Southern Ry. Co. v. R.R. Comm'n of Indiana
| Decision Date | 13 October 1915 |
| Docket Number | No. 22140.,22140. |
| Citation | 109 N.E. 759,183 Ind. 580 |
| Parties | SOUTHERN RY. CO. v. RAILROAD COMMISSION OF INDIANA. |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Superior Court, Vanderburgh County; Alexander Gilchrist, Judge.
Action by the Railroad Commission of Indiana against the Southern Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed, with instructions to sustain defendant's demurrer and to comply with the mandate of the United States Supreme Court by rendering judgment for defendant.
Alex P. Humphrey and Edwin P. Humphrey, both of Louisville, Ky., and John D. Welman, of Evansville, for appellant. Burt New, of Indianapolis, for appellee.
This action was brought by appellee to recover from appellant, an interstate railroad, the penalty provided for the violation of the railroad safety appliance act of this state. Acts 1907, p. 186; section 5278 et seq., Burns 1914. The defense to the action which appellant presented involved the contention that, as Congress, under its power to regulate interstate commerce, has covered the same field, and has provided a penalty for the violation of its enactments, the state statute is superseded and unenforceable. 27 U. S. Stat. at L. 531 (U. S. Comp. St. 1913, § 8605 et seq.). The action sought to recover the prescribed penalty for hauling in an interstate train certain cars billed and taken up by the train at one point in this state and to be delivered at another point in this state, which cars were not equipped with the prescribed safety appliances. On the theory that these cars were, at the time, engaged in intrastate traffic only, and that the state statute, by its terms, applied only to intrastate traffic and not to the interstate movements of trains, and was therefore not in conflict with, but in aid of, the federal statute, the trial court imposed the penalty provided, and appeal was brought to this court. Here the case was ably presented by counsel and given extended consideration by this court. The state statute and the judgment of the trial court were sustained. Southern Railway Company v. Railroad Commission of Indiana (1913) 179 Ind. 23, 100 N. E. 337. From the judgment of this court an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, where a contrary conclusion was reached. Southern Railway Company v. Railroad Commission of Indiana (1915) 236 U. S. 439, 35 Sup. Ct. 304, 59 L. Ed. 661. Following Southern R. Co. v. United States (1911) 222 U. S. 20, 32 Sup. Ct. 2,...
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