Simpson-Crawford Co. v. Borough of Atlantic Highlands

• Decision Date: 02 January 1908
• Parties: SIMPSON-- CRAWFORD CO. et al. v. BOROUGH OF ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

158 F. 372

SIMPSON-- CRAWFORD CO. et al. v. BOROUGH OF ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS.

United States Circuit Court, D. New Jersey.

January 2, 1908

McDermott & Enright, for complainants.

John M Sweeney and John E. Foster, for defendant.

LANNING District Judge.

The borough of Atlantic Highlands, in the state of New Jersey has an ordinance entitled 'An ordinance to license and regulate certain kinds of business within the corporate limits of the borough of Atlantic Highlands. ' Its sections pertinent to the present issue are the following:

'Section 1. That it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in or conduct, within the corporate limits of the said borough, any of the kinds of business hereinafter specified unless he, she or they shall have first obtained a license therefore from the mayor and borough clerk who are hereby authorized and empowered to issue such license in the name of the said borough and for the purposes and businesses as hereinafter specified.

'Sec. 2. That the businesses for which such license shall be issued and obtained and the fees to be paid therefor shall be as hereinafter specified and shall be paid to the borough clerk.'

'Sec. 5. For each and every two-horse truck, wagon or vehicle used within the corporate limits of said borough for the transportation of baggage, goods and merchandise a yearly license fee of ten dollars shall be paid.

'Sec. 6. For each and every one-horse truck, wagon or vehicle used for the same purpose a yearly license fee of seven dollars and fifty cents shall be paid.'

The eighteenth and nineteenth sections provide that no license shall be issued for a term exceeding one year, and that any person violating any of its provisions shall, on conviction, be required to pay a penalty of $10, and in default of payment thereof be committed to the borough or county jail for a period of 30 days.

The Simpson-Crawford Company is a retail dealer in dry goods and other merchandise, and has its storehouse and principal place of business in New York City. In the summer months many of its customers reside in the borough of Atlantic Highlands. These customers either personally deliver their orders for goods and merchandise to the company at its storehouse or send their orders to the storehouse by mail. The goods and merchandise ordered are put in separate packages for the respective customers, and sent by boat or express from New York City to Atlantic Highlands, where employes of the Simpson-Crawford Company put them in wagons belonging to that company and take them to and deliver them at the residences of the customers in Atlantic Highlands. The Simpson-Crawford Company insists that its business with its customers in Atlantic Highlands is interstate commerce, and that, as against it, the borough ordinance is void. As the borough authorities threaten to fine and imprison the employes of the said company, it now seeks an injunction to restrain the enforcement of the ordinance as against it and its employes.

The counsel for the defendant insists that the business of the Simpson-Crawford Company in the borough of Atlantic Highlands is that of truckman, and not interstate commerce. I think it clear, however, that during the entire period of transportation from the city of New York until delivery to the purchasers in the borough of Atlantic Highlands the Simpson-Crawford Company is carrying on interstate commerce. The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 557, 565, 19 L.Ed. 999; 8 Fed.St.Ann.p 423; Case of the State Freight Tax, 15 Wall 232, 275, 21 L.Ed. 146; Rhodes v....