Vandalia Railroad v. Public Service Commission
Vandalia Railroad v. Public Service Commission
Opinion of the Court
Suit by appellant against the Railroad Commission of Indiana, to enjoin the enforcement of a final order of the latter. While this appeal was pending the duties of the Railroad Commission were transferred to the Public Service Commission, by the act approved March 4, 1913, and this commission has been substituted as appellee. Acts 1913 p. 167, §10052a Burns 1914.
In September, 1912, the South Bend chamber of commerce filed with the Railroad Commission of Indiana its petition setting forth that appellant and other railway corporations operating railroads in South Bend, have public switches and public team tracks at divers places in said city; that said railways are physically connected; that each of them refuses to switch empty or loaded ears, etc., from its lines to those of the other respondents, etc., in violation of the provisions of the Railroad Commission Act, as amended in 1907. The petition prays for a hearing, and an order against the railway companies commanding that they desist from such violations of the act. Appellant answered the petition, and after a hearing, the commission found that the terminal facilities of each of the respondent railways are sufficient to take care of its own business and to provide for the interchange of business prayed for, and it was ordered that for a period of ten years after January 1, 1913, the several railways shall deliver to and receive from each others’ railroads and tracks, in the city of South Bend, cars, loaded
No question of fact is presented by this appeal. Appellant relies on the proposition that the decision was contrary to law. The order in controversy was entered under the provisions of §4 of an act of our General Assembly of 1907, .relating to common carriers. Acts 1907 p. 434, §5206 Burns 1914. At the hearing it was stipulated that appellant is an interstate railway carrier operating lines of railway extending through Indiana and Illinois and that the public team tracks, private switches and other tracks to which the order applies were and are appellant’s terminal facilities at South Bend. It is claimed that §4, supra, of the 1907 act is void as to carriers, engaged in interstate commerce, because the Interstate Commerce Act covers the same subject-matter embraced in the provisions of the section relating to the interchange of traffic and is consequently supreme. Section 3 of the Interstate Commerce Act (§8565 U. S. Comp. Stat. 1913), provides that carriers subject to its provisions shall afford reasonable facilities for the inter
It is contended by appellant that the order here, in requiring it to receive on its tracks and terminals at South Bend, cars transported over other railroads, is void because it deprives appellant of its property without due process of law and denies it the equal protection
In each of the above opinions there is a discussion of the case of Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Central Stock Yards Co., supra, and of the substantial points on which appellant here relies, and as we are satisfied with the conclusion reached in each of those cases we consider any additional statement of reasons unnecessary and hold that the order is valid as against the constitutional objections urged. Judgment affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 106 N. E. 371. See, also, under (1) 7 Cyc. 446; (2) 8 Cyc. 1116, 1069. As to constitutionality of state regulation of interstate commerce, see 27 Am. St. 547.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Vandalia Railroad Company v. Public Service Commission
- Status
- Published