Smith v. St Louis Southwestern Railway Company of Texas

• Decision Date: 22 April 1901
• Docket Number: No. 155,155
• Citation: 45 L.Ed. 847,181 U.S. 248,21 S.Ct. 603
• Parties: W. P. SMITH, Piff. in Err. , v. ST. LOUIS & SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY OF TEXAS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

181 U.S. 248

21 S.Ct. 603

45 L.Ed. 847

W. P. SMITH, Piff. in Err.,

v ST. LOUIS & SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY OF TEXAS.

No. 155.

Submitted January 31, 1901.

Decided April 22, 1901.

This case involves the constitutionality of certain quarantine regulations of the state of Texas. The laws of Texas provide for the creation of a live-stock sanitary commission, consisting of three members appointed by the governor, and prescribe their duty. The particular provisions which are material to the case are inserted in the margin.

The governor of the state issued the following proclamation:

Whereas, the live-stock sanitary commission of Texas has this day recommended the adoption of the following regulations:

The live-stock sanitary commission of the state of Texas have been reliably informed that the cattle, mules, and horses in the southern portion of Jefferson county, state of Texas, are affected with disease, known as charbon or anthrax, and are liable to impart such disease to cattle, mules, and horses ranging in upper portion of Jefferson and other counties, from this time forth to the 15th day of November, 1897, no cattle, mules, or horses are to be transported or driven north or west of Taylor and Salt bayous, said bayous running across the southern portion of Jefferson county, state of Texas. This order is given for the purpose of quarantining all cattle, mules, and horses south and east of said Taylor and Salt bayous. The Texas live-stock commission has reason to believe that charbon or anthrax has or is liable to break out in the state of Louisiana, from this time forth until the 15th day of November, 1897, no cattle, mules, or horses are to be transported or driven into the state of Texas from the state of Louisiana. The live-stock sanitary commission of the state of Texas hereby order that any violation of any of the aforesaid rules and regulations by moving of any cattle, mules, or horses north of said bayous, or out of Louisiana into the state of Texas, is contrary to said rules and regulations, and shall be an offense, and punishable as provided by the laws of the state of Texas.

Now, therefore, I, C. A. Culberson, governor of Texas, in conformity with the provisions of chapter 7, title 102, of the Revised Statutes of Texas of 1895, do hereby declare that the quarantine lines, rules, and regulations set forth in the above-recited order of the live-stock sanitary commission of Texas shall be in full force and effect from and after this date.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the state to be affixed, at Austin, this 5th day of June, A. D. 1897.

C. A. Culberson,

Governor of Texas.

In consequence of this proclamation the railway company refused to deliver certain cattle to their owners, of whom the plaintiff in error was one, which it had received as freight from a connecting carrier, and which had been delivered to the latter in the state of Louisiana. The facts, or as many of them as is necessary to state, are as follows:

The shipment of cattle was made upon a through bill of lading issued by the St. Louis & Southwestern Railway Company, at Plain Dealing, La., for Fort Worth, Tarrant county, Texas, and was a through and continuous shipment. The cattle arrived at Forth Worth on the 28th of August, 1897. The owners were ready to receive them, and tendered the amount of freight due thereon. The tender was rejected, and the delivery of the cattle refused. The cattle remained in the pens of the plaintiff in error, the stock yards at Fort Worth refusing to receive them on account of the proclamation of the governor, and permission, which was asked by the railway company of the live-stock sanitary commission, to deliver them to their owners, was also refused on account of the governor's proclamation. Thereafter the railway company shipped the cattle back to Texarkana, to the line of railway from which they were received, by which line they were returned to Plain Dealing, and there tendered to the shippers, who refused to receive them. Thereupon they were sold, after proper advertising, and the proceeds of the sale, less pasturage at Plain Dealing, were tendered to the owners, which was also refused. At the time of the shipment the live-stock sanitary commission had recommended the adoption of the following regulation with reference to Louisiana cattle:

'The Texas live-stock commission has reason to believe that charbon or anthrax has or is liable to break out in the state of Louisiana; and from this time forth until the 15th day of November, 1897, no cattle, mules, or horses are to transported or driven into the state of Texas from the state of Louisiana.'

