219 N.W. 167 | Minn. | 1928
Prior to 1925 the defendant had a contract with the government for the carrying of mail between Grand Rapids and Hibbing. In connection therewith he operated a motor bus line between the two points as termini, serving intermediate towns, and traveled a federal aid and state trunk highway. On May 12, 1925, he applied to the railroad and warehouse commission pursuant to the terms of L. 1925, p. 178, c. 185, for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, without which he could not operate as a common carrier. The Mesaba Transportation Company made a similar application and objected to the granting of defendant's application. Hearings were had. On December 8, 1925, the defendant was granted a limited certificate permitting him to carry passengers on his trips while carrying the United States mail. The Mesaba Transportation Company was granted a certificate. Defendant appealed to the district court of Itasca county. The district court affirmed the order of the railroad and warehouse commission.
The defendant attacks the constitutionality of the statute. The state claims that having invoked a privilege under the statute and received a benefit he cannot attack its constitutionality. We pass this question without intimating a view and go directly to the constitutional objections.
1. The state has control of the public highways and may regulate and on occasion even prohibit transportation by common carriers thereon. This question was considered at length in Schultz v. City of Duluth,
"To do business upon public streets is not a matter of right like the right of ordinary travel. Nor is the right to carry on such a business to be placed upon the same basis as that of conducting a lawful occupation upon private property within a municipality. The use of public streets for private enterprise may be for the public good, but even so it is a privilege that may be granted, regulated *251 or withheld. The authorities * * * hold that a municipality having the care and control of its streets and the authority to look to their convenient and safe travel may regulate and even exclude the carrying on of a transportation business thereon for private gain, or grant the privilege to some and exclude others, since no one has a right as of course to carry on a private business upon the public streets."
In that case there was involved an ordinance of Duluth regulating the operation of motor vehicles carrying passengers for hire and excluding them from streets occupied by the street railway. There is involved in the case before us L. 1925, p. 178, c. 185, entitled:
"An act providing for supervision and regulation of transportation of persons and property for hire as common carriers on any public highway in this state, by motor vehicles, and for the safe operation thereof, and subjecting such transportation to the jurisdiction and control of the railroad and warehouse commission; and defining what constitutes such transportation for hire, and providing for the enforcement of this act and for punishment for violation thereof."
The statute was enacted to meet new conditions brought about by the entry of motor vehicles into the business of transporting passengers and freight over the state highways as common carriers. It has in view, directly or indirectly, public safety and convenience; but principally its purpose is the control and regulation of common carriers by motor vehicles and a possible resultant prohibition of competition. Transportation companies are forbidden to operate except upon compliance with the act. No company may operate. "for the transportation of persons or property for hire as a common carrier on any public highway without first having obtained from the commission under the provisions of this act a certificate declaring that public convenience and necessity require such operation." [§ 5(a).] Provision is made for the application to the commission and hearings thereon and the granting of the certificates if public convenience and necessity require it. The company must file a bond to insure its compliance with the statute, and *252 must furnish public liability or indemnity insurance. The act excludes operations in interstate commerce unless permitted by the federal constitution or some act of congress. Time schedules and tariff rates are regulated by the commission. An auto transportation company is defined as meaning "every corporation or person owning, controlling, operating or managing any motor-propelled vehicle not usually operated on or over rails used in the business of transporting persons or property for compensation as common carriers over any public highway in this state between fixed termini or over a regular route." [§ 2(h).] Certain kinds of motor transportation are excluded. They are noted later.
In Buck v. Kuykendall,
In Frost Frost T. Co. v. Railroad Comm.
The legislature may not by its declaration make a carrier for hire a common carrier and so compel it to devote its property to a public use. Producers Transp. Co. v. Railroad Comm.
The Minnesota statute does not attempt such a thing. It applies only to common carriers "between fixed termini or over a regular route." It does not make a carrier for hire a common carrier subject to its provisions. This is illustrated by State v. Boyd Tr. St. Co.
