Since Congress has acted, by passing the Hepburn Act of June 29,
1906, in regard to delivery of cars for interstate shipments, all
state legislation on that subject has been superseded.
Chicago,
R.I. & P. Ry. v. Hardwick Elevator Co., 226 U.
S. 426.
A regulation of a state railroad commission that the railroad
company must deliver freight to, or place the car in an accessible
place for, the consignee of interstate shipments within twenty-four
hours after arrival, without allowance for justifiable and
unavoidable delay, is an unreasonable interference with and burden
on interstate commerce and void under the commerce clause of the
federal Constitution, and so
held as to a regulation to
that effect of the Mississippi Railroad Commission.
Houston
& Texas Central R. Co. v. Mayes, 201
U. S. 329.
96 Miss. 403 reversed.
The facts, which involve the constitutionality under the
commerce clause of the federal Constitution of certain rules of the
Mississippi Railroad Commission relating to delivery of cars for
interstate shipments, are stated in the opinion.
Page 227 U. S. 2
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.
The grocery company was permitted in the state courts to offset
against a claim for demurrage its claim against the railroad
company for penalties aggregating $58 for delays in delivering cars
to the grocery company, the consignee thereof at the completion of
interstate transportation, the right to which penalties arose from
certain rules of the Railroad Commission of Mississippi, copied in
the margin.
* Eighteen dollars
of the penalties accrued after June 29, 1906, the date of the
passage of the Hepburn Act.
Page 227 U. S. 3
If the case at bar, concerning, as it does, the delivery of cars
at the termination of interstate commerce transportation, be
considered as governed by the rule which controls the furnishing of
cars for the making of such shipments, the decision recently
announced in
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Ry. Co. v. The
Hardwick Farmers Elevator Company, 226 U.
S. 426, would be controlling as to the penalties allowed
as an offset which accrued after June 29, 1906. As, however, the
prior penalties allowed as an offset would, in any event, be not
controlled by the case referred to, we come to consider the
validity of the allowance of all of the offset, independent of the
principle applied in that case. Approaching the subject from this
point of view, we think the rule of the state commission upon which
the right to all the so-called "delayage penalties" was based
constituted an unreasonable burden upon interstate commerce within
the decision in
Houston & T.C. R. Co. v. Mayes,
201 U. S. 329,
since the requirement as to the delivery of cars within the short
period fixed in the rule is absolute, and makes no allowance
whatever for any justifiable and unavoidable cause for the failure
to deliver. In saying this, we do not give controlling effect to
the observation contained in the opinion of the court below, that
no question was made as to the reasonableness of the regulation,
since the opinion itself states that the ruling in the
Mayes case was the main reliance of the railroad company,
and in the argument at bar both sides have discussed the case on
the theory that the substantial question to be decided was whether
the rule of the commission which the court below upheld was an
unreasonable regulation, in view of the decision in the
Mayes case.
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Mississippi is reversed,
and the case remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with
this opinion.
Judgment reversed.
* Rule I. Railroad companies shall, within twenty-four hours
after the arrival of shipments, give notice by mail or otherwise,
to consignee, of arrival of goods, together with weight and amount
of freight charges due thereon, and on goods in carload quantities,
said notices must contain letters or initials of the car, number of
the car, and if transferred in transit, the number and initial of
the original car, net weight, and the amount of freight charges due
on same. No demurrage charge shall be made unless legal notice of
arrival is given to consignee.
Any railroad company failing to give such notice,
and to
deliver such freight at its depots or warehouses, or, in case of
shipment for track delivery, to place loaded cars at an accessible
place for unloading, within twenty-four hours after arrival,
computing from 7 a.m., the day following the arrival, shall forfeit
and pay the consignee, or other party whose interest is
affected, the sum of $1.00 per car per day or fraction of a day, on
all carload shipments, and one cent per one hundred (100) pounds
per day or fraction thereof, on less than carload lots, with a
minimum charge of five cents for any one package, after the
expiration of said twenty-four hours.
Rule XI. No other charge shall be made for storage or demurrage
except as provided in the foregoing rules, and if a railroad
company is indebted to a shipper or consignee for delayage, then a
claim for demurrage shall be offset by a claim for delayage.