302 Mass. 438 | Mass. | 1939
The material allegations of fact in the bill are in substance these: The plaintiff is doing business exclusively in the hauling of fresh fish for hire in interstate commerce between this Commonwealth and points in Connecticut and New York. The defendants are the commissioners of the department of public utilities and “a director of the commercial motor vehicles division” of that department. The commissioners have made an order directing the revocation of the plaintiff’s permit to operate od the ways of the Commonwealth as an interstate contract carrier (G. L. [Ter. Ed.] c. 159B, §§ 4, 5, 6, 7, as inserted by St. 1934, c. 264, § 1, and as amended in said §§ 6 and 7 by St. 1936, c. 345, §§ 2 and 3. See now c. 159B as revised by St. 1938, c. 483). The order “has not yet been carried out,” but if carried out it will interfere with interstate commerce. There “has not been any evidence” that the plaintiff was not “fit, able and willing to transport property for hire,” or that “his operation would in any way endanger the safety and welfare of the citizens.” The commissioners’ order “is posited on the assumption . . . that the Federal Motor Carrier Act of 1935 [U. S. C. Sup. V, Title 49, c. 8] does not encompass, within its jurisdiction, operators en
In our opinion the demurrer should have been sustained.
It is true that a bill in equity will lie to restrain public officers from inflicting damage upon the business or other property of a plaintiff under color of a statute or ordinance which is unconstitutional or otherwise void and so can afford no protection. Moneyweight Scale Co. v. McBride, 199 Mass. 503, 505-506. Greene v. Mayor of Fitchburg, 219 Mass. 121, 127. Shuman v. Gilbert, 229 Mass. 225, 227. Warr v. Collector of Taxes of Taunton, 234 Mass. 279, 283. Morley v. Police Commissioner of Boston, 261 Mass. 269, 278. So it has been held that equity will enjoin the enforcement of burdensome State restrictions upon interstate commerce. Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Andrews, 216 U. S. 165. See Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U. S. 197, 214.
The plaintiff contends that this case falls within the principle just stated on the ground that if the State law is construed as applying to “contract carriers” engaged exclusively in interstate commerce it encroaches upon the Federal control of that commerce and comes into conflict with the Federal Motor Carrier Act, which it is contended covers the entire field, so that the commissioners were wholly without authority to deal with the subject of revocation of the permit.
We assume in the plaintiff’s favor that the bill is to be construed as indicating that something still remains to be done before the process of revocation is complete. But we think that the plaintiff’s position will not stand logical analysis. There is no allegation whatever of any contemplated or probable interference by the defendants or others with the plaintiff’s business beyond the bare revo
We need not determine the extent to which the Federal Motor Carrier Act superseded the local law. But see the exception of vehicles used in carrying livestock, fish and agricultural commodities contained in U. S. C. Sup. V, Title 49, § 303 (b) (6).
We have dealt with the only points argued by the plaintiff. If it be suggested that a cause of action might possibly rest upon the allegations of the bill which do not directly relate to the boundary between Federal and State authority, such as those setting up the absence of evidence and those stating that the commissioners “assumed” that they might restrain competition with reputable operators, and that they acted “arbitrarily, whimsically and capriciously,” one answer is that those allegations relate only to
The order overruling the demurrer is reversed, and a decree is to be entered sustaining the demurrer.
Ordered accordingly.