58 F. 858 | U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illnois | 1893
The declarations in these cases are substantially alike. The first three counts, with some variations, aver that the plaintiff is a corporation engaged in the business of shipping dressed beef and other provisions from the Union Stock Yards, in Chicago, to New York, Montreal, and other points in the eastern states and Canada; that after the 4th day of April, 1887, (the date the interstate commerce law went into effect,) and until April, 1888, the plaintiff, from time to time, delivered and the defendant accepted for transportation to such terminal points certain of its manufactured products; that the defendants were common carriers, engaged with other common carriers, in transporting continuously from Chicago to the eastern terminal points at certain rates established and then in force as the rate between such points; that the plaintiff was compelled to pay these defendants, according to the schedule rates, the sum of 65 cents per 100 pounds from Chicago to New York or Boston, and other rates in like proportion to other points; and that the rates so taken and exacted were
The general question raised by the demurrer is whether there is any law7, common or statutory, applicable to the transactions set forth, 'which prohibits the exaction of unreasonable rates, or affects any -contract between the shipper and carriers whereby unreasonable rates are stipulated for and taken. There can be no question that, in the absence of such prohibition or restraint, a common carrier can lawfully demand or contract for such compensation for carriage as lie may be able to obtain. His privileges would, in such cases, be like those of any other person, and subject only to the economic laws which How from trade and competition. If there is any municipal la.w which supersedes or supplements these economic laws, and subjects the carrier to restraints or regulations not imposed upon general business, it must be found either in the municipal law of the states or in a law of the United States.
It is not disputed that wiihin the territory of the states, and upon subjects affected by state law, such a prohibition exists. It is one of the restraints embodied in the common law of England, and is therefore in force within every jurisdiction where the common law is the law of the land. It seems in me equally clear that, outside of the interstate commerce act, there is no law of the United States, as a distinct sovereignty, imposing such restraint. The United States, as a distinct sovereignty, imposes no laws upon its subjects, except such as are expressly or impliedly enacted by congress. Congress has not adopi.ed the common law of England as a national municipal law. The courts of (he United States have had many occasions to enforce the common law, but in every instance it has been as the municipal law of the state by which the subject-matter -was affected. Outside of the inlerstate commerce act, there is no enactment of congress, and no self operating provision of the federal constitution, which expressly or by implication evidences a command or purpose to interfere with the freedom of interstate commerce, or lay any restraint upon the rights of earners or shippers engaged therein. Welton v. State of Missouri, 91 U. S. 282; Brown v. Houston, 114 U. S. 622, 5 Sup. Ct. 1091.
It is urged on argument that, inasmuch as the contracts for shipment were made in Illinois, the law of Illinois necessarily entered into their constitution and terms; that a contract could not be made which contravened the municipal law of the state. The counis of the declaration which proceed upon contract assume that the rate charged was agreed upon between the parties, How the law of Illinois does not introduce a new term into this contract. Its utmost effect would be to forbid a contract for an unreasonable rate, and therefore make the supposed contract unlawful. But the effect of this would be simply to abrogate the contract, and leave the transaction open to such adjustment as the application of the proper laws allowed. That law, as has already been pointed out, cannot be found in the jurisdiction of the states, but only in the body of the laws of the United States.
Those counis of the declaration which proceed directly upon the interstate commerce act cannot he sustained in these suits. The courts of the United States, upon removed cases, have no wider jurisdiction than have the courts of the state from which they were removed. The removal simply transfers the hearing from the state to the national tribunal, hut does not enlarge the right of the court to hear the cause. The right to question the reasonableness of an interstate commerce rate is a matter of primary, as well as of exclusive, jurisdiction in the federal courts. It does not reside in the jurisdiction of the state courts, or of the federal courts, acquired by the fact of diverse citizenship.
For the reasons above stated, the demurrers are sustained, and the several counsel will prepare .their orders accordingly.