52 S.E. 797 | S.C. | 1905
November 13, 1905. The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This action was commenced in a magistrate court for the County of Chesterfield, to recover $1.75 for loss or damage to freight, a bunch of bananas, shipped August 31, 1903, to plaintiffs at McBee, S.C. from Columbia, S.C. over defendant's line, and for $50 penalty for failure to adjust and pay the said loss or damage within forty days, as required by the statute. The magistrate rendered judgment for the whole amount claimed, including *72
the penalty. On appeal to the Circuit Court, Judge Watts modified the judgment of the magistrate by reducing the amount to $1.75 and costs, holding that the statute imposing the penalty is unconstitutional, under the rule stated in Gulf,Colorado Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Ellis,
The statute in question is entitled "An act to regulate the manner in which common carriers doing business in this State shall adjust freight charges and claims for loss or damages to freight," and was approved February 23, 1904, 24 Stat., 81. Section 2 of said act, which more particularly concerns the present controversy, is as follows:
"Section 2. That every claim for loss of or damage to property while in the possession of such common carrier shall be adjusted and paid within forty days, in case of shipments wholly within this State, and within ninety days, in case of shipments from without this State, after the filing of such claim with the agent of such carrier at the point of destination of the shipment: Provided, That no such claim shall be filed until after the arrival of the shipment or of some part thereof at the point of destination, or until after the lapse of a reasonable time for the arrival thereof. In every case such common carrier shall be liable for the amount of such loss or damage, together with interest thereon from the date of the filing of the claim therefor until the payment thereof. Failure to adjust and pay such claim within the periods respectively herein prescribed shall subject each common carrier so failing to a penalty of fifty dollars for each and every such failure, to be recovered by any consignee or consignees aggrieved in any court of competent jurisdiction:Provided, That unless such consignee or consignees recover in such action the full amount claimed, no penalty shall be recovered, but only the actual amount of the loss or damage, with interest as aforesaid: Provided, further, That no common carrier shall be liable under this act for property which never came into its possession, if it complies with the provisions *73 of section 710, vol. 1, of the Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1902."
This section was under consideration in the case of Best v.Seaboard Air Line Railway, 72 S.C. — , filed October 20, 1905, in which the question presented was whether an action could be maintained for the penalty alone, when there had been voluntary payment and receipt of the loss or damage before suit, but after the expiration of the time named in the statute. This Court held that such action could not be maintained. The Court used this language: "The object of the statute was not to penalize the carrier for merely refusing to pay a claim within the time required, whether just or unjust, but the design was to bring about a reasonably prompt settlement of all proper claims, the penalty, in case of a recovery in Court, operating as a deterrent of the carrier in refusing to settle just claims and as compensation of the claimant for the trouble and expense of the suit which the carrier's unreasonable delay and refusal made necessary." Under this view the common carrier is made liable for a penalty only in the event of a refusal to pay a claim for loss or damage to goods while in his possession, the bona fides and justice of the claim being established by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The present controversy requires the Court to go more fully into the consideration of the purpose of the legislation in question, with a view to ascertain the reasonableness of the classification of common carriers as objects of this particular legislation. Common carriers receive from the State the right to carry on business in the State as such. They are by the State endowed with special powers and privileges which call for special duties and obligations to the public. It is a duty which a common carrier owes, not only under his contract, but under general law, to promptly and safely deliver goods consigned to him for transportation, and he is liable for all loss or damage to such goods while in his possession, not occasioned by the act of God or the public enemy. The duty to make prompt settlement for loss or damage to *74 goods is but an incident of the duty to transport and deliver safely and with reasonable diligence. The statute in question was designed to effectuate an important public purpose, viz: to compel the common carrier to perform with reasonable diligence the duty which peculiarly appertains to his business as a carrier of freight. The penalty is but a means to that end. Whether the adoption of such means is wise, politic or adequate, is exclusively a legislative question, for the Courts have nothing to do with the policy, wisdom or expediency of legislation. A statute cannot be declared void unless it manifestly violates some constitutional principle.
This statute is assailed as violative of the equality clause of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States and a similar provision in art. I., sec. 5, of the Constitution of this State. The respondents, in argument here, and the Circuit Judge relied on the Ellis case,supra, to sustain the position that the statute is unconstitutional. The Texas statute which was declared void in that case was as follows:
"Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Texas, That after the time that this act shall take effect, any person in this State having a valid bona fide claim for personal services rendered or labor done, or for damages, or for overcharges on freight, or claims for stock killed or injured by the train of any railway company, provided that such claim for stock killed or injured shall be presented to the agent of the company nearest to the point where such stock was killed or injured, against any railway corporation operating a railroad in this State, and the amount of such claim does not exceed $50, may present the same, verified by his affidavit, for payment to such corporation by filing it with any station agent of such corporation in any county where suit may be instituted for the same, and if, at the expiration of thirty days after such presentation, such claim has not been paid or satisfied, he may immediately institute suit thereon in the proper Court; and if he shall finally establish his claim, and *75 obtain judgment for the full amount thereof, as presented for payment to such corporation in such Court, or any Court to which the suit may have been appealed, he shall be entitled to recover the amount of such claim and all costs of suit, and in addition thereto all reasonable attorneys' fees: Provided, He has an attorney employed in his case, not to exceed $10, to be assessed and awarded by the Court or jury trying the issue."
