Southern P. Co. v. Railroad Commission of Oregon

• Decision Date: 26 December 1911
• Citation: 60 Or. 400,119 P. 727
• Parties: SOUTHERN PAC. CO. v. RAILROAD COMMISSION OF OREGON.
• Court: Oregon Supreme Court

119 P. 727

60 Or. 400

SOUTHERN PAC. CO. v. RAILROAD COMMISSION OF OREGON.

Supreme Court of Oregon

December 26, 1911

Appeal from Circuit Court, Marion County; Wm. Galloway, Judge.

Suit by the Southern Pacific Company against the Railroad Commission of Oregon. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

This is a suit to enjoin defendant from putting into effect its order, requiring plaintiff to construct and maintain a spur on its main line at the town of Edenbower, in Douglas county.

In December, 1909, certain citizens of Edenbower filed a complaint with the Railroad Commission, setting forth that a flag station for local passenger trains and a siding for freight and express trains were necessary, and asking that the defendant be required to install them. After hearing the testimony of the complainants and the defendant, the Railroad Commission denied the prayer of the complainants for a flag station and siding, but ordered the railroad company to construct a spur sufficient to accommodate three cars. Thereupon plaintiff brought this suit to set aside such order. Upon trial in the circuit court, the order of the Commission was sustained, and plaintiff appeals.

The following sections of the Railway Commission Act relate to the matters here in controversy, and are quoted, so far as applicable:

Section 6887, L.O.L. "Every such railroad is hereby required to furnish reasonably adequate service, equipment and facilities, and the charges made for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property or for any service in connection therewith, or for the receiving, switching, delivering, storing, elevation, and transfer in transit, ventilation, refrigeration, or icing or handling of such property, or for union depot or terminal facilities, shall be reasonable and just, and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful."

Section 6897. "It shall be the duty of every railroad to provide and maintain adequate depots and depot buildings, and clean and suitable toilet rooms, or buildings, at its regular stations where an agent is maintained, for the accommodation of passengers, and said depot buildings shall be kept clean well lighted and warmed, for the comfort and accommodation of the traveling public. All railroads shall keep and maintain adequate and suitable freight depots, buildings, switches spurs and side tracks for the receiving, handling, and delivering of freight transported or to be transported by such railroads. ***"

Section 6908. "Whenever, upon an investigation made under the provisions of this act, the Commission shall find any existing rate or rates, fares, charges, or classifications or any joint rate or rates, or any regulation or practice whatsoever affecting the transportation of persons or property, or any service in connection therewith, are unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or any service is inadequate, it shall determine and by order fix a reasonable rate, fare, charge, classification, or joint rate to be imposed, observed, and followed in the future in lieu of that found to be unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or inadequate, as the case may be, and it shall cause a certified copy of each such order to be delivered to an officer or station agent of the railroad affected thereby which order shall of its own force take effect and become operative twenty days after the service thereof. All railroads to which the order applies shall make such changes in their schedule on file as may be necessary to make the same conform to said order, and no change shall thereafter be made by any railroad in any such rates, fares, or charges, or in any joint rate, or rates, without the approval of the Commission. Certified copies of all other orders of the Commission shall be delivered to the railroads affected thereby in like manner, and the same shall take effect within such time thereafter as the Commission shall prescribe."

By section 6910, a railway company is authorized to commence a suit in equity to vacate an order of the Railroad Commission if the same is unlawful or unreasonable; and in such suit the burden of proof is upon the plaintiff to show the unlawfulness or unreasonableness of the order "by clear and satisfactory evidence."

Wm. D. Fenton (Geo. G. Bingham, Ben C. Dey, Dexter Rice, and Jas. E. Fenton, on the brief), for appellant.

A.M. Crawford (C.L. McNary and Roy F. Shields, on the brief), for respondent.

McBRIDE, J. (after stating the facts as above).

The validity of the order of the Railroad Commission is assailed upon three grounds, namely: (1) That the Legislature is without power to authorize the Commission to direct the building of new spurs or side tracks; (2) that, conceding that the Legislature had such power, it has not delegated it to the Commission; and (3) that the exercise of the power in the present instance is so unreasonable that it is void, or at least that the order should be reversed upon the facts shown to exist.

Taking these propositions in the order stated, we are of the opinion that the Legislature has power to enact legislation authorizing the Railroad Commission to require railroad corporations to furnish reasonable and adequate facilities for the transportation of freight and passengers; and that such legislation is not contrary to the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

One of the primary duties, recognized by all civilized governments is that of providing their citizens with facilities for public travel by means of roads, canals, and other similar structures. In the progress of civilization and the increase of public travel, it became apparent that the public could be better served, and public highways more readily built and operated, by allowing private enterprise to supplement the facilities provided by general taxation, and toll roads were authorized, and corporations, endowed with governmental authority to exercise the right of eminent domain, were authorized to construct such highways, receiving in the way of toll from the traveling public sums which, in some respects, were deemed a substitute for those previously paid by them in the form of taxes. Later, with the application of steam to the purposes of travel by land, the railroad succeeded the toll road. It is true that the railroad differed from the toll road, in that its proprietors furnished, not only the road, but the vehicle which carried the traveler, but, nevertheless, remained a public road; and the corporation which carried the freight or passengers continued to perform a public and governmental function, namely, that of expediting public travel. For these reasons it has always been held that railroads are public highways. Mills on Em. Dom. § 14; Olcott v. Supervisors, 16 Wall. 678, 21 L.Ed. 382; Railroad Commissioners v. Portland & O.C.R. Co., 63 Me. 269, 18 Am.Rep. 208. In respect to their functions and powers, railway corporations are differentiated in a marked degree from other corporations. No mining, merchandising, or banking corporation can use the authority of the government to condemn a rod of land--one of the highest attributes of sovereignty. The railway corporation is invested with the powers of the sovereign, because it is a...