United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Missouri Pacific Ry. Co. v. McGrew Coal Co., 244 U.S. 191 (1917)

Missouri Pacific Railway Company

v. McGrew Coal Company*

No. 222

Argued April 26, 1917

Decided May 21, 1917

244 U.S. 191

Syllabus

The court is not called upon to consider state statutes passed for the enforcement of a provision in the state constitution, when the latter, as construed and applied in the case by the state supreme court is self-executing and covers the judgment in question.

As applied to a company engaged in both interstate and intrastate traffic, a state regulation, in respect of the latter only, which forbids any railroad company in general terms from charging more for a shorter haul than for a longer haul for the same class of freight over

Page 244 U. S. 192

any portion of it line within the state without regard to direction, circumstances, or condition, and which allows the shipper an absolute right to recover any overcharge collected from him in violation of the prohibition, is consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment, the Commerce Clause, and the Interstate Commerce Act, in the absence of special facts and circumstances warranting a different conclusion in the particular ease. Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Kentucky, 183 U. S. 503.

To claim exemption from such regulations under the Contract Clause, the existence of a special protecting contract must be shown by the record.

178 S.W. 1179 affirmed.

The case is stated in the opinion.