State v. Robbins
| Decision Date | 17 October 1944 |
| Docket Number | 46552. |
| Citation | 15 N.W.2d 877,235 Iowa 602 |
| Parties | STATE v. ROBBINS. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
S. L. Winters, of Omaha, Neb., for appellant.
John M. Rankin, Atty. Gen., Wm. F. McFarlin, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Iowa, and Harold E. Hanson, Co. Atty., of Logan, for appellee.
The facts are not in material dispute. The defendant was an employe--a truck driver--of Knowles Vans, Inc., which company was a resident of Nebraska, engaged in the transportation for hire of merchandise by motor vehicles. The vehicle operated on this occasion was a truck tractor and semitrailer. The empty weight of the tractor according to its registration certificate, was 5940 pounds. The empty weight of the semitrailer according to its registration certificate was 7040 pounds or 9300 pounds. It appears both ways in the record. These weights were also printed on the outside of each vehicle. Neither vehicle was registered in Iowa, but both were registered in Nebraska, and bore the registration plates required by the Nebraska statutes. The manufacturer's rated capacity of the semitrailer was three tons, and under the Nebraska statute, as proven and stipulated, a three ton truck has a tolerance of a thousand pounds, that is under the Nebraska law a truck with a three ton rated capacity may carry a load of seven thousand pounds. This semitrailer according to its certificate and plates had been registered in Nebraska for a carried load weight of not to exceed 7000 pounds.
On January 15, 1944, the defendant, with this combination vehicle, drove from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sioux City, Iowa, to pick up a load for transportation to Denver, Colorado. The truck was empty when it left Omaha. At Salix, just out of Sioux City, some household goods were loaded, and the defendant then proceeded to Sioux City and had the vehicle and load weighed. He then put on the remainder of his load, and as it was then too late to have another weight taken, he proceeded back to Omaha. At Missouri Valley, an officer of the Iowa road patrol stopped the defendant and weighed the tractor, semitrailer and load. The total weight was 24,400 pounds. It is conceded that the load carried was at least 9160 pounds. The defendant was then arrested.
1. It is the contention of the appellant that the combination motor vehicle which he was operating was duly registered under the statutes of Nebraska and bore the proper evidence thereof and that under the reciprocity statutes in force in Iowa and Nebraska, no additional registration, license or fee was required for its operation in Iowa, and no statute of Iowa was violated. It is true that the tractor and semitrailer were duly registered in Nebraska, but such registration and the permission granted were only for a maximum load on the semitrailer of 7000 pounds. Had it been carrying no greater load it would have been fully protected by the reciprocity statutes and would have violated no law of Iowa. But when the vehicle was licensed to carry a load only up to 7000 pounds in Nebraska, it impliedly follows that it was not licensed or registered to operate with a load in excess thereof on the highways of Nebraska, and therefor was not protected by the reciprocity statutes while being operated with the excessive load in Iowa.
Section 5003.01, Code of 1939 is as follows:
Section 5003.04 provides:
The appellant offered proof, and the appellee conceded that Nebraska has enacted like reciprocity statutes giving like privileges to Iowa trucks and truck operators on the highways of Nebraska.
Section 5000.01(22) defines 'gross weight' as 'the empty weight of a vehicle plus the maximum load to be carried thereon.' The 'maximum load to be carried thereon' is the load as determined by the gross weight at which the truck is registered, plus any statutory tolerance. The various gross weights of trucks having pneumatic tires and the respective registration fees based on these weights are provided for in section 5008.15, Code of 1939.
If the truck operator desires to carry a load which will increase the gross weight over the gross weight at which the truck is registered, he is required to pay an additional fee, as provided by section 5035.15, which is as follows, so far as pertinent The remainder of the section increases the percent of tolerance for certain specified kinds of loads, not material here.
In the absence of proof to the contrary we may assume that in Nebraska there is a like provision making it unlawful for trucks to carry loads in excess of the limitation for which the truck is registered, and that it would have been unlawful for the vehicle operated by appellant to have carried in Nebraska, under its registration, the load which it was carrying in Iowa. We think it was not the intention of the Iowa lawmakers in enacting the reciprocity statute to permit a Nebraska truck owner to operate a truck upon the highways of Iowa carrying a load in excess of the tonnage, for which the truck was licensed and registered in Nebraska. Such a truck so loaded is not 'duly registered' in Nebraska within the meaning of said term as used in said sections 5003.01 and 5003.04, nor protected by said sections when operated in Iowa, but is being operated therein in violation of section 5001.01 of the 1939 Code.
The cost of the license of a truck which is used on the highways as a place of business is based largely upon the servitude to which the road is...
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