Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad v. Railroad Commission

140 N.W. 296, 152 Wis. 654, 1913 Wisc. LEXIS 126
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 11, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 140 N.W. 296 (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad v. Railroad Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad v. Railroad Commission, 140 N.W. 296, 152 Wis. 654, 1913 Wisc. LEXIS 126 (Wis. 1913).

Opinions

ViNJE, J.

It will be observed from the foregoing statement of facts that tbe Railroad Commission based its order upon tbe statute (sec. 1801, Stats.) and not upon an exercise of discretion or judgment on its part that tbe service was inadequate. Indeed, it states that were it not for tbe statute depriving it of tbe exercise of discretion it would come to a contrary conclusion and refuse to make tbe order requiring additional trains to be stopped at Cochrane. Tbe trial court, however, finds that the passenger service at Cochrane was not adequate or reasonable, and that tbe order of tbe Railroad Commission was a reasonable exercise of tbe powers vested in it. So we have a situation where tbe Railroad Commission disaffirms tbe exercise of discretion in making tbe order, [660]*660and tbe trial court affirms it on tbe ground tbat it was made pursuant to a reasonable exercise of tbe powers vested in it, and tbat upon the facts found by tbe trial court tbe order was right. Tbe question, therefore, presents itself, Can tbe circuit court for Dane county, in which jurisdiction to test tbe validity of orders made by tbe Railroad Gommission is vested, make an administrative order based upon tbe original exercise of its own discretion ? Tbe provisions of tbe statute authorizing tbe action to review orders made by tbe Railroad Commission, in so far as they speak definitely, must control. Sec. 1797 — 16, Stats., reads:

“Any railroad or other party in interest being dissatisfied with any order of the commission fixing any rate or rates, fares, charges, classifications, joint rate or rates, or any order fixing any regulations, practices or service, may commence an action in tbe circuit court against tbe commission as defendant to vacate and set aside any such order on tbe ground tbat tbe rate or rates, fares, charges, classifications, joint rate or rates, fixed in such order, is unlawful, or'that any such regulation, practice or service, fixed in such order, is unreasonable, in which action tbe complaint shall be served with tbe summons.”

It will be noticed tbat tbe statutory power of tbe circuit court is limited to that of vacating and setting aside an order made by tbe Railroad Gommission or refusing to do so; and tbat tbe order can be attacked only on two grounds: one, tbat tbe rate or rates, fares, charges, classifications, joint rate or rates fixed in such order is unlawful; and tbe other, tbat any such regulation, practice, or service fixed in such order is unreasonable. Tbe statute therefore delegates only judicial functions to tbe court by empowering it to pass upon tbe lawfulness or reasonableness of tbe Railroad Commission's order. ■To clothe a tribunal with tbe power to adjudge whether or not an order made by another body is reasonable is quite different and distinct from investing such tribunal with tbe power to make a reasonable order in tbe first instance. Tbe one is a [661]*661delegation of judicial power, tbe other of administrative power. Tbe circuit court for Dane county can exercise no administrative functions and none.were attempted to be delegated to it by tbe statute referred to. That tbe legislature intended tbe circuit court only to review orders made by tbe Railroad Commission and not to make new ones based upon evidence taken in court is made still clearer by secs. 1797 — 16 (b), 1797 — 16 (c), and 1797 — 16 (d), wbicb provide for sending tbe case back to tbe Railroad Commission for reconsideration and refinding if new or additional evidence is adduced. In tbe instant case, therefore, since tbe Railroad Commission did not make an order based upon its discretion, but one based upon tbe statute, tbe only question presented by tbe action was tbe lawfulness of tbe order, which of course raised tbe question of the constitutionality of see. 1801. And that question is tbe only one tbe appeal presents upon tbe merits. Tbe material part of the section reads as follows:

“Every corporation operating a railroad shall maintain a station at every village, whether incorporated or not, having a postoffice and containing two hundred inhabitants or more, through or within one eighth of a mile of wbicb its . line or road runs, and shall provide tbe necessary arrangements, receive and discharge freight and passengers, and shall stop at least one passenger train each day each way at such station, if trains are run on such road to that extent; and, if four or more passenger trains are run each way daily, at least two passenger trains each day each, way shall be stopped at each and every such station.”

It is not seriously contended by either side but that tbe statute, if valid, applies as well to interstate passenger trains as to domestic trains. If it does not apply to interstate trains then it does not apply to tbe plaintiff at all, for it runs no domestic passenger train in Wisconsin. Tbe local train stopping at Cochrane is spoken of by counsel for plaintiff as though it were a domestic train. Rut the evidence shows that [662]*662it runs from Savanna, Illinois, through. Wisconsin, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and from there back to Savanna, Illinois. It is none the less an interstate train because it is a local or unlimited train. The speed of a train or its infrequency of stopping furnishes no absolute criterion of an interstate character. A train is an interstate one if it runs from one state into another and is engaged in traffic between the two, irrespective of its speed or the number of stops it makes. It is quite evident that the legislature must have intended to include interstate trains as coming within the purview of the statute, else its enactment would have been a mere idle ceremony. It is doubtful if there be a single station in the state of less than 5,000 inhabitants which has passing through it four or more domestic trains each way daily, and there certainly are few, if any, of any size that have that many domestic trains daily each way. So it seems clear that interstate trains were intended to be included within the terms of the statute. There is certainly nothing in its language to indicate any limitation as to the character of the passenger train, and we must hold that there is none. It is also clear that accommodation freight trains are excluded. They are not passenger trains in the ordinary sense of the term. Their time of arrival and departure is quite uncertain; they furnish no means of carrying anything but hand baggage, and their passenger service can in no sense be said to be adequate or reasonable. People ex rel. Cantrell v. St. L. & T. H. R. Co. 176 Ill. 512, 52 N. E. 292; Missouri Pac. R. Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 262, 280, 281, 30 Sup. Ct. 330.

Construing the statute, therefore, as including interstate trains and excluding accommodation freight trains, we face this question: Is it constitutional ? The major part of plaintiff’s brief is devoted to showing that the passenger service is adequate at Cochrane and that it would be placing an unreasonable burden upon it to require an additional local train or to require one of its limited trains to stop there. We are con[663]*663cerned only indirectly with, the conditions shown by the evidence in the instant case. Snch conditions are important, but only as an index of conditions presumably existing in similar localities throughout the state and as bearing in general upon the constitutionality of the act in question.

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Bluebook (online)
140 N.W. 296, 152 Wis. 654, 1913 Wisc. LEXIS 126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-burlington-quincy-railroad-v-railroad-commission-wis-1913.