United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Hanley v. Kansas City Southern Ry. Co., 187 U.S. 617 (1903)

Hanley v. Kansas City Southern Railway Company

No. 131

Argued December 18, 1902

Decided January 5, 1903

187 U.S. 617

Syllabus

The transportation of goods on a through bill of lading from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Grannis, Kansas, over respondent's railroad by way of Spiro in the Indian Territory, a total distance of one hundred and sixteen miles, of which fifty-two miles is in Arkansas and sixty-four in the Indian Territory, is interstate commerce, and is under the regulation of Congress, free from interference by the Arkansas; a railway company operating such a line can maintain an action for equitable relief restraining the state railroad commissioners from fixing and enforcing

Page 187 U. S. 618

rates between points within the state, when the transportation is partly without the state and under the conditions above stated.

Lehigh Valley Railroad Co. v. Pennsylvania, 145 U. S. 192, distinguished as applying to taxation on freight received on merchandise transported from one point to another within the same state by a route partly through another state and not to the regulation of such transportation.

The case is stated in the opinion of the Court.