State v. Bland

• Decision Date: 19 March 1902
• Citation: 168 Mo. 1,67 S.W. 580
• Parties: STATE ex rel. WABASH R. CO. v. BLAND et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

67 S.W. 580

168 Mo. 1

STATE ex rel. WABASH R. CO. v. BLAND et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March 19, 1902.

CERTIORARI — FEDERAL QUESTION — CARRIER — PAYMENT OF DUTIES — SUBROGATION TO LIEN.

Goods shipped in bond from Japan to St. Louis, with freight paid to destination, were, through fault of a railroad company, sent first to St. Paul, where the goods were opened and assessed, and duties paid by the connecting railroad. When the goods reached St. Louis the consignee refused to pay such sum to the railroad company until he had inspected the goods, — the box showing that they had been opened, — and, on the company refusing such inspection, replevied the goods, and recovered judgment in the trial court, which was affirmed by the St. Louis court of appeals. The defendant then applied for certiorari, claiming that under Rev. St. U. S. §§ 3100, 3102, and 1 Supp. Rev. St. U. S. 1891, pp. 294, 540, regulating the importation of goods in bond, and providing ports to which importation may be so made, it was entitled to subrogation to the lien of the government for the duties so paid, and that such court of appeals had no jurisdiction over such question. Held, that such statutes give no such right, and that no federal question, or other question not within the jurisdiction of the court of appeals, was raised in the replevin action, and hence the case was not reviewable by the supreme court by certiorari.

In banc. Proceeding by certiorari by the state, on the relation of the Wabash Railroad Company, against C. C. Bland and others, to review the decision of the St. Louis court of appeals in the action of Charles E. Pearce against the relator. Writ of certiorari quashed.

This is an original proceeding, by certiorari, whereby the cause of Charles E. Pearce against the Wabash Railroad Company was removed from the St. Louis court of appeals to this court after final judgment in that court in favor of the plaintiff. The petition for the writ of certiorari was based upon the allegation that the St. Louis court of appeals had exceeded its jurisdiction, or was without jurisdiction because "the validity of a treaty or statute of, or authority exercised under the United States, is drawn in question" in the case of Pearce against the railroad, aforesaid, and that the defendant in that case had invoked and been denied the protection of such federal statute or authority. And it was upon this showing and claim that the writ of certiorari was issued. The record in the case of Pearce against the relator, certified to this court under said writ, presents this state of facts: Pearce shipped four boxes of curios, of the value of $1,000, from Yokohama, Japan, to Wilfred Schade & Co., at St. Louis, in bond, by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, prepaying the freight. The port of entry specified in the clearance certificate of the United States deputy consul general was St. Louis, where the duties were to be paid. The goods were carried by said railroad company, on the steamer Empress of China, from Yokohama to Vancouver, British Columbia. There the said railroad placed them in a properly bonded car on its road, and consigned these goods, with others, to: "F. Jones, St. Paul. For Wilfred Schade & Co., St. Louis." That railroad transported said goods over its own road and over its connecting road, the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway, to St. Paul. At St. Paul the United States custom officers opened the goods, assessed the import duties at $264.31, and repacked the goods. The Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway paid said duties, and then turned over the goods, out of bond, to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, for transportation to St. Louis, and collected from that railway the duties it had paid. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company transported the goods to Given, Iowa, and there delivered them to the Wabash Railroad Company, to be by it transported to St. Louis. That company transported them to St. Louis. Schade & Co. had assigned the bill of lading to the real owner, Pearce; and when the goods reached St. Louis the Wabash Company refused to deliver the goods to Pearce unless he would first pay the $264.31 duties, which the Wabash then thought were simply advanced charges, but which it ascertained, before it paid it, was the duty on the goods, and $1.24 freight. Pearce noticed that the boxes had been opened, and refused to pay anything unless he was allowed to first examine them and see their condition; promising, however, if they were intact and in good order, to pay said duty and freight. The...