2. The defendant contends that various classifications of the statute are arbitrary and unconstitutional. We consider them briefly. The law is settled that classification is legislative in character, that presumably the legislature has investigated if it does not have first-hand knowledge, and that its classification must be taken as reasonable unless the court can see that it is not. The question has been discussed and the authorities cited over and over and so recently that we should not review them now.
The defendant claims that § 14 of the act, which provides that it shall not apply to interstate commerce "except in so far as the same may be permitted under the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and the Acts of Congress," is discriminatory and unconstitutional. If the statute applied to interstate commerce, a claim of unconstitutionality upon the ground that it interfered with interstate commerce would be made.
There is nothing wrong with this classification. The exclusion of those who might come within the provisions of a controlling federal law, if one should be enacted, or within the provisions of the federal constitution, is not unconstitutional. Mathison v. Minneapolis St. Ry. Co.
3. Section 2(f) excepts from the operation of the statute "motor vehicles used exclusively in transporting children to or from school, and motor vehicles used by any transportation company engaged exclusively in transporting agricultural, horticultural, dairy or other farm products from the point of production to the *255 primary market, or to motor vehicles used exclusively in transporting or delivering dairy products or to motor vehicles engaged exclusively in transporting or delivering freight within any city or village in this state or between contiguous villages or cities, or by any transportation company engaged in operating taxicabs, or hotel busses to or from a depot to a hotel."
Section 2(h) excepts in similar language persons or corporations so engaged in transportation.
The exception of carriers engaged exclusively in the transportation of children to or from school is not unreasonable or arbitrary. School busses are not common carriers within the meaning of the statute. They convey children in certain localities to certain schools and are operated by the districts or under contract with them. A similar contention was ruled against the claim of the defendant in Smallwood v. Jeter,
4. The exemption of transportation companies engaged exclusively in transporting agricultural, horticultural, dairy or other farm products from the point of production to the primary market, and motor vehicles used exclusively in transporting or delivering dairy products, is not unreasonable or arbitrary.
The state calls attention to art. 1, § 18, of the constitution which permits one to sell or peddle agricultural products produced by himself without obtaining a license. In Minnesota W. G. Co-op. M. Assn. v. Huggins, Jr.
5. The exemption of intracity freight carriers and carriers of freight between contiguous municipalities is not arbitrary or unreasonable.
The delivery of freight within municipalities or between contiguous municipalities is so different from the carrying of freight between different termini on a fixed route, on a fixed schedule, and on a specified tariff as to indicate a sufficient reason for the exemption. See Schultz v. City of Duluth,
6. The exception of those engaged in operating taxicabs is not unreasonable or arbitrary or fanciful. The difference between the operation of taxicabs and motor vehicles operating between fixed termini over a regular route is apparent. If they should be operated as common carriers between fixed termini, and as otherwise contemplated by the statute, they would be subject to statutory regulation and control. The distinction between taxicabs and motor vehicles operated as the statute contemplates is noted in Schultz v. City of Duluth,
7. The exemption of hotel busses suggests no unfair discrimination. Usually their regulation, if any, is local. It does not help defendant to suggest that a bus may run between a depot in Grand Rapids and a hotel in Hibbing or vice versa and do the work of a common carrier just as one having a certificate of convenience and necessity. That would be an evasion of the granted exception, easily taken care of by the court. The defendant cites State v. Crosson,
8. The delegation of the power to the railroad and warehouse commission offends no constitutional provision. See State ex rel. R. R. W. H. Comm. v. C. M. St. P. Ry. Co.
9. The claim of the defendant that existing operators, and the defendant was one, were entitled to certificates as a matter of constitutional right is without merit. Section 10 of the chapter cares for existing operators liberally. A carrier operating at the time of the enactment of the statute has no constitutional right to continue without observing it.
10. The defendant's contention that the state cannot limit his operation as a common carrier because it is conducted on a federal aid highway is met by State v. Oligney,
We have covered the substance of all claims made by the defendant and find no constitutional or other fault in the statute.
Order affirmed.
HILTON, J. took no part. *258