The difference between the Texas statute and our statute is manifest. The Texas statute subjects railway companies to a penalty, when successfully sued "on a claim for personal services rendered or labor done, or for damages, or for overcharges on freight, or claims for stock killed or injured by the train of any railway company, etc." The relation of the railroad company to those who render it services or labor is the ordinary relation of employer and employee, and it may with some reason be said that there is no sufficient ground for making a distinction, such as would compel a railroad company to pay such ordinary claims for services within a given time under penalty, when no such obligation is imposed upon other employers to whom similar services are rendered. So, the claims for damages may include claims not substantially different from claims for damages against individuals and corporations generally. So, also, when there was no statute in Texas requiring railroad companies to fence their track against stock, it may be that it would be unreasonable to impose a liability for such acts different from, or greater than, the liability which should attach to the injury of stock by any other person or class. But we venture to say if the Texas statute had been confined to the regulation of some duty which particularly appertains to common carriers as such and imposed a penalty as a means of securing the performance of that duty, the decision of the Court would have been different. The Supreme Court of Texas had considered the statute as a whole, and had declared it was intended to compel the payment of debts. So considering it as a whole, the Court treated it simply as a statute singling *76 out railroad corporations alone and imposing upon them a penalty for failure to pay certain debts.
In the case of Atchison etc. Railway Co. v. Matthews,
In the case of Erb, Receiver, v. Morasch,
In the case of Fidelity Mut. L. Asso. v. Mettler,
It appears to us that there is even stronger reason for sustaining a classification of all common carriers of freight, for legislation with respect to their quasi public duties as such, having also in mind the necessity of the prompt payment of losses sustained by failure to perform said duty, as in many cases such losses represent food, raiment and other necessities of life.
In the case of Farmers and Merchants Ins. Co. v. Dabney,
"All the grounds relied upon to demonstrate that the statute allowing a reasonable attorney's fee in case of the unsuccessful defense of a suit to enforce certain insurance policies is repugnant to the equality clause of the 14th amendment are embraced in the following propositions: First, because it arbitrarily subjects insurance companies to a liability for attorneys' fees, when other defendants in other classes of cases are not subjected to such burden: second, because, whilst the obligation to pay attorneys' fees is imposed on insurance companies in the cases embraced by the statute, no such burden rests on the plaintiff in favor of the insurance companies where the suit on a policy is successfully *80 defended; and, third, because the statute arbitrarily distinguishes between insurance policies by allowing an attorney's fee in case of a suit on a policy covering real estate, where the property has been totally destroyed, and excluding the right to such fees in suits to enforce policies on other classes of property, or where there has not been a total destruction of the property covered by the insurance. Each and all of these propositions must rest on the assumption that contracts of insurance, generally considered, do not possess such distinctive attributes as to justify their classification separate from other contracts, and that contracts of insurance, as between themselves, may not be classified separately depending upon the nature of the insurance, the character of the property covered, and the extent of the loss which may have supervened. But the unsoundness of these propositions is settled by the previous adjudications of this Court." citing cases.
The case of Missouri, Kansas Texas R.R. Co. v. May,
"When a State legislature has declared that, in its opinion, policy requires a certain measure, its action should not be disturbed by the Courts under the 14th amendment, unless they can see clearly that there is no fair reason for the law that would not require with equal force its extension to others whom it leaves untouched. * * * Great constitutional provisions must be administered with caution. Some play must be allowed for the joints of the machine, and it must be remembered that legislatures are the ultimate guardians of the liberties and welfare of the people in quite as great a degree as the Courts."
This Court, in Simmons v. Telegraph Co.,
In the case of Porter v. Railway Co.,
The statute considered in the Porter case was, in Johnson
v. Southern Ry.,
From this review of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and of this Court, we think it is clear that the statute is not unconstitutional.
The respondent, in the event of the above conclusions being reached, has upon notice and exceptions taken, asked that this Court consider whether the judgment of the Circuit Court should not be affirmed upon the ground that the magistrate erred in finding judgment for the penalty, when the testimony showed that the claim filed by plaintiff for $1.75 was made up of two items, to wit: $1.50, the value of the property alleged to have been lost or damaged while in possession of defendant, and 25 cents, freight paid by plaintiff for same. The magistrate having found as a fact that the amount of the loss or damage *83 was $1.75, as claimed, and this conclusion having been affirmed by the Circuit Court by sustaining the magistrate's judgment to that extent, we have no power to review or reverse such conclusion of fact, unless there was absolutely no evidence tending to sustain it. It was shown that the cost of the bunch of bananas in Columbia, S.C. was $1.50 and the freight thereon to McBee, S.C. was 25 cents. This was certainly some evidence that the value of the bananas to plaintiffs at McBee was at least $1.75, and that such was the amount of their loss. The magistrate having adjudged the loss to be as claimed by plaintiffs, judgment for the penalty was proper.
The judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed, and the judgment of the magistrate court is affirmed.
The CHIEF JUSTICE did not participate in this opinionbecause of illness.