St Louis, Iron Mountain Southern Railway Company v. Edwards
| Decision Date | 24 February 1913 |
| Docket Number | No. 126,126 |
| Citation | 227 U.S. 265,57 L.Ed. 506,33 S.Ct. 262 |
| Parties | ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN, & SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. E. H. EDWARDS |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. Martin L. Clardy, H. G. Herbel, Lovick P. Miles, and Thomas B. Pryor for plaintiff in error.
[Argument of Counsel from page 266 intentionally omitted] No appearance for defendant in error.
This writ of error is prosecuted to secure the reversal of a judgment for $75, the amount of penalties imposed upon the plaintiff in error for delay in giving notice to the consignee, defendant in error, of the arrival of a carload of freight at the termination of an interstate commerce shipment. The exaction was authorized by § 3 of a law of the state of Arkansas, approved April 19, 1907, entitled, 'An Act to Regulate Freight Transportation by Railroad Companies Doing Business in the State of Arkansas.' The section is copied in the margin.
Sec. 3. Railroad companies . . . give notice, by mail or otherwise, to consignee of the arrival of shipments, together with the weight and amount of freight charges due thereon; and where goods or freight in carload quantities arrive, such notices shall contain also identifying numbers, letter and initials of the car or cars, and if transferred in transit, the number and initials of the car in which originally shipped. Any railroad company failing to give such notice shall forfeit and pay to the shipper, or other party whose interest is affected, the sum of $5 per car per day, or fraction of a day's delay, on all carload shipments, and 1 cent per hundred pounds per day, or fraction thereof, on freight in less than carloads, with a minimum charge of 5 cents for any one package, after the expiration of the said twenty-four hours; provided, that not more than $5 per day be charged for any one consignment not in excess of a carload. [Acts 1907, p. 457.]
The right to impose the penalty was challenged and the validity of the section of the statute authorizing it was assailed by demurrer on the ground of repugnancy to the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States. The question here for decision is whether the court below was right in overruling the Federal defense which was thus relied upon. 94 Ark. 394, 127 S. W. 713.
The Arkansas statute is styled in the opinion of the court below 'the demurrage statute,' and the penalty imposed by § 3 is referred to as a 'demurrage charge.' And in the same connection it is observed: 'There are other sections of the statute imposing demurrage charges on consignees for failure to remove freight, thus making the burdens of the whole statute reciprocal.' It follows that the section under consideration was but intended to subject carriers to the penalties which the section provides because of a failure to make prompt delivery of freight on arrival at destination. As applied to interstate commerce, however, we think such penalties were not enforceable because of a want of power in the state to impose them, in view of the legislation of Congress existing at the time the alleged duty to...
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