Southern Railway Company v. Reid

• Decision Date: 09 January 1912
• Docket Number: No. 487,487
• Parties: SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. D. L. REID and Etta C. Reid, his Wife
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

222 U.S. 424

32 S.Ct. 140

56 L.Ed. 257

SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v D. L. REID and Etta C. Reid, his Wife.

No. 487.

Argued December 6, 1911.

Decided January 9, 1912.

Messrs. Alfred P. Thom and John K. Graves for plaintiff in error.

No counsel for defendants in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 425-431 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

The question in the case is the validity of an act of the state of North Carolina which requires the agents and officers of railroads and other transportation companies to receive freight for transportation whenever tendered at a regular station, and every loaded car tendered at a side track or any warehouse connected with the railroad by a siding, and forward the same by a route selected by the person tendering the same, under penalty of forfeiting $50 a day to the aggrieved party for each day of refusal to reecive such freight and all damages actually sustained.

Agents or other officers of railroads and other transportation companies whose duty it is to receive freights shall receive all articles of the nature and kind received by such company for transportation whenever tendered at a regular depot, station, wharf, or boat landing, and every loaded car tendered at a side track, or any warehouse connected with the railroad by a siding, and shall forward the same by the route selected by the person tendering the freight under existing laws; and the transportation company represented by any person refusing to receive such freight shall forfeit and pay to the party aggrieved the sum of $50 for each day said company refuses to receive said shipment of freight, and all damages actually sustained by reason of the refusal to receive freight. If such loaded car be tendered at any siding or workhouse warehouse at which there is no agent, notice shall be given to an agent at the nearest regular station at which there is an agent that such car is loaded and ready for shipment. Code of North Carolina, 1905, § 2631.

Defendants in error brought suit against plaintiff in error, herein called the railway company, in one of the courts of North Carolina, to recover penalties and damages for the failure of the railway company, in violation of the statute, on dates from September 17 to September 23, 1907, to receive goods tendered to it by Etta C. Reid, defendant in error, at Charlotte, North Carolina, for transportation to a point in the state of West Virginia.

The material facts, as stipulated, are as follows: The railway company is a Virginia corporation, and is a common carrier, and operates a line of railroad from the city of Charlotte to the city of Alexandria, Virginia, and another line to the city of Richmond. Davis is a town in West Virginia, and a terminus of a branch road of the Western Maryland Railroad Company, 6 miles long, running from a point on the railroad, known as Thomas, to Davis.

The railway company operates no line of railroad or other means of conveyance to Davis, nor does it connect with the Western Maryland Railroad's line.

On the 17th of September, 1907, Etta C. Reid tendered to the railway company at its depot in Charlotte, where it usually accepts freight, a lot of household goods and kitchen furniture, and offered to pay the freight charges thereon. She demanded that the company issue to her a bill of lading 'reading from Charlotte, in the state of North Carolina, to Davis, in the state of West Virginia, consignee to be Samuel Hammock.' The railway company declined to name a rate to be charged for transportation of the goods, declined to permit her to prepay the freight charges from Charlotte to Davis, declined to receive the goods for shipment, and declined to issue a bill of lading therefor.

She renewed her request on four successive days, and, with each demand, the company refused to comply. On September 23, 1907, the company named the sum of $34.08 as the amount necessary to prepay the freight charges on the shipment from Charlotte to Davis, and thereupon she paid the said sum and the company issued a bill of lading to her.

On September 17, 1907, no through and joint rate of freight had been established by the railway company and the Western Maryland Railroad Company and other roads which the shipment would have to pass over going from Charlotte to Davis, 'and no such rates had been filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, and no rate of freight had been established of filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, or published, covering shipments between said points.' On that day, when Etta C. Reid made her demand of the railway company, the company's agent advised her that there was no established rate for the shipment, that no rate had been filed or published, that he did not know the rate, that he had no authority to receive the goods or the freight charges thereon to destination, and no authority to issue a bill of lading reading 'final destination, Davis, in the state of West Virginia.'

