The Pullman Company v. State of Kansas Ex Rel Coleman
Decision Date | 31 January 1910 |
Docket Number | No. 5,5 |
Parties | THE PULLMAN COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF KANSAS EX REL. C. C. COLEMAN, Attorney General |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. Frank B. Kellogg, Charles Blood Smith, Francis B. Daniels, and Gustavus S. Fernald for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. Fred S. Jackson and C. C. Coleman for defendant in error.
[Argument of Counsel from page 57 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the court:
This is a proceeding in quo warranto, instituted by the state in the supreme court of Kansas against the Pullman Company, a corporation of Illinois, in which the state, by its petition, prays that the defendant be required to show by what authority it exercises within Kansas the corporate right and power of charging compensation for the use of reserved stats in its cars by day and sleeping berths during the night, and of serving meals in its dining cars within the state of Kansas, such services, it is alleged, being rendered to and said fees being collected from passengers transferring upon railroads from places within the state to other places within the state; and that it be adjudged that the defendant has no authority of law for the performance of such corporate acts, powers, franchises, and business in the state of Kansas, and be ousted of and from the exercise within the state of the said corporate rights and franchises, and of receiving compensation therefor.
On the petition of the company the case was removed to the circuit court of the United States, but that court remanded it to the state court, where the defendant filed an answer resisting the relief asked on various grounds, one of which was that such relief could not be granted consistently with the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the several states, or with rights belonging to the defendant under the Constitution of the United States. A demurrer to the answer was sustained, and a decree rendered by which it was adjudged that the Pullman Company be ousted, prohibited, restrained, and enjoined from transacting, as a corporation, any business of a domestic or intrastate character within the state of Kansas. The decree declared that it should in nowise affect or restrict the interstate business of the company, nor affect any of its contracts, obligations, or corporate duties with or to the government of the United States.
The business of the Pullman Company, under its charter was that of furnishing sleeping, parlor, and tourist cars on railroads, the company reserving to itself the right to charge a certain price for the use of reserved seats in such cars during the day-time and sleeping berths during the night. The company's business extended throughout the United States, where any trunk line railroad was operated. It is not necessary to go into detail as to the mode in which that business was conducted, further than to say that the business was and is principally that of interstate commerce.
This case arises under the statute of Kansas which was examined in Western U. Teleg. Co. v. Kansas, recently decided. [216 U. S. 1, 54 L. ed. ——, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 190] Laws of Kansas, Special Session, 1898, p. 30; Kan. Gen. Stat. 1901, title, 'Corporations,' p. 280; Id. 1905, same title, p. 284. The only provisions of that statute which need be recalled for the purposes of this opinion are these: 'Any corporation organized under the laws of another state, territory, or foreign country, and authorized to do business in this state, shall be subject to the same provisions, judicial control, restrictions, and penalties, except as herein provided, as corporations organized under the laws of this state.' Id. §§ 1264, 1267.
Proceeding under the statute of Kansas, the Pullman Company made written application to the charter board for permission to engage in business in that state. The application was granted, and the board made the following order: 'The board having under consideration the application of the Pullman Company, a foreign corporation organized under the laws of the state of Illinois, for leave to transact the business of a sleeping car company in the state of Kansas; and it appearing that said foreign corporation has, in due form of law, filed with the secretary of state a certified copy of its charter, executed by the proper officers of the state of its domicil, and the written consent, irrevocable, of said corporation that actions may be commenced against it in the proper court of any county in this state in which the cause of action may arise, accompanied by a duly certified copy of the resolution of the board of directors of said corporation, authorizing the proper officers to execute the same, it is, upon motion, thereupon ordered that said application be granted, and that said applicant be authorized and empowered to transact the business of operating sleeping cars, dining cars, tourist cars, and other cars within the state of Kansas, and receiving money for such services, and transacting within the state its business of a sleeping car and transportation company, provided, that this order shall not take effect and no certificate of such authority shall issue or be delivered to said company until such applicant shall have paid to the state treasurer of Kansas, for the benefit of the permanent school fund, the sum of $14,800, being the charter fees provided by law, necessary to be paid by the corporation with a capital of $74,000,000, seeking to transact business within this state further understood, ordered, and provided that nothing herein contained shall apply to nor be construed as restricting in anywise the transaction, by said applicant, of its interstate business; but that this grant of authority and requirement as to payment relate only to the business transacted wholly whthin the state of Kansas.'
We have seen from the provisions of the statute, as set forth in Western U. Teleg. Co. v. Kansas, that it is made a condition of the right of a foreign corporation seeking to do local business in Kansas, that it should apply to the state charter board for permission to do so. It is also prescribed as a condition of the right of a foreign corporation to do intrastate business in Kansas that it shall pay not only an application fee of $25, but a charter fee 'of 1/10 of 1 per cent of its authorized capital upon the first $100,000 of its capital stock or any part thereof; and upon the next $400,000, or any part thereof, 1/20 of 1 per cent; and for each million or major part thereof over and above the sum of $500,000, $200.'
The Pullman Company is admittedly engaged, as it has been continuously for many years, in commerce among all the states of the Union, as well as in intrastate business in Kansas. The charter board, we have seen, gave it permission to engage in intrastate business in Kansas on condition that it should pay to the state treasurer for the benefit of the permanent school fund of the state, as a charter fee, the sum of $14,800, which is the prescribed statutory per cent of the compnay's authorized capital, representing all of its property and interests everywhere, in and out of the state, and all its business, both interstate and intrastate. It does not appear how much of the single 'fee' demanded by the state is to be referred to the interstate business of the company, nor how much to its property outside of the state, nor what part has reference to its intrastate business, or to its property within the state.
The Pullman Company refused to pay the fee so demanded, upon the general ground, among others, that the state could not, consistently with the Constitution of the United States or with the company's rights under the Constitution, make it a condition of its doing intrastate business in Kansas, that the company should pay, in the form of a fee, a specified per cent of all its authorized capital; that such a fee necessarily operated as a burden on the company's interstate business as well as a tax on its property interests outside of the state, and was hostile to its constitutional right of exemption from local taxation in reference to its property beyond the jurisdiction or the state.
For the reasons, and under the limitations, expressed in the opinion delivered in Western U. Teleg. Co. v. Kanas, and without expressing any opinion upon questions raised by the pleadings, but not covered by this opinion, we hold, 1....
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