Buck v. Kuykendall

295 F. 197, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1100
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedDecember 7, 1923
DocketNo. 189
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 295 F. 197 (Buck v. Kuykendall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Buck v. Kuykendall, 295 F. 197, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1100 (W.D. Wash. 1923).

Opinion

NETERER, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). A like issue was presented to this court, as it is now constituted, in Interstate Motor Transit Co. v. Kuykendall, 284 Fed. 882. But for the earnestness manifested by counsel for the plaintiff, who was also attorney for the plaintiff in the named case, we would rest this issue upon what was there said.

[199]*199It is asserted that the Act of July 11, 1916, supra, gave to the plaintiff a vested right to use this highway by reason of the contribution to the construction thereof by the United States and the declaration by Congress that the highway is a “post road.” Section 2 of the act (Comp. St. § 7477b), supra, says:

“That for the purposes of this act the term ‘rural post road’ shall be construed to mean any public road over which the United States mails now are or may hereafter be transported, excluding every street and road in a place having a population, as shown by the latest available * * * census, of 2,500 or more, except that portion of any such street or road along which the houses average more than 200 feet apart.”

The court judicially knows that Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Chehalis, Centralia, and Vancouver are upon the route sought by the plaintiff, and each contains a population in excess of 2,500. By no stretch of the imagination could the plaintiff, by virtue of the provisions of the act of 1916, supra, assert any interest in the excepted roads and streets, and his assertion of vested right in any portion of the highway is absolutely baseless.

The Act of November 9, 1921, 42 Stat. 212, amending Act of July 11, 1916, supra (Comp. St. Supp. 1923, § 7477¼ et seq.), explains the general scheme of road construction and provides for co-operative construction and reconstruction of certain systems of highways within the state, the projects upon which expenditures shall be made to be approved by the Secretary of Agriculture in such a manner as will expedite the completion of an adequate system of highways interstate in character. The state shall designate a system not to exceed 7 per cent, of its total highway mileage which shall receive federal aid, which are to be divided into primary or interstate highways and secondary or intercounty highways. Before any project shall be approved by the Secretary of Agriculture, such states shall make provision for said funds required each year of such state for the construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of all federal aid highways within the state, the funds to be under the direct control of the state highway department, and the duty is imposed upon the state to maintain the highways. Section 18, Act Nov. 9, 1921, supra (Comp. St. Supp. 1923, § 7477¼q), provides:

“That the Secretary of Agriculture shall prescribe and promulgate all needful rules and regulations for the carrying out of the provisions of this act, including such recommendations to the Congress and the state highway departments as he may deem necessary for preserving and protecting the highways and insuring the safety of traffic thereon.”

The Congress has not legislated with relation to the use of highways, to the construction of which the United States contributed, other than as provided by section 18, supra, and if recommendations, have been made by the Secretary of Agriculture to the state highway department, the presumption is that such recommendations have been carried out, nothing appearing to the contrary.

It is asserted that the provisions of the Act of March 17, 1921, supra, are inoperative as to plaintiff. In Dent v. Oregon City, 211 Pac. 909 (106 Or. 122), the court said:

[200]*200“The right to use the public highways of the state by the ordinary and usual means of transportation is common to all members of the public without distinction, and extends to those engaged in the business of carrying passengers or freight for hire by such ordinary and usual means of transportation, as well as to individuals pursuing a strictly private business, subject to the power of the state, by legislative enactment, to impose reasonable and impartial regulations upon such use, which power may be delegated by the Legislature to the governing bodies of municipal corporations.”

The Oregon court cites Jitney Bus Ass’n v. Wilkes-Barre, 256 Pa. 462, 100 Atl. 954, where the court said:

“Regulation is not to be carried to the extent of prohibition.”

The Supreme Court of Washington, in Hadfield v. Lundin, 98 Wash. 657, 168 Pac. 516, L. R. A. 1918B, 909, Ann. Cas. 1918C, 942, said:

“The streets and highways belong to the public. They are built and maintained at public expense for the use of the general public in the ordinary and customary manner. The state, and the city as an arm of the state, has absolute control of the streets in the interest of the public. No private individual or corporation has a right to the use of the streets in the prosecution of the business of a common carrier for private gain without the consent of the state, nor except upon the terms and conditions prescribed by the state or municipality, as the ease may be.”

In State v. Seattle Taxicab & Transfer Co., 90 Wash. 416, 156 Pac. 837, the court said:

“Highways are constructed primarily as a convenient passageway for all the people, and no one has an absolute right to use them for his own private gain, even though such use be to carry over them people who desire the service.”

In Allen v. Bellingham, 95 Wash. 12, 163 Pac. 18:

“But the use to which the appellant proposes putting the streets is not the ordinary or customary use, but a special one. He purposes using them for the transportation of passengers for hire, a use for which they are not primarily constructed.”

In State ex rel. Schafer v. Spokane, 109 Wash. 360, 186 Pac. 864, and Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Schoenfeldt, 123 Wash. 579, 213 Pac. 26, the Supreme Court of Washington reaffirmed what it said in the cases cited. To the extent of the state of Washington’s intrastate control of its highways by legislative act, as construed by its highest court, this court is bound; no constitutional right intervening.

The state has full power to regulate extraordinary use of its streets and highways by common carriers. Interstate Motor Transit Co. v. Kuykendall, supra; Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Schoenfeldt, 123 Wash. 579, 213 Pac. 26; Davis v. Mass., 167 U. S. 43, 17 Sup. Ct. 731, 42 L. Ed. 71. Public highways are subject to the police powers of the state. Hendrick v. Maryland, 235 U. S. 610, 35 Sup. Ct. 140, 59 L. Ed. 385. A state by legislative act may, under the police power, perform the double function of reasonable regulation of business and raising revenue by a privilege or license fee (Bradley v. City of Richmond, 227 U. S. 477, 33 Sup. Ct. 318, 57 L. Ed. 603; Camas Stage Co. v. Kozer, 104 Or. 600, 209 Pac. 95, 25 A. L. R. 27; Kane v. New Jersey, 242 U. S. 160, 37 Sup. Ct. 30, 61 L. Ed. 222), and is subject to no limitations save those of the due process and equal protection [201]*201clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment (Gundling v.

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295 F. 197, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buck-v-kuykendall-wawd-1923.