City of Chicago v. Hebard Express & Van Co.

134 N.E. 27, 301 Ill. 570
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 22, 1922
DocketNo. 14390
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 134 N.E. 27 (City of Chicago v. Hebard Express & Van Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Chicago v. Hebard Express & Van Co., 134 N.E. 27, 301 Ill. 570 (Ill. 1922).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dunn

delivered the opinion of the court:

The city of Chicago sued the Hebard Express and Van Company in the municipal court for a violation of an ordinance of the city by moving for hire certain household furniture and personal property from No. 855 Ainslee street, in the city of Chicago, without thereafter filing in the office of the bureau of statistics and municipal reference library of the city of Chicago the statement required by section 1 of the ordinance. The court on a trial without a jury rendered judgment for the defendant and the city appealed to this court, the judge having certified that the validity of an ordinance was involved and the public interest required that the appeal should be taken directly to this court.

The first three sections of the ordinance are as follows:

“Sec. 1. Every person, firm or corporation owning or operating any moving van, furniture car, transfer wagon, express wagon, delivery wagon, or any other vehicle engaged in moving or hauling for hire in the city of Chicago, shall keep a record of the place from which and the place to which he or it moves the household goods or personal property, or any of them, of any person who is, or persons who are, removing or vacating any dwelling, house, flat, apartment, room, rooms or place of residence or abode or place of business in the city of Chicago, which record shall show the name and address of the mover, the name of the person for whom the moving was done, the name of the person who was the owner or ostensible owner of the said household goods or personal property moved, the address from which in the city of Chicago and to which in the city of Chicago, or outside of the city of Chicago, as the case may be, such moving was done, and the name and address of the common carrier to whom such household goods or personal property were delivered, with the date of such removal or delivery, and the character of the articles moved.

“Sec. 2. Every person, firm or corporation owning or operating any of the vehicles aforesaid, and any person, firm or corporation not engaged in moving or hauling for hire in the city of Chicago but in control or possession of any of the vehicles aforementioned, who shall, for a valuable consideration or otherwise, move the household goods or personal property, or any of them, of any person who is, or persons who are, removing or vacating any dwelling, house, flat, apartment, room or place of residence or abode or place of business in the city of Chicago, shall, not later than Monday following the date of such moving, file in the office of the bureau of statistics and municipal reference library of the city of Chicago, or send by registered mail to such bureau, a full and correct statement of all such hauling or moving done, containing the information as required in section 1 hereof. Upon receipt of such statements the head of such bureau of statistics and municipal reference library shall keep a register of all such transactions in a book or books, or other suitable form of maintaining records, to be used for that purpose, with an alphabetical index of the names of the persons for whom such hauling has been done. Said register shall not be open to the inspection of the public, but the head of such bureau shall furnish to any person inquiring therefor, information as to any particular change or removal, for which a charge of fifty cents shall be made for information concerning each change or removal: Provided, that no fee shall be charged for any such information furnished to the department of police.

“Sec. 3. Upon request of the person, firm or corporation owning or in charge or in control of the vehicle in which said household goods or personal property, or any of them, are to be removed, the person for whom such moving is being done shall give to said owner or person in charge or in control of any vehicle, all information necessary to enable him to make and keep such record or statement. It shall be unlawful for any person to give to said owner or person in charge or in control of any vehicle hauling or moving said household goods or personal property, or any of them, a fictitious name or to deceive him, or to make knowingly any false statement concerning any of said information requested by said owner or person in charge or in control of said vehicle, the obtaining of which is necessary to enable him to make and keep said record or statement.”

The sixth section provides for a fine not exceeding $200 for any violation of the ordinance.

It was stipulated on the trial that the appellee is engaged in the city of Chicago in the business of moving and hauling for hire; that it moved-the property of Hobart Merrifield from No. 855 Ainslee street, in the city of Chicago, to some other point in the city and did not file the statement required by the ordinance. The appellee proved that in its business it had in the course of a year approximately five thousand moving jobs, and moved anywhere within a radius of three or four hundred miles, where the roads permitted; that eighty to ninety per cent of the moving is done within the city of Chicago, about nine per cent from Chicago to places outside the city in the State of Illinois, and about one per cent to places outside the State.

The appellee contends that the ordinance is invalid because the legislature did not confer power upon the city to adopt it, because it is unjust, unreasonable and oppressive, and because it is in conflict with the State and Federal constitutions.

No provision of the State constitution is referred to in the brief or argument of the appellee, and no provision of the Federal constitution except that which declares that Congress shall have power to regulate commerce among the several States. The ordinance does not violate this provision. An ordinance adopted in the exercise of the police power, for the protection of the community, may extend, incidentally, to the operation of a carrier in its interstate business, provided it does not subject that business to unreasonable demands and is not opposed to Federal legislation. Barrett v. City of New York, 232 U. S. 14; Smith v. Alabama, 124 id. 465; Hennington v. Georgia, 163 id. 299; New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co. v. New York, 165 id. 628.

The appellant contends that authority to the city to pass the ordinance is found in clauses 42 and 66 of section 1 of article 5 of the Cities and Villages act, which are as follows:

“Forty-second — To license, tax and regulate hackmen, draymen, omnibus drivers, carters, cabmen, porters, ex-pressmen, and all others pursuing like occupations, and to prescribe their compensation.

“Sixty-sixth — To regulate the police of the city or village, and pass and enforce all necessary police ordinances.”

Under these clauses the city has the right to regulate persons engaged in the business mentioned in the ordinance, — that is, moving or hauling for hire.

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Related

City of Chicago v. the Willett Co.
94 N.E.2d 195 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1950)
City of Chicago v. Waters
1 N.E.2d 396 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1936)
City of Chicago v. Kautz
144 N.E. 805 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1924)
City of Mascoutah v. Donner
245 Ill. App. 233 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1924)

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Bluebook (online)
134 N.E. 27, 301 Ill. 570, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-chicago-v-hebard-express-van-co-ill-1922.