Atlantic Coast Line Railroad v. Boyd

102 So. 2d 709, 1958 Fla. LEXIS 1768
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMay 7, 1958
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 102 So. 2d 709 (Atlantic Coast Line Railroad v. Boyd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad v. Boyd, 102 So. 2d 709, 1958 Fla. LEXIS 1768 (Fla. 1958).

Opinion

THOMAS, Justice.

In this proceeding an attack is made upon an order of Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission which resulted, so it is contended by the petitioners, from a misconstruction of Sec. 323.29, Florida Statutes 1955, and F.S.A.

In the statute, enacted in 1931 to regulate the use of motor vehicles on the highways, the legislature recognized and declared that certain motor vehicles and services, because of their peculiar nature, should be exempt from the operation of the act and, therefore, from control of the Commission. Among them were “motor vehicles while engaged exclusively in transporting goods, wares, merchandise, horticultural, agricultural, or logs, lumber or other forest products, fish, oysters and shrimp, and dairy products, from the point of production to that [sic] point of primary manufacture, or from the point of production to the point of assembling the same, or from either such point of production, primary manufacture or assembling to a shipping point of either a rail, water or motor transportation company, usually and generally serving the territory in which said production, manufacture or assembling takes place.” Sec. 30, Chapter 14764, Laws of Florida, 1931, as amended, Sec. 323.29, supra. We have underscored the words which, primarily, render a construction of the section so troublesome.

Further exempted, by an amendment of the law, were motor vehicles used exclusively to carry “agricultural or horticultural products, supplies and materials, including fertilizers and sprays, when delivered direct to the growers or consumers, or to an association of such growers or consumers.” Chapter 18028, Laws of Florida, 1937, Sec. 323.29, supra.

The transportation described in the exemption was declared to be casual, seasonal, “not on regular routes or schedules”, slow-moving, often effected by special equipment, and extending for short distances.

It should be borne in mind that it is the vehicle itself which is affected although its exempt character must be determined by the load it carries, the manner in which it is used and the termini of the routes it traverses. Furthermore, in construing the third paragraph of the section consideration must be given to the nature of the consignees.

The pivotal question in this litigation is whether or not sand, phosphatic sand, dolo[711]*711mite, clay and crushed rock are products falling ip the definitions contained in the statute and meeting the requirements of the law so that their transportation is not subject to the jurisdiction and control of the Commission.

The Commission decided they did; the petitioners contend they do not.

Rockana Carriers, Inc., sought a certificate of public convenience and necessity to carry certain materials including dolomite, sand, phosphatic sand, clay and crushed rock. After an extensive hearing the Commission granted the applicant authority to transport some commodities but declined jurisdiction of the carriage of dolomite, sand, phosphatic sand, clay and crushed rock, on the theory that they were the kind of materials or products that had been excluded from the operation of the act because of their characteristics and that they could, therefore, be transported without obtaining authority of the Commission.

Specifically, the Commission found that transportation of the materials in question from the point of production to the point of primary manufacture was exempt. Originally, ground phosphate rock and insecticides were included in the application to the Commission. No question is now raised about the transportation of these because of their nature, but only about the exclusiveness of the use of vehicles to transport them. In this classification, dolomite was also placed when delivered direct to the consumer for use as fertilizer. These three items were, therefore, affected by the provisions of the third paragraph of the section, already quoted, which was the amendment enacted in 1937.

With reference to sand and phosphatic sand it was observed that when these products are moved from the “point of production,” pit, to the fertilizer plant, “point of primary manufacture,” they are incorporated in fertilizer. Clay was said by the Commission to be taken from the clay pit, “point of production,” to the kiln, “point of primary manufacture,” to be made into tile. Crushed rock was stated to move from the place where mined and crushed, “point of production,” to “an asphalt road mix manufacturing plant,” point of “primary manufacture,” to be mixed with hot or cold asphalt for use in road building. Dolomite, when not delivered direct to the consumer, was said to move from the pit, “primary point of production,” to the plant, “primary point of manufacture” for conversion into fertilizer.

It is plain from the findings and repeated references to points of production and primary manufacture that it was thought by the Commission the materials were either goods, wares and merchandise, or materials to which the adjectives “horticultural” and “agricultural” applied, because it is obvious that they could not fall in any of the other classifications detailed in the first paragraph of Sec. 323.29, supra.

Evidently the singular construction of the act in question grew out of an attempt to revise the original, Sec. 1(h) of Chapter 13700, Laws of Florida, Acts of 1929, after it was held unconstitutional in the case of Smith v. Cahoon, 283 U.S. 553, 51 S.Ct. 582, 75 L.Ed. 1264. See Riley v. Lawson, 106 Fla. 521, 143 So. 619.

In the amendatory act, Chapter 14764, supra, there appeared essentially the same exceptions but, perhaps to meet the observation of the Supreme Court of the United States with reference to discrimination between haulers of designated products and groceries, the words “goods, wares, merchandise” were inserted. The place in the law where they came to rest rendered the relevant part of the sentence extremely difficult of construction for it now applies to “motor vehicles while engaged exclusively in transporting goods, wares, merchandise, horticultural, agricultural”, then the language is turned to forest “products”, then to seafood and dairy “products”. We have italicized the adjectives for the second time because they have caused much argument in this case and have given us much concern. If [712]*712they are held to modify “goods, wares, merchandise” then, of course, we would have horticultural or agricultural goods, wares, and merchandise. If they are not so used they would simply dangle unless we supply the noun “products” which appeared in the original act, Chapter 13700, supra, but we cannot take the liberty of supplying a word. We are obligated to give meaning to all words chosen by the legislature. Snively Groves, Inc., v. Mayo, 135 Fla. 300, 184 So. 839. *In attempting to fulfill this obligation, we can only read this part of the act as if the adjectives precede the nouns we think they modify. Milam v. Davis, 97 Fla. 916, 123 So. 668.

The interpretation is made even more difficult when an attempt is made to apply the adjectives in the declaration, such as “casual”, “seasonal”, slow-moving and short-distanced to the kinds of transportation in question, much less to such carriage as that of school children, seafood, forest and dairy products and ordinary goods, wares and merchandise.

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Bluebook (online)
102 So. 2d 709, 1958 Fla. LEXIS 1768, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atlantic-coast-line-railroad-v-boyd-fla-1958.