179 Ind. 255 | Ind. | 1913
Appellant sued to recover statutory penalties for the use of the State of Indiana as provided by Acts 1907 p. 353, approved March 9, 1907, §§5292, 5293, 5294 Burns 1908. Complaint is in one paragraph. Demurrer for want of facts sustained. Appellant refused to plead further and the court rendered judgment accordingly. The error assigned is sustaining the demurrer.
The objections urged to the complaint were that the act upon which the complaint was based was unconstitutional, violative of the interstate commerce provision of the Federal Constitution, inoperative, discriminative, ambiguous and void for uncertainty, being penal, for these reasons the provisions thereof could not be enforced. The lower court sustained this theory. Said act, being “An Act to promote the safety of passengers, employes and property in transportation over railroads by steam power”, approved March 9, 1907, is as follows:
“Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That after-the 1st day of July, 1909, it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation, or the lessee or receiver of any person, firm or corporation, which*258 shall own or operate any line of railroad in this state, to operate any train over such railroad by steam power unless such railroad is equipped with and has in operation an approved block system for the control of train movements thereon: Provided, That the provisions of this section shall not apply to any such railroad as shall not have a gross annual income from operation of seventy-five hundred ($7,500.00) dollars or more per mile of line, to he determined from its last preceding annual report to the Railroad commission of Indiana.
“Sec. 2. Power and authority are hereby conferred upon the Railroad commission of Indiana to extend the time specified in section one of this act when it shall be made to appear to it that a reasonable necessity for such extension shall exist, provided that the extension so granted shall not exceed one year. Full power and authority are also conferred upon such commission to relieve any such party from complying with this act as to any branch or spur lines when it shall he made to appear that no reasonable necessity therefor exists. Full power and authority are also hereby conferred upon such commission to relieve any such party from the obligations imposed by section one of this act w-hen it shall be made to appear that the volume of traffic and train movement over any such railroad are such only that the same can be dispatched without substantial hazard to life and property over a line not so protected.
“Sec. 3. Any person, firm or corporation, receiver or lessee who or which shall violate section one of this act shall forfeit and pay to the State of Indiana the sum of one thousand dollars per week for each week that trains shall be operated over any such railroad in violation of such section, the same to be collected by the railroad commission of Indiana by a suit in its name for the use of the State of Indiana. in any court of competent jurisdiction.”
Section 2 of this act was amended to read: “* * * Pull power and authority are also hereby conferred upon such commission to-relieve any such carrier from the obligations imposed by section 1 of this act when it shall be made to appear that the volume of traffic, or train or car movement over such railroad are such only that the same can be dispatched without substantial hazard to life and property over a line not so protected. Pull power and authority are also hereby conferred upon such commission to permit, authorize and order in place of the automatic block, either a controlled manual block, or a manual block, or a dispatcher’s block, or any other form of block or other signaling system that is or may be hereafter devised or used, if in the judgment of such commission it shall be made to appear that a controlled manual block, or a manual block, or a dispatcher’s block, or any other form of block or other signaling system now or hereafter devised or used shall reasonably conserve the safety of life and property, and whenever such order is made by the railroad commission^ and such other form of block or other signaling system is installed, operated and maintained in obedience to such order, it shall, be taken and held as a full compliance with this act.” Section 3 of the amended act provides for the same penalty as the original act.
The above statute, as amended, is general in its scope as applying to all railroads “in this state”, whether operated by steam or electrical or any other power. The act specifies that all such railroads shall be equipped with an “automatic block system or other system approved by the railroad commission of Indiana”. Section 2 authorizes the placing of
Note.—Reported in, 100 N. E. 852. See, also, under (1) 8 Cyc. 865; (2) 8 Cyc. 864; (3, 11) 33 Cyc. 648; (5) 7 Cyc. 422; (6) 8 Cyc. 1083; (7) 8 Cyc. 866, 1110; (8, 10) 8 Cyc. 1051, 1058; (12) 30 Cyc. 1113; (13) 12 Cyc. 141; 36 Cyc. 969; (14) 33 Cyc. 648; 36 Cyc. 969; (15) 36 Cyc. 1147. As to the police power in respect to state regulations tending to promote public health, safety or morals, see 93 Am. St. 409, 138 Am. St. 1007.