United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Norfolk & Westery Ry. Co. v. Pub. Svc. Comm'n, 265 U.S. 70 (1924)

Norfolk & Westery Railway Company v.

Public Service Commission

No. 187

Argued January 22, 1924

Decided May 5, 1924

265 U.S. 70

Syllabus

1. A state constitutionally may require a railroad carrier to provide suitable facilities reasonably necessary for the removal from its premises of freight carried by it for its customers. P. 265 U. S. 74.

2. Facts held to justify an order of a state commission requiring a railroad company to construct and maintain a crossing for the use of vehicles to haul such freight across its tracks. P. 265 U. S. 72.

3. An order of this kind did not violate the constitutional rights of the carrier by requiring the shipper at whose instance it was made to supply a gate to the crossing, to be kept locked by him when the crossing was not in use, and to provide a watchman to give notice of approaching trains while the crossing was being used by him for transportation of goods across the tracks in vehicles, the carrier not being prevented thereby from permitting use of the crossing for other purposes or installing a watchman of its own. P. 265 U. S. 75.

91 W.Va. 414 affirmed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia sustaining an order of the Public Service

Page 265 U. S. 71

Commission in proceedings instituted by the railway company to set it aside as repugnant to the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.