42 Ind. App. 90 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1908
Edward T. Slider, who avers that he is a coal dealer and shipper doing business in the city of New Albany, Indiana, on the appellant’s line of railroad, filed his petition with the Eailroad Commission of Indiana, alleging that the appellant’s freight rates on coal from said city of New Albany to certain named stations on appellant’s line of road in this State west of New Albany were excessive and unreasonable, and claiming also that in the fixing of the appellant’s schedule of freight rates on coal it had unjustly discriminated against the petitioner and other shippers of coal from New Albany in favor of coal shippers at Oakland City and Boonville, and that it had unjustly discriminated in its said freight rates against the city of New Albany and in favor of said localities of Oakland City and Boonville. Such proceedings were had on such petition as resulted in an order of the commissioners revising the freight rates of appellant on coal between the points named, and establishing a lower rate than that fixed by the appellant.
The case is brought to this court under the provisions of
The objections urged here against the proceedings of the commission are: (1) That the petition is insufficient to form a basis of any action by the commission.; (2) that the evidence is not sufficient to sustain the allegation of unjust discrimination contained in the petition; (3) that there is no proof that the existing charges of the appellant were unreasonable, or that the rates ordered by the commission were reasonable; (4) that the appellant’s motion to dismiss the petition should have been sustained, because the evidence shows that the coal shipped by the petitioner was interstate commerce; (5) that the rates fixed by the order of the commission are in perpetuity; (6) that the rates fixed by the commission deprive the appellant of its property without due process of law, in (a) that it denies to the appellant the right to collect the rates fixed by it for transportation of freight, in the absence of a judicial determination that such rates are unreasonable; (b) that the law gives the commission the power to fix rates only in cases where the railroad companies have made unreasonable rates, and that the commission, having no judicial powers, cannot determine the question of reasonable rates; (c) that the remedy afforded by the act, to the party aggrieved by the commission’s decision, of appeal to this court is ineffective, for the reason that this court, being a judicial body, cannot exercise legislative power and revise the rates fixed by the commission, as contemplated by the provisions of the act granting the right of appeal to this court; (7) that the act denies to steam roads the. equal protection of the law, and grants to interurban roads immunities not permitted to the steam roads.
We will considér these propositions in the order in which they are presented, The petition on which this matter
The second paragraph avers substantially the same facts that are set up in the first, and also alleges that the rates charged by appellant upon coal shipments from New Albany to the points named are excessive and unreasonable, and sets out a schedule of rates which it avers are reasonable.
It is contended that the facts set forth in the first paragraph of the petition fail to show an unjust discrimination against the city of New Albany or the petitioner, and that appellant’s special objection thereto should have been sustained; that the second paragraph does not state facts showing that the existing rates established by the railroad
The Railroad Commission of Indiana stands for the legislature, and it could hardly be contended that the legislature would have no power to fix a maximum rate of transportation for a public-service common carrier until there had been a judicial declaration that the rate fixed by the carrier was unreasonable. Upon this question we concur in the views expressed by Mr. Justice Miller in the case of Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Minnesota, supra: “(1) In regard to a business of common carriers limited to points within a single state, that state has the legislative power to establish the rates of compensation for such carriage. (2) The power which the legislature has to do this can be exercised through a commission which it may authorize to act in the matter, such as the one appointed by the legislature of Minnesota by the act now under consideration. (3) Neither the legislature, nor such commission acting under the authority of the legislature, can establish arbitrarily and without regard to justice and right a tariff of rates for such transportation, which is so unreasonable as practically to destroy the value of property of persons engaged in the carrying business on the one hand, nor so exorbitant and extravagant as to be in utter disregard of the rights of the public for the use of such transportation on the other. (4) In either of these classes of cases there is an ultimate remedy for the parties aggrieved in the courts for relief against such oppressive legislation, and especially in the courts of the United States, where the tariff of rates established, either by the legislature or by the commission, is such as to deprive a party of his property without due process of law. (5) Until the judiciary has been appealed to to declare the regulations made, whether by the legislature or by the commission, voidable for the reasons mentioned, the tariff of rates so fixed is the law of the land, and must
It is true that the railroad commission possesses only legislative and not judicial powers. We think the delegation of the power to fix rates necessarily carried with it the power on the part of the commission to ascertain and determine the facts upon the existence of which it became the commission’s duty to act in the matter. Its decision of such questions is not a judicial determination, and has none of the .attributes of a judgment. • The commission’s decision of all questions, the determination of which are essential to the performance of anj^ of the duties imposed upon it by the act under consideration, is precisely the same in effect as the determination by a large number of administrative officers of facts necessary to be determined by them in the exercise of the powers and performance of the duties imposed upon them by law. No one has ever contended that such officers had not the power to decide such questions, or
We recognize fully the duty of the courts to guard and protect to the fullest extent, against legislative encroachment, the rights of the citizen to equality before the law conferred upon him by the provisions of the federal and state Constitutions. We also recognize that the appellant, though an artificial person, is entitled to the benefit of these provisions. Upon the other hand, it is claimed by the appellee, and not denied by appellant, that the legislature may properly classify subjects of legislation, and enact laws conferring rights and imposing burdens on the created class that are not accorded to or imposed upon those who do not come within the class, according to the legislative view of what is most conducive to the public welfare.
The railroad commission act (Acts 1905, supra) deals with a number of distinct subjects, one of them being passenger rates; another, and entirely distinct, subject being the classification of freight and freight rates; and another, not entirely- distinct from the last subject referred to, being the interchange of freight business between connecting roads, and the proper adjustment of the freight rates on freight passing over more than one company’s road. We are here called upon to consider this law as it applies to the subject of freight rates.
Leaving out of consideration the similarity of the passenger business conducted by the interurban and steam railroads, and considering only, and comparing only, the freight business of the steam roads with the freight business of the interurbans, the question does not seem a difficult one. The interurban road, it is true, is a common carrier of freight, but it is so only in a very limited sense. It holds itself out to carry only light packages, and deliver the same along its own line. It does not undertake to transport freight in car-load quantities, as do the steam roads; it is not equipped to handle those articles which form the most important part of the internal commerce of the State, and which steam roads are specially built and equipped to handle, such as the products of the soil, the mines, the quarries, and the factories; and, while steam roads may also carry light freight, such as is handled by in
We are not to be understood as holding that, the provisions of the railroad commission act with reference to the establishment of passenger rates is invalid. What we do
The order made by the railroad commission in this cause is confirmed.
Roby, C. J., absent.