241 Pa. 581 | Pa. | 1913
Lead Opinion
Opinion by
The purpose of the bill filed in this case was to enjoin the appellees, constituting the Pennsylvania state railroad commission, from enforcing the provisions of the Act of June 19, 1911, P. L. 1053, commonly known as the “Full Grew Act,” on the ground that it is unconstitutional and void. Its constitutionality is challenged for the following alleged reasons: (1) It is not a valid exercise of police power; (2) it violates the provisions in the State Constitution prohibiting the passage of any special law regulating labor; (3) its enforcement will result in no benefit to railroad companies, employees or passengers and, therefore, it violates both Federal and State Constitutions, which alike forbid the taking of property without due process of law; (4) it imposes a burden on interstate commerce; and (5), the penalties for its violation are so enormous and excessive as to intimidate the appellant and other railroad companies from resorting to the courts to test the validity of the legislation. The second reáson does not seem to be pressed.
The question of the equitable jurisdiction of the court below, if raised there, was not pressed, and it was not raised here when this appeal was first before us at the October Term, 1912. We, nevertheless, ordered a reargument of our own motion on the single question of equitable jurisdiction, because the injunction prayed for was apparently to enjoin criminal prosecutions for violations of the Act of 1911, the provisions of which the state railroad commission are expressly required to enforce.
While courts of equity deal only with civil and property rights, and are without jurisdiction to interfere by injunction with the administration of criminal justice, this rule is without application in the present case.
The title to the act under consideration is “An act to promote the safety of travelers and employees upon railroads, by compelling common carriers by railroad to properly man their trains.” The declared purpose of the act, as found in its title, is clearly within the police powers of the State, never to be abridged. That power, which extends to all regulations affecting the health, good order, morals, peace and safety of society, includes those which are reasonably necessary for the safety of passengers and employees on railroad trains: Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Company v. Emmons, 149 U. S. 364. From the face of the Act of 1911 it is most apparent that it has a real, substantial relation to that safety.
From the evidence submitted in the court below it was found as a fact that, while there was an honest difference of opinion as to what, was necessary to promote the safety of passengers and employees, the action of the legislature, under all the evidence and circumstances of the case, was not arbitrary and unreasonable. Our review of the evidence has resulted in the same conclusion,
The wisdom of the legislation of 1911, the necessity for it and the means adopted by the legislature for carrying it into effect were for the legislature alone. Though courts may differ with legislators in their views of public policy, or judges may hold views inconsistent with the propriety of legislation, such divergent views are no ground for judicial interference with valid legislation, and no legislator is compelled to commit any matter involving public health or safety to the final decision of a court or jury: Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 11; McLean v. Arkansas, 211 U. S. 539. “The protection against unwise and oppressive legislation, within constitutional bounds, is by an appeal 'to the justice and patriotism of the representatives of the people. If this fail, the people in their sovereign capacity can correct the evil; but courts cannot assume their rights. The judiciary can only arrest the execution of a statute
The Act of 1911 being a valid exercise of police power by the legislature, the fact that railroad companies affected by it must make additional expenditures to comply with its provisions is an immaterial matter so far as courts are concerned. That fact was for the consideration of the legislature alone in determining whether the act should be passed. Uncompensated obedience to a regulation enacted for the public welfare or safety, under the police power of the State, is not taking property without due compensation, and any injury sustained in obeying such a regulation is but damnum absque injuria: New Orleans Gas Light Company v. Drainage Commission of New Orleans, 197 U. S. 453: In an extensive discussion of this subject by Mr. Justice Day it is said: “There can be no question as to the attitude of this court upon this question, as it has been uniformly held that the right to exercise the police power is a continuing one; that it cannot be contracted away, and that a requirement that a company or individual comply with reasonable police regulations without compensation is the legitimate exercise of the power and not in violation of the constitutional inhibition against the impairment of the obligation of contracts. ......The principle was recognized and enforced in Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. Co. v. Chicago, 166 U. S. 226, where it was held that the expenses incurred by the railroad company in erecting gates, planking at crossings, etc., and the maintenance thereof, in order that the road might be safely operated, must be deemed to have been taken into account when the company accepted its franchise from the state, and the expenses incurred by the railroad company, though upon new streets, might be required as essential to the public safety. In Detroit, Ft. W. & B. I. Ry. Co. v. Osborn, 189 U. S. 383, it was held that the State of Michigan
Nothing is to be found in the body of the Act of 1911 of which its title does not fairly give clear notice. As to the alleged unconstitutionality of the seventh section, because “it refers exclusively to the equipment of cars, and not to the proper manning thereof, the title disclosing no other purpose than to promote safety by properly manning trains,” a sufficient answer is found in what the court below said in declining to affirm the plaintiff’s tenth request for a legal conclusion: “We cannot say that the seventh section is unconstitutional for the reasons stated in this point. The seventh section relates to trains composed of United States mail and express cars, upon which are carried in addition to the trainmen,
After having given due consideration to the various reasons assigned for asking that the Act of 1911 be struck down, we feel that no one of them calls for such a disposition of it. Two similar statutes, passed by the legislatures of Arkansas and Indiana, have been upheld, not only by the courts of last resort in those states, but by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the face of the same objections made to them as appellant makes to the Act of 1911: Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company v. Arkansas, 219 U. S. 453; Pittsburgh, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. State (172 Indiana 147), 87 N. E. Repr. 1034. In the first case, Mr. Justice Hablan, after referring to numerous cases sustaining the judgment of the Supreme Court of Arkansas, proceeded to say: “The principles announced in the above cases require an affirmance of the judgment of the Supreme Court of Arkansas. It is not too much to say that the state was under an obligation to establish such regulations as were necessary or reasonable for the safety of
When the appellant accepted its franchises from the Commonwealth, it did so in subordination to the sov- ' ereign police power of the State, to be exercised whenever the safety of the public might call for the exercise of it. No doctrine that grants of franchises are contracts, can interfere with the exercise of that power, for salus populi, suprema lex. The chief franchise of the appellant is the right or privilege to carry passengers or freight for pay, and the safety of the former and of employees needed in the operation of trains means at all times the safety of multitudes of people committed to the care of the appellant under its franchises. To provide for safety to these multitudes is the sole and avowed purpose of the Act of 1911. The legislature was not only empowered to pass it, but was charged with the duty of enacting it, if the safety of those within the contemplation of the act required it. That was a purely legislative question, with which courts can no more interfere than they can with reasonable means adopted by the legislature to secure the needed safety. It is not needful that we say anything more in affirming the decree of the lower court.
Appeal dismissed at the costs of appellant.
Concurrence Opinion
Concurring Opinion by
I was of opinion, until now that it has been decided otherwise, that the appellant’s bill should have been dismissed for want of jurisdiction in the court. In forming this opinion I had regard to an established rule, universally recognized, that courts of equity deal only with
Nor could I see that the fines and penalties imposed for violation of the law were so severe as to prevent or obstruct resort to the courts of law for the purpose of testing the validity of the act. Where the fines and penalties are so excessive as to preclude such resort, equity jurisdiction may be invoked; but I could not understand how a fine of $50 for each violation, which would be quite enough to bring the offending party into a common law court, could be a deterrent.
But my view was not that of the court, and the bill was heard on its merits. In the conclusion reached on the constitutionality of the act I concur. On the other question, since we have reached the end of controversy, I yield to the views of my brethren, and therefore join in the decree entered.