Fred Harvey v. Corporation Commission

1924 OK 716, 229 P. 428, 102 Okla. 266, 36 A.L.R. 1445, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 190
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 16, 1924
Docket12963
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1924 OK 716 (Fred Harvey v. Corporation Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fred Harvey v. Corporation Commission, 1924 OK 716, 229 P. 428, 102 Okla. 266, 36 A.L.R. 1445, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 190 (Okla. 1924).

Opinion

LYDICK, J.

This action was begun be-, fore the Corporation Commission upon the written complaint of its chairman against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, a transportation company, and Fred Harvey, a corporation, which serves meals for hire at various stations of said railway company and at other stations of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, but the last named company was not made a party to the action

The effect of the complaint is to charge that the Fred Harvey Company refuses to admit a. gentleman patron to its dining room, where meals table d’hote are served, unless he wears a coat, thus requiring him, if he would dine coatless, to eat at Fred Harvey's lunch counter, where only a la carte service is had, and food is relatively higher in price than in the dining room. The complaint charges that, therefore, such coatless patrons must pay more for their meals in some instances than is paid by ■others, and that the rule makes an unjust discrimination between such passengers and other patrons to the financial loss of those who refuse to wear coats.

Upon a hearing had, the Corporation Commission, after reciting the facts, made its order in haec verba as follows, to wit:.

“That the defendant, Fred Harvey, cease and discontinue, in Oklahoma, the discrimination above found to exist.”

No order was made against either of the railway companies named. Both Fred Harvey and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company appeal to this court from ■the Corporation Commission’s order.

The independent operation, of dining rooms and lunch counters by a company does not ■of itself alone make it a transportation or transmission company or a public utility within the provisions of the Constitution or the statutes, and therefore its regulation is not by law consigned to the Corporation Commission. The maintenance on its lines of “reasonable and just public service facilities and conveniences,” operated without unjust discrimination, under reasonable rules, and supplying food to passengers traveling on its lines, is a duty owing by each railway company, and as to it such duty may be enforced for the benefit of intrastate passengers only by the Corporation Commission, and for interstate passengers by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Counsel for the Corporation Commission does not in his brief assert that the business done by Fred Harvey, a corporation, brings it within the jurisdiction of the Corporation Commission, but does assert thar Fred Harvey, in conducting its business, is doing that required to be done by the railway companies, and that in so doing Fred Harvey is acting in the capacity of servant and agent cf the railway companies. He asserts that the Corporation Commission has jurisdiction over the railway companies to require them to cause such service to be rendered without unjust discrimination and under reasonable rules and* regulations. Upon this theory, the Corporation Commission has proceeded in this case against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company as principal and has joined Fred Harvey, a corporation, only in its capacity as servant and agent of the railway companies. In their briefs and arguments here presented, both Fred Harvey and the Atchi-son, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company have acquiesced in the doctrine and' thcor - of the Corporation Commission' that Fred Harvey is the mere agent and servant of the railway companies. For that reason alone we will determine the issues here upon such theory, although ironl the meager, indefinite, and incomplete • record ’ upon this point we have much doubt as to its correctness.

The order is made against Fred Harvey alone, and upon its face is apparently directed against it as a principal and not as an agent and servant. No order is made against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company,, the principal, or against the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company,. which was not even made a party to the action,, although the order to abrogate the coat rule covers the business • of Fred Harvey on both lines of railways. If Fred Harvey, a corporation, is the mere servant and agent of the railway company, then in this case, in so far as depends the jurisdiction of the Corporation Commission, its acts are those of its master and not of its own, and to its master’s orders must it *268 yield obedience, and for its acts its master and principal, tbe railway company, must answer to tbe tribunal having jurisdiction to command it.

Tbe Corporation Commission bas authority to deal with the servants of a public utility only in so- far. as it may be necessary to carry into effect a lawful order against its master or principal, and againstf such principal all regulatory proceedings'must be addressed and all effective orders/ entered. In bis brief, counsel for tbe Corporation Commission complains that such analysis is technical, but we say that tbe requirements that a judgment and order be rendered and entered against tbe proper party is about tbe most substantial element of every proceeding.. As to tbe dining service on the lines of tbe St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, the principal was not even brought into the case, and it may be, for aught we know from tbe record, that it bas no knowledge of the radical change ordered in tbe conduct of this business upon its premises. Can a rate case be maintained solely against a ticket agent? Tbe Corpo-J ration Commission was without jurisdiction) to make and enforce this order against Fred/ Harvey, a corporation.

Should we reverse and remand tbe case authorizing tbe commission to enter such order against tbe Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, as to Fred Harvey’s business -on its lines? Tbe order includes service to tbe interstate passengers, whom tbe record shows to be tbe greater portion of patrons affected, and also includes service to tbe patronizing general public who, while dining with Fred Harvey, are not passengers of tbe railway company or connected with its commerce. Jurisdiction to regulate the dining service as to interstate passengers is by acts of Congress, authorized by the federal Constitution, vested solely in tbe Interstate Commerce Commission, and it is actively occupying tbe field to such extent that the state, even through its police powers, is not authorized to interfere. Thsa rule is not for the enforcement of a common-law duty. It places a restriction and! burden upon tbe company’s conduct of in| terstate commerce, and as such tbe ordeB is void for lack of jurisdiction in tbe Coi* poration Commission. See Missouri, K & T. Ry. Co. v. Walston, 37 Okla. 517, 133 Pac. 42; Western Union Tel. Co. v. Bank of Spencer, 53 Okla. 398, 156 Pac. 1175; St. L. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Wood, 52 Okla. 176, 152 Pac. 848.

In so far as the order may affect patrons not connected with either interstate or intrastate commerce, neither the Interstate Commerce Commission nor the Corporation Commission has jurisdiction to make it, unless it be made to affirmatively appear necessary for the benefit of such commerce. It does not appear that the Corporation Commission would have made the order had it known same could have been made effective only as to intrastate passengers, and, therefore, for reasons stated, we hold the order void in toto.

Shall we reverse and remand the case, giving the Corporation Commission authority to modify the order and make it effective against the Atchison, Topeka &

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Bluebook (online)
1924 OK 716, 229 P. 428, 102 Okla. 266, 36 A.L.R. 1445, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fred-harvey-v-corporation-commission-okla-1924.