Railroad Comm'n of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496 (1941)

Overview
Opinions

Annotation

Primary Holding

If a state court can easily resolve a certain issue based on state law, a federal court should not intercede to resolve the case.

Facts

Some trains in Texas used only one sleeping car during periods of light passenger traffic. Porters, who were mostly African-American, supervised the cars in these situations instead of conductors, who were mostly white. The Railroad Commission of Texas ordered sleeping cars to be operated only when they could be continuously under the oversight of a conductor. The Pullman Co., a manufacturer of sleeping cars, and the railroad companies that used this arrangement sought an injunction in a federal court against the enforcement of this order. They argued that it violated state law and the Constitution. The porters, who intervened in the case, also asserted that the order discriminated on the basis of race in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs succeeded in obtaining an injunction, persuading the lower court that Texas laws did not justify the Commission's order.

Opinions

Majority

Felix Frankfurter (Author)
Charles Evans Hughes
Harlan Fiske Stone
Owen Josephus Roberts
Hugo Lafayette Black
Stanley Forman Reed
William Orville Douglas
Frank Murphy

When possible, disputes that raise a sensitive and important social question should be resolved under state law rather than the Constitution. The case may be resolved according to whether the order is consistent with the Commission's power to prevent discrimination. A state court could address this issue, and the decision that it reaches might obviate the need for a federal court to decide the case based on issues that could cause conflicts between the state and federal judicial systems. The federal action should not proceed, therefore, until a state court has reviewed the case on its merits.

Case Commentary

Under the abstention doctrine, federal courts generally refrain from addressing a matter that involves a preliminary consideration of issues that arise under state law. As with other cases in this area, the key concerns here include finality and consistent resolutions.

Syllabus

U.S. Supreme Court

Railroad Comm'n of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496 (1941)

Railroad Commission of Texas v. Pullman Company

No. 283

Argued February 4, 1941

Decided March 3, 1941

312 U.S. 496

Opinions

Opinions & Dissents

U.S. Supreme Court

Railroad Comm'n of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496 (1941) Railroad Commission of Texas v. Pullman Company
No. 283
Argued February 4, 1941
Decided March 3, 1941
312 U.S. 496

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Syllabus

A railroad company, some of whose trains in Texas had each but one Pullman sleeping car and that in charge of a colored porter subject to the control of the train conductor, assailed in the federal court, as unauthorized by Texas statutes and as violative of the Federal Constitution, a regulation by a state commission which would require that such cars be continuously in charge of an employee "having the rank and position of a Pullman conductor." Pullman porters, intervening, also attacked the order, adopting the railroad's objections but urging mainly that it discriminated against Negroes in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Pullman porters being Negroes and the conductors white.

Held:

Page 312 U. S. 497

1. Decision of the issue of unconstitutional discrimination should be withheld pending proceedings to be taken in the state courts to secure a definitive construction of the state statute. P. 312 U. S. 498.

2. The federal courts, when asked for the extraordinary remedy of injunction, will exercise a sound discretion in the public interest to avoid needless friction with state policies that may result from tentative constructions of state statutes and premature adjudication on their constitutionality. P. 312 U. S. 500.

, reversed.

APPEAL from a decree of the District Court of three judges which enjoined the enforcement of an order of the above-named Railroad Commission.

MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

In those sections of Texas where the local passenger traffic is slight, trains carry but one sleeping car. These trains, unlike trains having two or more sleepers, are without a Pullman conductor; the sleeper is in charge of a porter, who is subject to the train conductor's control. As is well known, porters on Pullmans are colored, and conductors are white. Addressing itself to this situation, the Texas Railroad Commission, after due hearing, ordered that

"no sleeping car shall be operated on any line of railroad in the State of Texas . . . unless such

Page 312 U. S. 498

cars are continuously in the charge of an employee . . . having the rank and position of Pullman conductor."

Thereupon, the Pullman Company and the railroads affected brought this action in a federal district court to enjoin the Commission's order. Pullman porters were permitted to intervene as complainants, and Pullman conductors entered the litigation in support of the order. Three judges having been convened, Judicial Code, § 266, as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 380, the court enjoined enforcement of the order. From this decree, the case came here directly. Judicial Code, § 238, as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 345.

The Pullman Company and the railroads assailed the order as unauthorized by Texas law, as well as violative of the Equal Protection, the Due Process, and the Commerce Clauses of the Constitution. The intervening porters adopted these objections, but mainly objected to the order as a discrimination against Negroes in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The complaint of the Pullman porters undoubtedly tendered a substantial constitutional issue. It is more than substantial. It touches a sensitive area of social policy upon which the federal courts ought not to enter unless no alternative to its adjudication is open. Such constitutional adjudication plainly can be avoided if a definitive ruling on the state issue would terminate the controversy. It is therefore our duty to turn to a consideration of questions under Texas law.

