Illinois Cent. R. v. Terry

102 So. 391, 137 Miss. 371, 1924 Miss. LEXIS 232
Mississippi Supreme Court·Decided December 22, 1924·No. No. 24205·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Sykes, P. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellee by attachment in chancery sued the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Missouri and the two appellant railroad companies, alleging in his bill that the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, as the initial carrier of certain live stock, contracted to transport this stock from Wichita, Kan., to Jackson, Miss., and deliver same to Terry, and that the stock were negligently injured in transit. The damages are laid in' the sum of two hundred ninety dollars.

Garnishments were prayed directed to the two appellant railroad companies. In other words, this is an attachment suit in chancery against the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company with garnishments issued against the two appellant railroad companies. The two garnishees answered, denying that they were indebted to the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, but admitted having in their possession both loaded and empty cars of the principal defendant, which came into their possession in interstate commerce. The answer further alleges that the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company has no railway line in the state of Mississippi, and that its cars were only delivered to the garnishees within the state of Mississippi in interstate commerce. The answer then alleges that this suit is based upon what is commonly known as the Carmack Amendment of June 29, 1906 (34 St. 584), as subsequently amended, being a part of an act to regu- ’ late interstate commerce; that this act complainant is not given a right to maintain this suit.

It is further alleged that the chancery court has no jurisdiction to try this cause was the reason that the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company has no railway line [377]*377nor any agents within this state; that, if the Mississippi attachment laws should be construed as giving complainant the right to maintain this suit, they will be violative of the interstate commerce clause of the Federal Constitution (section 8, article 1). From a decree in favor of the complainant for the amount sued for this appeal is here prosecuted by the garnishees.

The first contention of the appellants is as follows :

‘ ‘ The attempt to force litigation of this cause of action in Mississippi is an unreasonable and unnecessary burden on interstate commerce, and repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States.”

The two cases relied upon for this contention by able -counsel for the appellant are Railway Co. v. Wells, 265 U. S. 101, 44 S. Ct. 469, 68 L. Ed. 928, and Davis v. Farmers’ Co-Op. Equity Co., 262 U. S. 312, 43 S. Ct. 556, 67 L. Ed. 996. Neither of these cases is applicable.

In the Wells case the suit was brought in the state court of Texas. The plaintiff Wells was a citizen of Colorado, and the defendant railway company was a Kansas corporation, without any railway lines in Texas, while the personal injury sued for occurred in New Mexico. A Texas railroad was garnisheed which owed sums of money as traffic balances to the defendant railroad company. In other words, neither the plaintiff nor the defendant was a citizen of Texas; neither did the railway company have a line in Texas; and neither did the injury for which suit was brought occur in Texas. In this opinion the court held that for the reasons stated in the Davis case, supra, this suit unreasonably burdens interstate commerce. In the Wells opinion, .however, it is further said:

‘ ‘ The rolling stock held by the garnishee was then being used in interstate commerce, and the amount due on traffic balances arose out of transactions in such commerce. These facts did not render the property immune from seizure by attachment or garnishment. Davis v. Cleveland, C., C. & St. L. R. Co., 217 U. S. 157, 54 [378]*378L. Ed. 708, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 823, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 463, 18 Ann. Cas. 907. But the writ of garnishment is void because of the purpose for which it was invoked.”

In the case of Davis v. Farmers’ Co-Op. Equity Co., supra, the court had under consideration a statute of Minnesota, which provided that any foreign corporation having an agent in that state for the solicitation of freight and passenger traffic over its lines might be served with summons by delivering a copy to such agent. The railroad company sued was a Kansas corporation ; the plaintiff was also a Kansas corporation. The recovery sought was for loss of grain shipped under bill of lading from one point in Kansas to another point in the same state. Under this state of facts it was held that this condition imposes upon interstate commerce a serious and unreasonable burden which renders the statute obnoxious to the commerce clause. In this opinion it is also stated that:

“The fact that the business carried on by a corporation is entirely interstate in character does not render the corporation immune from the ordinary process of the courts of a state. ... It may be that a statute like that here assailed would be valid although applied to suits in which the cause of action arose elsewhere, if the transaction out of which it arose had been entered upon within the state, or if the plaintiff was, when it arose, a resident of the state. These questions are not before us, and we express no opinion upon them.”

The opinion of the United States supreme court which is directly in point and which'is controlling with us is that of Davis v. Railway Co., 217 U. S. 157, 30 S. Ct. 463, 54 L. Ed. 708, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 823, 18 Ann. Cas. 907. In the Davis case cars of a railway company, similarly situated as these, were attached under the attachment laws of the statute of Illinois. It was also contended in that case that the attachment was void because of an interference with interstate commerce. After an exhaustive and learned discussion of this question with a [379]*379citation of authorities, it is there held that there was no violation of the commerce clause of the Constitution. In this opinion it is stated that:

“The interference with interstate commerce by the enforcement of the attachment laws of a state must not be exaggerated. It can only be occasional and temporary. The obligations of a railroad company are tolerably certain, and provisions for them can be easily made. Their sudden assertion can be almost instantly met, at any rate, after short delay and without much, if any, embarrassment to the continuity of transportation. However, the pending case does not call for a very comprehensive decision on the subject. We only decide that the cars situated as this record tends to show that they were when attached, and the amounts due from the garnishee companies . . . were not exempt from process under the state laws, and that the court had, therefore, jurisdiction of them. . . .”

In the present case the amount sued for is small. There was no difficulty whatever in making bond to release the property attached. Certainly in this case there was no interference with interstate commerce.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Illinois Cent. R. v. Terry, 102 So. 391, 137 Miss. 371, 1924 Miss. LEXIS 232 (Mich. 1924).

102 So. 391 (Illinois Cent. R. v. Terry) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Burrell v. Mississippi State Tax Com'n
536 So. 2d 848 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1988)
Marx v. Truck Renting & Leasing Ass'n
520 So. 2d 1333 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1987)
Clark v. Louisville & N. R. Co.
130 So. 302 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1930)