Yellow Cab Transit Co. v. Johnson

• Citation: 48 F. Supp. 594
• Decision Date: 24 December 1942
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 1145.
• Parties: YELLOW CAB TRANSIT CO. v. JOHNSON et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Oklahoma

48 F. Supp. 594

YELLOW CAB TRANSIT CO. v. JOHNSON et al.

Civ. No. 1145.

District Court, W. D. Oklahoma.

December 24, 1942.

J. B. Dudley and Duke Duvall, both of Oklahoma City, Okl., for plaintiff.

Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen., for State of Oklahoma, Sam Lattimore, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Lewis R. Morris, Co. Atty., for Oklahoma County, of Oklahoma City, Okl., for defendants.

VAUGHT, District Judge.

In this action the plaintiff seeks injunctive relief against the defendants for interfering with an interstate shipment of freight from East St. Louis, Illinois, to Fort Sill Military Reservation.

The facts disclosed are that the plaintiff is a corporation engaged in the business of transportation of commodities generally by motor vehicle in interstate commerce as a common carrier for hire, operating in and through and serving the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and other states, and points within the geographical limits of said states under and by virtue of authority granted to it by the Interstate Commerce Commission pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Motor Carrier Act of 1935, as amended, being Part II of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. chapter 8, § 301 et seq.

The defendant Walter B. Johnson is the Commissioner of Public Safety of the State of Oklahoma; the defendant T. R. Husted is the Superintendent of the Bureau of Identification and Investigation of the Department of Public Safety of the State of Oklahoma; the defendants B. A. West and Charles Riggs are the deputies of the defendant Husted; the defendant George Goff is the sheriff of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma; and the defendants Mike McGrew and Lewis Kolb are the deputies of the defendant Goff.

The Fort Sill F. A. S. Officers Club is an organization composed of several thousand officers who are stationed and on duty at the United States Fort Sill Military Reservation, and such organization is managed by an Officers Club secretary who is an army officer on active duty. Such club provides, among other things, an officers mess, living quarters for a number of officers, lounges, reading rooms and other recreational facilities, and renders various club services for its membership.

On or about October 24, 1942, there was tendered by M. G. Gintz Company, as consignor, at East St. Louis, Illinois, to plaintiff, and accepted by it in the regular course of its business as a common carrier, a shipment consisting of 225 cases of wines and spiritous liquors, under the standard, uniform, straight bill of lading, and upon which shipment the freight rate provided in said tariffs was prepaid, consigned to the F. A. S. Officers Club Mess at Fort Sill Military Reservation, U. S. A.

The shipment was routed to Fort Sill via Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the plaintiff, while transporting the same in one of its trailers, on October 26, 1942, momentarily stopped said trailer at its Oklahoma City terminal and dock to unload therefrom freight other than that destined for the Fort Sill Military Reservation and for points between Oklahoma City and Fort Sill Military Reservation. It was the purpose of the plaintiff, after unloading such freight, to load some 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of freight which it had accumulated at its Oklahoma City terminal for various directions and points, bound for Fort Sill and points intermediate between Oklahoma City and Fort Sill, which freight would have made a truckload of 18,000 to 20,000 pounds; and it was the purpose of the plaintiff to transport and deliver the aforesaid shipment to destination in said reservation in the truck and trailer in which it was transported from point of origin, and without said shipment ever having been removed from said truck and trailer during its entire movement.

On said date of October 26, 1942, shortly after the arrival of the truck and trailer containing the aforesaid shipment at the Oklahoma City terminal of plaintiff, while the same was being loaded with the additional freight above mentioned, while said shipment was still in transit from its origin at East St. Louis, Illinois, to its destination within Fort Sill Military Reservation, and before it had come to rest, the defendants personally, with the exception of George Goff, came upon the premises of the plaintiff at 311 South Western Avenue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and forcibly seized and took possession of said shipment and transported the same away from said premises. The defendants, and each of them, since said seizure, have withheld and are continuing to withhold possession of said shipment from plaintiff, and are interfering with its transportation to the consignee at the point of destination; and said shipment is now in the joint possession and custody of the defendants Walter B. Johnson and George Goff, their deputies, agents, servants and employees.

The Fort Sill Military Reservation site was acquired by the Federal Government from France long before Oklahoma became a state, and is now and has been, since prior to the admission of Oklahoma as a state into the Union, used exclusively for military purposes and for the performance of the functions of the War Department of the Federal Government. The officers mess at Fort Sill was created and is maintained for the care, use and benefit of the officers stationed at Fort Sill, and civilians are not entitled or permitted to use the facilities of such officers mess. A large number of United States army officers live at said Officers Club and it is their only home and place of residence.

Prior to the ordering of the shipment in controversy, several hundred officers, members of the Officers Club, gave to the club secretary their respective written orders for varying quantities of liquor, which orders named the brand and quantity desired and were accompanied by check or money to be used in payment of the respective orders. The orders were assembled, tabulated and totaled by the secretary, who, acting for said officers, telephoned the same to the shipper, M. B. Gintz Company, at East St. Louis, Illinois, which accepted the same in said telephone conversation through its general sales manager and pursuant thereto, the shipper made up such orders and delivered them to the plaintiff as a common carrier for hire, for shipment under bill of lading referred to above, and prepaid the freight thereon, which shipment was consigned to the Officers Club in the Fort Sill Military Reservation, and had the shipment arrived, it would have been received at the Officers Club by the secretary of the club for delivery to the aforesaid officers at the club.

The Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides in part:

"Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

"Sec. 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited."

This amendment became effective on December 5, 1933, having been duly ratified by the several states as provided in the Constitution.

On August 27, 1935 Congress enacted a law governing shipments into states having dry laws, 49 Stat. 877, § 202(b), 27 U.S.C.A. § 122, which provides: "The shipment or transportation, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, of any spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquor of any kind, from one State, Territory, or District of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, into any other State, Territory, or District of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, or from any foreign country into any State, Territory, or District of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, which said spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquor is intended, by any person interested therein, to be received, possessed, sold, or in any manner used, either in the original package or otherwise, in violation of any law of such State, Territory, or District of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, is hereby prohibited."

On March 2, 1939 the Legislature of Oklahoma passed an act, S.L. 1939, c. 16, 37 Okl.St.Ann. § 41, et seq., the enacting clause of which provides: "An Act creating and providing for a permit system for the importation and transportation of intoxicating liquor, containing more than four per cent of alcohol by volume, into the State of Oklahoma for scientific, sacramental, medicinal, or mechanical purposes; forbidding importation of such liquor without permit; fixing fees; providing penalties; repealing Sections 2597 and 2598, Oklahoma Statutes, 1931; and declaring an emergency."

Section 1, 37 Okl.St.Ann. § 41, of this act provides: "It shall be unlawful for any person, individual or corporate, to import, bring, transport, or cause to be brought or transported into the State of Oklahoma, any intoxicating liquor, as defined by the laws of this State, containing more than four (4%) percent of alcohol by volume, without a permit first secured therefor as hereinafter provided."

The question to be determined is whether or not the Fort Sill Military Reservation, the destination of the shipment of liquor designated in the shipping order attached to the stipulation of the parties, is a point "into the State of Oklahoma" within the decisions of our courts. This raises a number of questions.

First. Was the shipment one in interstate commerce?

In the case of Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. F. W. Cook Brewing Co., 223 U.S. 70, 32 S.Ct. 189, 56 L.Ed. 355, where it was sought to obtain an injunction against the railroad company from refusing interstate shipments of liquor into what was known to be dry territory in the State of Kentucky, it was held (headnote):

"Beer and other intoxicating...