United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Michigan Pub. Util. Comm'n v. Duke, 266 U.S. 570 (1925)

Michigan Public Utilities Commission v. Duke

No. 283

Argued November 21, 1924

Decided January 12, 1925

266 U.S. 570

Syllabus

1. A state law imposing upon all persons engaged in transportation for hire by motor vehicle over the public highways of the state the burdens and duties of common carriers, and requiring them to furnish indemnity bonds to secure payment of claims and liabilities.resulting from injury to property carried, when applied to a private carrier without special franchise or power of eminent domain and engaged exclusively in hauling from a place within the state to a place in another state the goods of particular factories under standing contracts with their owners violates the Commerce Clause by taking from the carrier use of instruments by means of which he carries on interstate commerce, and by imposing on him

Page 266 U. S. 571

unreasonable condition precedent to his right to continue to carry on interstate commerce. P. 266 U. S. 576.

2. To convert property used exclusively in the business of a private carrier into a public utility, or to make the owner a public carrier by legislative fiat, is beyond the power of a state, since it would be taking property for public use without just compensation, in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 266 U. S. 577.

Affirmed.

Appeal from a decree of the district court granting an interlocutory injunction. See 294 F.7d 3.

Page 266 U. S. 573