Sproles v. Binford

• Decision Date: 30 September 1931
• Docket Number: No. 476.,476.
• Citation: 52 F.2d 730
• Parties: SPROLES v. BINFORD et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

52 F.2d 730 (1931)

SPROLES v. BINFORD et al.

No. 476.

District Court, S. D. Texas, Houston Division.

September 30, 1931.

Frank H. Rawlings and Swartzberg & Rawlings, all of Fort Worth, Tex., Chas. I. Francis, Weeks, Morrow, Francis & Hankerson, and Mathis & Caldwell, all of Wichita Falls, Tex., Fulbright, Crooker & Freeman, of Houston, Tex., and J. B. Dudley and J. B. Barnett, of Oklahoma City, Okl., for complainant and interveners.

James V. Allred, Atty. Gen., of Texas, and T. S. Christopher and Elbert Hooper, Asst. Attys. Gen., of Texas, W. L. Cook, of Houston, Tex., and Albert Reed, of Dallas, Tex., for respondents.

Before HUTCHESON, Circuit Judge, and WEST and KENNERLY, District Judges.

KENNERLY, District Judge.

Alleging that the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $3,000, and that it arises under the Constitution and laws of the United States, complainant, Ed Sproles, a common carrier, engaged, under the name of Sproles Motor Freight Lines, in transporting commodities in motor vehicles over the highways of Texas, sues herein James V. Allred, Attorney General of Texas, and numerous other law enforcement officers of the state, including T. Binford, sheriff of Harris county, and a resident citizen of this judicial district, to enjoin the enforcement, as to him, of an act of the Legislature of Texas, having for its purpose the regulation, etc., of the operation of vehicles upon the public highways of Texas (chapter 282, approved June 11, 1931, General Laws, Forty-Second Legislature, page 507, and generally referred to as House Bill No. 336 Vernon's Ann. P. C. Tex. art. 827a, § 1 et seq.). Complainant charges that such act, as to him, violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and prays for temporary restraining order, interlocutory injunction pending final hearing, and permanent injunction upon final hearing. This is a hearing, after due notice to respondents, upon pleadings and affidavits, of such application for interlocutory injunction, before a court convened under section 380 of title 28, USCA, at which hearing both complainant and respondents appeared by counsel. Upon leave granted, several persons intervened, appeared at such hearing by counsel, and in like manner attacked such act, but in each instance from a slightly different angle.

Complainant alleges that in his business as such common carrier he has about 100 vehicles which would be affected by the enforcement of the provisions of such act, maintains large warehouses, has many employees, and has an investment of more than $264,000; that he has fifteen combinations of vehicles, etc., on which he may carry loads in excess of 7,000 pounds, and fifteen combinations of vehicles which are in excess of a total length of 45 feet, all representing an investment of more than $115,000; that the operation of such vehicles is prohibited by the provisions of said act, and same will be made valueless thereby, and that no other type of vehicle can be profitably operated in complainant's business; that he has paid 1931 annual highway license fees, aggregating approximately $10,000, and is paying the state of Texas a large gasoline tax; that he has certain existing contracts for the transportation of commodities over the highways, which he will be unable to fulfill and perform under the provisions of said act; that his rates are fixed by the Railroad Commission of Texas, and he has no authority to alter or change same, and that operation under said act will be unprofitable, and that complainant's business will virtually be destroyed and confiscated.

Interveners, Tennessee Dairies, Inc., engaged in the intrastate business of daily gathering and marketing dairy products, Southern Transportation Company, engaged both in the intrastate and interstate business of operating a motor freight line, Western States Grocery Company, Inc., engaged in the wholesale grocery business and hauling and transporting commodities in connection with its business, Merchants Fast Motor Lines, Inc., engaged as a common carrier of commodities in intrastate business, Bull-Stewart Equipment Company, Inc., engaged in transporting Ford automobiles over the highways under a contract with the Ford Motor Company, Jno. B. Barbour Trucking Company, Inc., engaged as a private carrier of oil field equipment and farm machinery, G. F. Sproul, the owner of certain trucks and engaged as a private carrier, and the Yellowcab Transit Company, engaged in interstate business only and operating a commercial motor freight line for the transportation of commodities, make similar allegations (but with varying amounts and numbers) with respect to their businesses, and the injury that will be inflicted upon them by the enforcement of such act. Substantially all of them adopt the pleadings of complainant.