The agent wired the officer having charge of such matters to obtain authority to name a through and joint rate to receive the shipment and issue a bill of lading. Immediately thereafter the officers of the company took up with the officers of the companies over whose lines the shipment of freight would have to move the establishment of a rate, with the result that a rate was established. On Monday, September 23, 1907, the local agent was informed of such rate and given authority to receive the shipment and to issue a bill of lading. Thereupon the company received the shipment, accepted the amount of freight in accordance with the joint and through rate, and issued the bill of lading.

There is, and was, at the date of the tender of the goods, a telegraph office at Davis. Mrs. Reid remained at Charlotte for the time mentioned, awaiting the establishment of the rate.

It is stipulated that she was damaged in the sum of $25, for the recovery of which and the penalties prescribed by the statute she asked the court to adjudge.

The railway company resisted the demand and contended that to hold that the act was applicable to it would violate the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States.

Judgment was awarded to defendants in error as prayed, and it was affirmed by the supreme court of the state, two members of the court dissenting. 153 N. C. 490, 69 S. E. 618.

This statement indicates the questions which are presented for solution and the principles upon which the solution of them depends. It hardly needs to be stated that transportation of property between the states is interstate commerce, and may be of Federal rather than of state jurisdiction. We say may be of Federal jurisdiction, for interstate commerce in its practical conduct has many incidents having varying degrees of connection with it and effect upon it over which the state may have some power. As to the extent of the power and the occasions for its exercise, controversies have arisen, and in deciding which the power of the state over the general subject of commerce has been divided into three classes: First, those in which the power of the state is exclusive; second, those in which the states may act in the absence of legislation by Congress; third, those in which the action of Congress is exclusive and the state cannot act at all. Covington & C. Bridge Co. v. Kentucky, 154 U. S. 209, 38 L. ed. 965, 4 Inters. Com. Rep. 649, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1087; Western U. Teleg. Co. v. James, 162 U. S. 650, 655, 40 L. ed. 1105, 1106, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 934.

These divisions, however, express but the extreme boundaries of the subject. Something more definite is necessary for the decision of the opposing contentions in the case at bar. The supreme court of the state was of the view that the statute simply regulated a duty which preceded the entry of the goods in interstate commerce, and concluded, therefore, that the statute was 'neither an interference with nor a burden upon interstate commerce.' And it decided that the execution of this duty was not precluded by the provision of the interstate commerce act [24 Stat. at L. 379, chap. 104, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3154] requiring a schedule of tariffs to be established and charged. It was said by the court that it was the duty of the railway company to file such schedule, and that the company could not justify the violation of it common-law duty by the neglect of its statutory duty.

The case, however, is not quite in such narrow compass. There is something more to be considered than the accumulation of defaults, if there be defaults. It is undoubtedly edly the duty of a railway company to receive freight when tendered for transportation. It may, besides, have other obligations, but it does not follow that it is within the power of the state to enforce them. There may be a Federal exertion of authority which takes from a state the power to regulate the duties of interstate carriers or to provide remedies for their violation. This is realized by defendants in error, and they assert that the state statute is in aid of commerce, and not an interference with or burden upon it, and therefore must be sustained as a valid exer- cise of the state's power, citing Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Mazursky, 216 U. S. 122, 54 L. ed. 411, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 378; Western U. Teleg. Co. v. James, 162 U. S. 650, 40 L. ed. 1105, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 934.

In those cases, and in the later case of Western U. Teleg. Co. v. Commercial Mill. Co. 218 U. S. 406, 54 L. ed. 1088, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 59, the principle is expressed that 'there are many occasions where the police power of the state can be properly exercised to insure a faithful and prompt performance of duty within the limits of the state upon the part of those engaged in interstate commerce.' Such exercise of power, it was further said, was in aid of interstate commerce, and, although incidentally affecting it, did not burden it. But the facts of those...