State v. Florida East Coast Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 03 February 1914
• Citation: 64 So. 443,67 Fla. 83
• Parties: STATE ex rel. RAILROAD COM'RS v. FLORIDA EAST COAST RY. CO.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

64 So. 443

67 Fla. 83

STATE ex rel. RAILROAD COM'RS v. FLORIDA EAST COAST RY. CO.

Florida Supreme Court

February 3, 1914

Original proceedings in mandamus by the State, on the relation of the Railroad Commissioners, against the Florida East Coast Railway Company. Peremtory writ will issue.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Orders duly made by the Railroad Commissioners within their statutory authority to regulate the maintenance and operation of railroads as common carriers may be enforced in appropriate proceedings, when they are not shown to be illegal or unreasonable. Such orders when duly made under authority conferred are by statute made prima facie reasonable and just; and the burden is upon the respondent to clearly show that they are unreasonable in their terms or in their practical operation.

In mandamus proceedings to enforce an order of the Railroad Commissioners duly made within the authority conferred requiring a railroad company to furnish designated facilities for the accomodation of passengers and shippers at a station on its line of railroad, the main question to be determined is not whether the relators erred in their finding on the facts upon which they acted in making the order involved here, but whether the relators as Railroad Commissioners in making the orders exceeded their authority or abused their official discretion to the substantial injury of the respondent's constitutional property rights.

When acting within the authority conferred upon them, a wide discretion is accorded to the Railroad Commissioners, and their valid orders, rules, and regulations should be made effective as contemplated by the Constitution and statutes. The statute expressly provides that the authorized rules and regulations of the Railroad Commissioners 'shall be deemed and held prima facie reasonable and just'; and when action is taken by the commissioners in the exercise of their undoubted authority, their administrative discretion will not be controlled by the courts, and their regulations will be made effective in appropriate proceedings where an abuse of discretion is not clearly shown in unreasonable and arbitrary action taken.

In determining whether a rate, rule, regulation, or order of the Railroad Commission upon a subject within its authority is so unreasonable and arbitrary as to be illegal and unenforceable, the court, in deference to the governmental functions conferred by law upon the commissioners, will not only require the prima facies of reasonableness impressed by the statute upon the rate, rule, regulation, or order to be overcome by admission or proofs, but will require the admissions or proofs of facts tending to show unreasonableness to be clear and convincing; every reasonable doubt being yielded in favor of the rate, rule, regulation or order.

To afford reasonably adequate facilities at its own stations is an absolute duty of the carrier; and the burden of furnishing such facilities does not invade the respondent's property rights, when the requirements are not in fact unreasonable and arbitrary.

COUNSEL F. M. Hudson, of Miami, for relators.

Shutts Smith & Bowen, of Miami, for respondent.

The alternative writ of mandamus issued herein by this court on March 18, 1913, is as follows:

'Whereas by petition filed in this court, wherein R. Hudson Burr, Newton A. Blitch, and Royal C. Dunn, as Railroad Commissioners of the State of Florida, by F. M. Hudson, special counsel by them designated, are relators, and the Florida East Coast Railway Company is respondent, it has been made to appear:

'1. That the Florida East Coast Railway Company is a railroad corporation created and existing under the laws of the state of Florida and boing business as a common carrier in said state. That said company owns and operates, and for more than a year last past has owned and operated, a line of railway lying wholly within this state and extending therein from Jacksonville, Fla., in a southerly direction to Key West, Fla. That the said company transports persons and property over its said line of railway as a common carrier for hire, and holds itself out as such common carrier for hire, and transports persons and property from points in this state to other points in this state as such common carrier for hire aforesaid.