Intervener W. T. Stevens alleges that he is engaged in the business of transporting uncompressed cotton for hire in trucks owned by him; that he has a contract with Mager Cleaver & Co., under which he is to transport all uncompressed cotton owned by such company, and has acquired approximately forty trucks, all equipped with semitrailers, and representing an investment of about $50,000; that enforcement of such act will bring about a cancellation of his contract; that he knows of no commodity transported over the highways to which section 3(f) of such act (Vernon's Ann. P. C. Tex. art. 827a, § 3(f) can apply other than uncompressed cotton, and charges that said act has reference to uncompressed cotton alone; that the enforcement of this act will cause complete destruction of the business of intervener. He also alleges that this legislation is designed and purposed to favor the interior compresses in the compressing, and the railroads in the transportation, of cotton, and to promote their business and welfare, and to annihilate and destroy the business of transporting uncompressed cotton over the highways.

A statement of the contention of the intervener Wichita Falls Motor Company appears later herein.

The complainant and all interveners allege that respondents are threatening to enforce such act, and, unless restrained, will do so, or attempt to do so, and will arrest them and their drivers and other employees, and subject them to numerous prosecutions, causing them large damage and heavy expense, etc.

Respondents, by their pleadings, join issue with complainant and interveners.

1. The act in question, after defining certain terms used therein, provides that no vehicle exceeding a total outside width of 96 inches, including any load thereon, exceeding a height of 12 feet 6 inches unladen or with load and including load, and exceeding a length of 35 feet, or a combination of vehicles coupled together exceeding a length of 45 feet, shall be allowed to pass over the public highways of Texas. There are a number of exceptions and exemptions, and these exceptions and exemptions, and certain provision as to weight and packing of loads, form the basis of the main complaint of complainant and interveners, and for convenience their terms and provisions are set forth in the discussion of such complaint.

The act also contains certain other provisions with respect to the load extending beyond the front and rear, and over the sides, of the vehicle, prescribes the rate of speed, has certain safety provisions with respect to the display of flags and lights, equipment with brakes, signal horns, etc., and makes certain requirements respecting parking vehicles upon the highways. It makes a violation of the act a misdemeanor, with a fine for the first violation, a larger fine or imprisonment in the county jail for a second violation, and a still larger fine and longer imprisonment for a third or subsequent violation.

Unquestionably complainant and each of the interveners (except the Wichita Falls Motor Company), on the face of their pleadings, state a cause of action of which this court has jurisdiction. Smith v. Cahoon, 283 U. S. 554, 51 S. Ct. 582, 75 L. Ed. 1264; Buck v. Kuykendall, 267 U. S. 314, 45 S. Ct. 324, 69 L. Ed. 623, 38 A. L. R. 286; Packard v. Banton, 264 U. S. 140, 44 S. Ct. 257, 68 L. Ed. 596; Frost & Frost Trucking Co. v. Railroad Commission, 271 U. S. 583, 46 S. Ct. 605, 70 L. Ed. 1101, 47 A. L. R. 457.

The Wichita Falls Motor Company is not using the highways. The basis of its complaint is that it is now, and has been for many years, engaged in the manufacture and sale (frequently on credit) of a certain type or certain types of vehicles (and yet has many on hand), which, under the act, it alleges cannot be used on the public highways of Texas, and it therefore cannot sell them, nor collect for those already sold, and that its business will be wrecked by the enforcement of this act. It relies upon Pierce v. Society of the Sisters, 268 U. S. 532, 45 S. Ct. 571, 69 L. Ed. 1077, 39 A. L. R. 468, and other similar cases. Such cases, however, are, we think, distinguishable from the case here presented by motor company. We think the injury alleged by it is too remote to bring it within the rule of such cases. Reference hereinafter to interveners will be understood to be interveners other than such motor company.

That this Act, in so far as it regulates, or seeks to regulate, as stated above, the size of vehicles and loads, the speed thereof, and makes provision for the safety of the public and the protection of the highways, and considered without regard to the exceptions, exemptions, and other provisions complained of, is well within the power of the Legislature, we need not stop to discuss. Hendrick v. Maryland, 235 U. S. 622, 35 S. Ct. 140, 59 L. Ed. 390; Morris v. Duby, 274 U. S. 140, 47 S. Ct. 548, 71 L. Ed. 967.

2. But complainant and interveners, citing Smith v. Cahoon, 283 U. S. 554, 51 S. Ct. 582, 75 L. Ed. 1264, and the line of cases there cited and discussed, and invoking the principles there laid...