The Commission found justification for its order in a Texas statute which we quote in the margin. * It is common

Page 312 U. S. 499

ground that, if the order is within the Commission's authority, its subject matter must be included in the Commission's power to prevent "unjust discrimination . . . and to prevent any and all other abuses" in the conduct of railroads. Whether arrangements pertaining to the staffs of Pullman cars are covered by the Texas concept of "discrimination" is far from clear. What practices of the railroads may be deemed to be "abuses" subject to the Commission's correction is equally doubtful. Reading the Texas statutes and the Texas decisions as outsiders without special competence in Texas law, we would have little confidence in our independent judgment regarding the application of that law to the present situation. The lower court did deny that the Texas statutes sustained the Commission's assertion of power. And this represents the view of an able and experienced circuit judge of the circuit which includes Texas and of two capable district judges trained in Texas law. Had we or they no choice in the matter but to decide what is the law of the state, we should hesitate long before rejecting their forecast of Texas law. But no matter how seasoned the judgment of the district court may be, it cannot escape being a forecast, rather than a determination. The last word on the meaning of Article 6445 of the

Page 312 U. S. 500

Texas Civil Statutes, and therefore the last word on the statutory authority of the Railroad Commission in this case, belongs neither to us nor to the district court, but to the supreme court of Texas. In this situation, a federal court of equity is asked to decide an issue by making a tentative answer which may be displaced tomorrow by a state adjudication. Glenn v. Field Packing Co., 290 U. S. 177; Lee v. Bickell, 292 U. S. 415. The reign of law is hardly promoted if an unnecessary ruling of a federal court is thus supplanted by a controlling decision of a state court. The resources of equity are equal to a adjustment that will avoid the waste of a tentative decision, as well as the friction of a premature constitutional adjudication.

An appeal to the chancellor, as we had occasion to recall only the other day, is an appeal to the "exercise of the sound discretion, which guides the determination of courts of equity." Beal v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., ante, p. 312 U. S. 45. The history of equity jurisdiction is the history of regard for public consequences in employing the extraordinary remedy of the injunction. There have been as many and as variegated applications of this supple principle as the situations that have brought it into play. See, for modern instances, Beasley v. Texas & Pacific Ry. Co., 191 U. S. 492; Harrisonville v. Dickey Clay Co., 289 U. S. 334; United States v. Dern, 289 U. S. 352. Few public interests have a higher claim upon the discretion of a federal chancellor than the avoidance of needless friction with state policies, whether the policy relates to the enforcement of the criminal law, Fenner v. Boykin, 271 U. S. 240; Spielman Motor Co. v. Dodge, 295 U. S. 89; or the administration of a specialized scheme for liquidating embarrassed business enterprises, Pennsylvania v. Williams, 294 U. S. 176; or the final authority of a state court to interpret doubtful regulatory laws of the state, Gilchrist v. Interborough Co., 279 U. S. 159;

Page 312 U. S. 501

cf. Hawks v. Hamill, 288 U. S. 52, 288 U. S. 61. These cases reflect a doctrine of abstention appropriate to our federal system whereby the federal courts, "exercising a wise discretion," restrain their authority because of "scrupulous regard for the rightful independence of the state governments" and for the smooth working of the federal judiciary. See Cavanaugh v. Looney, 248 U. S. 453, 248 U. S. 457; Di Giovanni v. Camden Ins. Assn., 296 U. S. 64, 296 U. S. 73. This use of equitable powers is a contribution of the courts in furthering the harmonious relation between state and federal authority without the need of rigorous congressional restriction of those powers. Compare 37 Stat. 1013; Judicial Code, § 24(1), as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 41(1); 47 Stat. 70, 29 U.S.C. §§ 101-15.

Regard for these important considerations of policy in the administration of federal equity jurisdiction is decisive here. If there was no warrant in state law for the Commission's assumption of authority, there is an end of the litigation; the constitutional issue does not arise. The law of Texas appears to furnish easy and ample means for determining the Commission's authority. Article 6453 of the Texas Civil Statutes gives a review of such an order in the state courts. Or, if there are difficulties in the way of this procedure of which we have not been apprised, the issue of state law may be settled by appropriate action on the part of the State to enforce obedience to the order. Beal v. Missouri Pacific R.;Co., supra; Article 6476, Texas Civil Statutes. In the absence of any showing that these obvious methods for securing a definitive ruling in the state courts cannot be pursued with full protection of the constitutional claim, the district court should exercise its wise discretion by staying its hands. Compare Thompson v. Magnolia Co., 309 U. S. 478.

We therefore remand the cause to the district court, with directions to retain the bill pending a determination

Page 312 U. S. 502

of proceedings, to be brought with reasonable promptness, in the state court in conformity with this opinion. Compare Atlas Ins. Co. v. Southern, Inc., 306 U. S. 563, 306 U. S. 573, and cases cited.

Reversed.

* Vernon's Anno.Texas Civil Statutes, Article 6445:

"Power and authority are hereby conferred upon the Railroad Commission of Texas over all railroads, and suburban, belt, and terminal railroads, and over all public wharves, docks, piers, elevators, warehouses, sheds, tracks, and other property used in connection therewith in this State, and over all persons, associations, and corporations, private or municipal, owning or operating such railroad, wharf, dock, pier, elevator, warehouse, shed, track or other property to fix, and it is hereby made the duty of the said Commission to adopt all necessary rates, charges and regulations, to govern and regulate such railroads, persons, associations and corporations, and to correct abuses and prevent unjust discrimination in the rates, charges and tolls of such railroads, persons, associations and corporations, and to fix division of rates, charges and regulations between railroads and other utilities and common carriers where a division is proper and correct, and to prevent any and all other abuses in the conduct of their business and to do and perform such other duties and details in connection therewith as may be provided by law."

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