United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Honolulu Rapid Transit v. Hawaii, 211 U.S. 282 (1908)

Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Company v. Hawaii

No. 412

Argued October 12, 1908

Decided November 30, 1908

211 U.S. 282

Syllabus

The business of a transportation company operating under a franchise is not purely private, but is so affected by public interest that it is subject, within constitutional limits, to the governmental power of regulation.

The power to regulate the operation of railroads includes regulation of the schedule for running trains; such power is legislative in character, and the legislature itself may exercise it or may delegate its execution in detail to an administrative body, and where the legislature has so delegated such regulation, the power of regulation cannot be exercised by the courts.

The boundaries between the legislative and judicial fields should be carefully observed.

By §§ 833-871 of c. 66 of the Rev.Laws of Hawaii, the legislature having vested the regulation of the railway company thereby incorporated in certain administrative officers, it is beyond the power of the courts to independently regulate the schedule of running cars by decree in a suit, and so held without deciding as to the power of the courts to review the action of the administrative officers charged by the legislature with establishing regulations.

18 Haw. 553 reversed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

Page 211 U. S. 286