913 (Laws Missouri 1913, pp. 354-373) and amended March 23, 1915 (Laws Missouri 1915, p. 302), declares that in cities of more than 75,000 inhabitants all buildings used for the storage or transferring of grain of different owners, for a compensation, shall be deemed public warehouses; and, by section 63 (page 372) thereof, prohibits under severe penalties 'any person, corporation or association other than a duly authorized and bonded state weigher to issue any weight certificate [for any] again weighed at any warehouse or elevator in this state where duly appointed and qualified state weighers are stationed, * * * or to make any charge for such weighing, * * * or weight certificates. * * *'

In June, 1915, an original proceeding in the nature of quo warranto was brought under this statute at the relation of the Attorney General in the Supreme Court of the state against the Merchants' Exchange, a Missouri corporation with the usual powers of a board of trade. See House v. Mayes, 219 U. S. 270, 31 Sup. Ct. 234, 55 L. Ed. 213; Board of Trade v. Christie Grain & Stock Co., 198 U. S. 236, 25 Sup. Ct. 637, 49 L. Ed. 1031. The information stated that St. Louis is a city of more than 75,000 inhabitants; that public weighers of grain are maintained there at all public warehouses and elevators in compliance with the act; and that the respondent in violation thereof and in abuse of its corporate franchise maintains a bureaufor weighing grain, grants weight certificates, and makes charges therefor. The prayer is that respondent be adjudged guilty of these practices and that a fine be imposed. The return admitted substantially the facts stated in the information but alleged that the service were rendered only at the request of members; that the weighing by its bureau in addition to that of the public weighers added to the general security, thus benefitting farmer, dealer, and consumer; that similar weighing bureaus were maintained by the boards of trade at competing grain markets; and that the statute, in prohibiting the practice, deprived its members of liberty and property and of equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The return also set forth that the grain weighed by its bureau was in large part shipped into or out of the state; that it is commercially necessary as a part of interstate transit to pass grain through an elevator where it is weighed, and the issue of certificates of weight is essential; and that the provisions of the Missouri act therefore violated the commerce clause of the federal Constitution. Upon a demurrer to the return, the full court found the respondent guilty and ordered that it be ousted of the usurped power of weighing grain received into or discharged from public warehouses and elevators and of making charges therefor, and of issuing weight certificates and making charges therefor; and that the respondent pay costs. State ex inf. Barker v. Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis, 269 Mo. 346, 190 S. W. 903, Ann. Cas. 1917E, 871. The case comes here on writ of error.

First. Section 63 of the act does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. As the state court has pointed out, the statute does not prohibit owners of grain from weighing it before it is went to a public warehouse or after it is removed therefrom. But the issue of a private weigher's certificate...