Canada Atlantic Transit Co. v. City of Chicago

210 F. 7, 126 C.C.A. 587, 1913 U.S. App. LEXIS 1883
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit·Decided October 7, 1913·No. No. 1,959·Published

Opinion

SEAMAN, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The city of Chicago has adopted an amendment to the Revised Municipal Code, in reference to navigation in the harbor and river in .Chicago, which prescribes (section 1014) that vessels passing any bridge shall move at a rate of'speed not less than two miles per hour and shall not obstruct “passage across such bridge more than five minutes,” and further requires (section 1016) that steam vessels of 1,200 tons gross burden or more, while navigating portions of the river defined in the amendment, “shall have the assistance of a tug or tugs”; • and the issue upon this appeal is the validity of these provisions. Their validity is challenged by averments of the appellants’ bill, filed for injunctional relief, upon two propositions in substance: First,- that the requirements interfere with rights of navigation and interstate commerce, not within the authority of state or municipality, but subject alone [9] to federal control; and, second, that they are unreasonable, imposing unfair burdens on the appellants’ steamers, if otherwise within the powers of the municipality. On final hearing of the issues, considerable testimony was introduced, as reported by Special Examiner— mainly directed for'and against the proposition of unreasonableness— and all contentions for relief were overruled by the District Court arid the bill dismissed for want of equity.

[1] 1. The primary contention of want of power in the municipality to prescribe and regulate the means and methods of navigation in the river as a highway of commerce is met and refuted, as we believe, in so far as the regulation conflicts with no rule established by Congress for such navigation, by decisions of the Supreme Court which are both numerous and uniform in the substance of their doctrine; for instance, in Owners of Brig James Gray v. Owners of Ship John Fraser, 62 U. S. (21 How.) 184, 187, 16 L. Ed. 106, and Gilman v. Philadelphia, 3 Wall. 713, 18 L. Ed. 96, as the earlier cases, and in Escanaba Co. v. Chicago, 107 U. S. 678, 2 Sup. Ct. 185, 27 L. Ed. 442, and Cummings v. Chicago, 188 U. S. 410, 23 Sup. Ct. 472, 47 L. Ed. 525, as later and directly pertinent rulings.

The doctrine thus settled is comprehensively stated and applied in Escanaba Co. v. Chicago, supra — in reference to the power of the city of Chicago to regulate navigation of the river, pursuant to an ordinance prescribing hours when bridges shall not be opened for the passage of vessels, and that during other hours named they shall not be opened for a longer period than ten minutes at any one time and shall then “be closed for fully ten minutes” for passage of teams rind persons “waiting to pass over” — and may be epitomized as follows: The power of Congress is supreme over all navigable waters, to “exercise control to the extent necessary to protect, preserve and improve their free navigation” ; but this federal power of control is usually exercised only in matters which “are national in their character and admit and require uniformity of regulation affecting all the states” and waterways. It is well recognized, therefore, that general regulations of navigation adopted by Congress cannot reasonably be made to answer various local requirements in ports and rivers within the states, and that the several states retain and “have full power to regulate - within their limits matters of internal policy,” which includes regulation of navigation in a waterway like the Chicago river, crowded with shipping and spanned by numerous bridges, in the midst of a great commercial metropolis. So, under the sanction of the state, the city of Chicago is authorized to regulate use of the bridges and river within the city, in accordance with local conditions and needs,, “until Congress interferes and supersedes” such regulation. “If the power of the state and that of the federal government come in conflict, the latter must control and the former must yield;” but “until Congress acts upon the subject” municipal regulation for local purposes is within the authority of the state.

Again, in the recent case of Cummings v. Chicago, supra, the above ruling was reaffirmed and its doctrine applied, for denial of relief sought against the city to prevent enforcement of an ordinance which required permit from the city department of public works for con[10] struction or reconstruction of docks within the city. The bill presented these facts: Complainant, as owner of property on the Calumet river (within the city), intended and was proceeding in disregard of such ordinance, to rebuild docks thereon, under written permit granted by the Secretary of War to that end, pursuant to prior acts of Congress providing for improvement of Calumet river. In conformity with the acts referred to, the War Department had made surveys and improvements, fixed dock lines, and granted permits under which docks had been built, including those in question for which like permit had been granted for reconstruction. As stated in the opinion, the issue was whether'the acts of Congress referred to were intended “to supersede, for every purpose, the authority of Illinois over the erection of structures in navigable waters wholly within its limits,” and it was decided (citing Lake Shore & Mich. Ry. v. Ohio, 165 U. S. 365, 17 Sup. Ct. 357, 41 R. Ed. 747) “that no such purpose was manifested by the acts in question;” that their effect, “reasonably interpreted, is to make the erection of a structure in a navigable river, within the limits of a state, depend upon the concurrent or joint assent of the national government and the state government” — although not so mentioned in the act — so that both assents must be obtained to authorize the structure.

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Canada Atlantic Transit Co. v. City of Chicago, 210 F. 7, 126 C.C.A. 587, 1913 U.S. App. LEXIS 1883 (7th Cir. 1913).

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