The quarantine established (if valid) was in full force at the time of the shipment of the cattle. The bill of lading contained stipulations as to a measure of damages in case of a total loss of the cattle, and other provisions, which, as they do not raise Federal questions, we are not concerned with on this record.

The trial court held that——

'1. The quarantine regulations above mentioned, established by the governor of the state, as a regulation of or an interference with interstate commerce, in that its effect is to prohibit the importation of all cattle from the state of Louisiana into the state of Texas, whether affected with or capable of communicating the disease mentioned in said proclamation or not, and is therefore void as being in contravention of § 8 of article 1 of the Constitution of the United States.

'Had the live-stock sanitary commission of the state found upon investigation that charbon or anthrax had broken out among the entire cattle of the state of Louisiana, and that all cattle of the state of Louisiana were liable to communicate either of said diseases to cattle of the state of Texas, and had said proclamation of the governor been based upon said finding, then I think it would have been in law a police regulation of no greater scope than necessary to the protection of cattle in the state of Texas, and therefore valid, even though it did interfere with interstate commerce.'

It also held that the stipulation in the contract of shipment limiting the damages at a fixed sum per head was void, and gave judgment for the actual cash value of the cattle, less freight charges. The judgment amounted to $578.10.

The judgment was reversed by the court of civil appeals, and thereupon the chief justice of that court granted this writ of error. Before the commencement of the action the plaintiff in error became the vendee of the interests of the other owners.

Messrs. F. E. Albright and Wallace Hendricks for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Samuel H. West for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice McKenna, after making the foregoing statement, delivered the opinion of the court:

There are other questions in the record besides the Federal one, upon which the writ of error is based. They seem not to have been earnestly pressed, either in the trial court or in the court of civil appeals. They were not passed on by either court. The court of civil appeals, however, said:

'It was shown that appellee's vendors had actual notice of the quarantine, and that appellant had not. It was also shown that after such notice was brought home to appellant it sought permission of the sanitary commission to deliver the cattle. The sanitary commission ruled and ordered otherwise. It has been given power to make rules. It has the power to call upon the sheriff and peace officers to enforce them. It was the duty of such officers to obey the orders of such commission. Our law also provides heavy penalties for a violation of the rules and regulations of the sanitary commission.'

It is possible that the court may have concluded that the defense which those facts suggest could not be made by the railway company, and that, notwithstanding the plaintiff in error could compel the company to receive his cattle, and force into contest the constitutionality of the Texas statute, either by resisting the imposition of its penalties or in some other way. At any rate, the court rested its decision on the statute, holding it valid; and it is its judgment which we are called upon to review.

To what extent the police power of the state may be exerted on traffic and intercourse with the state, without conflicting with the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States, has not been precisely defined. In the case of Henderson v. New York, 92 U. S. 259, sub nom. Henderson v. Wickham, 23 L. ed. 543, it was held that the statute of the state, which, aiming to secure indemnity against persons coming from foreign countries becoming a charge upon the state, required shipowners to pay a fixed sum for each passenger,—that is, to pay for all passengers,—not limiting the payment to those who might actually become such charge,—was void. Whether the statute would have been valid if so limited was not decided.

In Chy Lung v. Freeman, 92 U. S. 275, 23 L. ed. 550, a statute declaring the same purpose as the New York statute, and apparently directed against persons mentally and physically infirm and against convicted criminals and immoral women, was also declared void, because it imposed conditions on all passengers, and invested a discretion in officers which could be exercised against all passengers. The court, by Mr. Justice Miller, said:

'We are not called upon by this statute to decide for or against the right of a state, in the absence of legislation by Congress, to protect herself by necessary and proper laws against paupers and convicted criminals from abroad; nor to lay down the definite limit of such right if it exist. Such a right can only arise from a vital necessity for its exercise, and cannot be carried beyond the scope of that necessity. When a state statute limited to provisions necessary and appropriate to that object alone shall, in a proper controversy, come before us, it will be time enough to decide that question.'

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