'2. That Peters, Fla., is and has been for many years last past a nonagency station on the line of railway of the said Florida East Coast Railway Company, at which local passenger trains have been accustomed to stop on flag, and at which freight has been received and delivered in car load and less than car load quantities. That said company has maintained and is maintaining a side track at the said point sufficient for the accommodation of eleven cars, but has not provided or maintained any station building. That the facilities now maintained and heretofore maintained at Peters, as aforesaid, are inadequate and insufficient for the proper accommodation of patrons of the said railway company desiring to use the said station.

'3. That on, to wit, the 13th day of January, 1913, the Railroad Commissioners of the State of Florida did give notice in writing to the said Florida East Coast Railway Company that they, the said Railroad Commissioners, would hold a session at Peters aforesaid at 11 o'clock in the forenoon of January 23, 1913, for the purpose of considering whether they should require the said company to erect and maintain a freight and passenger station, extend its side track facilities, and install an agent at that point, at which time the said company would have a full and fair hearing.

'4. That thereafter, on, to wit, the 23d day of January, 1913, at 11 o'clock in the morning, pursuant to said notice, the Railroad Commissioners being then and there duly in session at Peters aforesaid, the said Florida East Coast Railway Company then and there appearing by its attorney, and the petitioners in the said matter appearing in their own behalf. And after hearing all parties who desired to be heard, the said matter was taken under advisement.

'5. That thereafter on, to wit, the 15th day of February, 1913, the said Railroad Commissioners did make and enter their certain Order No. 389, in the words and figures following, to-wit:

"Order #389.

"File #3380.

"Before the Railroad Commissioners of the State of Florida.

"In the Matter of Petition for Additional Side Track and Station Facilities at Peters, Florida.

"After due and lawful notice to all parties in interest, the Railroad Commissioners of the State of Florida met at Peters, Florida, a station on the line of the Florida East Coast Railway, in Dade county, at 11 o'clock in the morning January 23rd, 1913, then and there proceeded to hear and consider whether or not they should require the Florida East Coast Railway Company to erect a freight and passenger station, extend their side track facilities and install an agent at Peters. The said Florida East Coast Railway Company appearing by its attorney, Mr. W. Pruden Smith, of the firm of Shutts, Smith & Bowen, and the petitioners appearing by Mr. Thomas J. Peters, and others, in their own behalf. After hearing all parties who desired to be heard, the said matter was taken under advisement.

"And now on this day the Railroad Commissioners of the State of Florida, having considered the evidence submitted at said hearing, and having heard the parties in interest and being well advised in the premises, do find from the evidence submitted and heard at the said hearing that the said Florida East Coast Railway Company has maintained at Peters aforesaid for more than eight years last past a nonagency station at which local passenger trains have been accustomed to stop on flag and at which freight has been received and delivered in carload and less than carload quantities; and that the said company has maintained and is now maintaining a side track at the said point sufficient for the accommodation of eleven cars, but has not provided or maintained any station building.

"That said station has been voluntarily established and maintained by said Florida East Coast Railway Company.

"That said commissioners do further find that the said station is within one mile of Perrine, an agency station which has been maintained by the said railway company for many years, and the commissioners announced at the said hearing that had an application, as an original proposition, been made to them to establish a station and order facilities within a mile of another regularly established station, where there were no intervening obstructions which prevented free access from one place to the other, that the same would be denied. But the circumstances of this case develop the fact that Peters as a station was established about the same time as the one at Perrine and having been voluntarily established by the said company ought to be provided with proper and adequate facilities for the accommodation of patrons of the said station.

"The said Railroad Commissioners do further find that the facilities now maintained and heretofore maintained at Peters as aforesaid are inadequate and insufficient for the proper accommodations of patrons of the said railway company desiring to use the said station.

"It is therefore considered, ordered and adjudged that the Florida East Coast Railway Company be and it is hereby required to provide at Peters, Florida, aforesaid additional side track facilities by providing a side track or side tracks of at least double the capacity of the side track now and heretofore maintained.

"And that said railroad company be required to provide at said point an adequate and suitable depot building to contain two waiting rooms, one for each color, each of which shall...