In re Sioux Falls Traction System

228 N.W. 179, 56 S.D. 207, 1929 S.D. LEXIS 267
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 10, 1929
DocketFile No. 6298
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 228 N.W. 179 (In re Sioux Falls Traction System) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Sioux Falls Traction System, 228 N.W. 179, 56 S.D. 207, 1929 S.D. LEXIS 267 (S.D. 1929).

Opinion

BROWN, J.

Sioux Falls Traction System applied to the board of railroad commissioners for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to operate as a class A motor carrier for the transportation of passengers and baggage between Sioux Falls, S'. D., and Sioux City, Iowa, via Harrisburg, Canton, and Hudson, S. D., Hawarden, 'Chatsworth, Akron, and Westfield, Iowa, and Richland, Elk Point, and Jefferson, S. D. After a hearing, the Railroad Commission granted! a certificate for interstate transportation only, and denied the application so far as it affected intrastate transportation in South Dakota. A petition for rehearing was denied, and the case is now before us on a writ of certiorari.

Daws of 1925, c. 224, under which petitioner’s application is made, is entitled:

“An Act Providing for the Supervision, Regulation and Control of the Transportation by Motor Vehicle of Persons and Property for Hire Upon the Public Highways of this State and Prescribing the Compensation to be Paid for the Use of Such Highways.”

Petitioner contends that this act is unconstitutional, because it embraces more than one subject, and also because it contains subjects that are not expressed in the title. We are satisfied that this contention cannot be sustained. The argument that the act covers not only the supervision, regulation, and control of motor vehicles, but, also the giving of indemnity bonds by the bus companies, the taking out of indemnity insurance, and the levying of 'a gross income tax upon the incomes of the bus companies, and thus includes different subjects which are not expressed in the title, is [210]*210not persuasive. All of these topics are clearly part of the supervision, regulation, and control of transportation by motor vehicles. The alleged levying of an income tax is simply the mode of collecting compensation for the use of the highways, which compensation is based on a percentage of the gross income. Clark v. Poor, 274 U. S. 554, 47 S. Ct. 702, 71 L. Ed. 1199; Smallwood v. Jeter, 42 Idaho, 169, 244 P. 149.

Under the law that existed -before the enactment of chapter 224 of the Eaws of 192-5, any one complying with the requirements of the statute was entitled to a certificate, and could! use the highways as a common carrier, the Railroad Commission having no discretion as to whom certificates should be issued to, and under that law petitioner had procured a certificate and was operating as a carrier o-f passengers and baggage by motor vehicle between the stations mentioned in the present application, and it is petitioner’s contention that now to- deny it the right to do intrastate business between those points lessens the value of the property that it had invested in motor vehicles and other equipment for the business, and thus it is 'deprived- of its property without due process of law. But in similar circumstances the Supreme Court of the United States has held that there is no support for such a contention. Interstate Busses Corporation v. Holyoke Street Ry. Co., 273 U. S. 45, 47 S. Ct. 298, 71 L. Ed. 530. No one has a vested right to the use of the highways of the state for private gain, Greeley Transportation Co. v. People, 791 Colo. 307, 245 P. 720.; State v. Johnson, 75 Mont. 240, 243 P. 1073.; Packard v. Banton, 264 U. S. 140, 44 S. Ct. 257, 68 L. Ed. 596.

Section 6 of the act provides that no motor carrier shall give any preference or advantage to any particular person or locality, and petitioner contends that the refusal to grant a certificate for intrastate business between the South Dakota stations and Sioux Falls involves a direct discrimination against those South Dakota towns, because, if two persons get on to- the bus at -Sioux Palls,, one desiring to go to Hawarden, Iowa, and the other to go to Hudson, S. D., the station next nearer to Sioux Falls than Hawarden, the Hawarden passenger can be carried, but the Hudson passenger must get off, although the bus has to pass through Hudson in order to get to Hawarden. We do not see how this constitutes any discrimination. There is no claim that any discrimi[211]*211nation is made between persons going to any place where petitioner’s busses are authorized to do business, nor between different localities named in the certificate granted. Petitioner’s argument that it is the duty of a common carrier to handle all passengers who apply for transportation on his route without discrimination and without preference is in a sense true, but it is limited by the condition that the route embraces only the towns or stations to and from which a certificate for carriage has been granted. The act does not impose upon any carrier any necessity for discrimination between persons going to the same place, nor does it entail any discrimination between localities where the busses are authorized to do business. And, in absence of federal legislation on the subject, state, regulation of intrastate business of an interstate motorbus line does not infringe the commerce clause of the federal Constitution (article i, § 8). Haselton v. Interstate Stage Lines, 82 N. H. 327, 133 A. 451, 47 A. L. R. 218.

It is next contended that the evidence shows that there is a public necessity for the service which petitioner had been giving, and proposes to continue, and that the action of the Railroad Commission in denying a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the intrastate as well as. the interstate towns was arbitrary, and not in accordance with the evidence. Petitioner does not point out wherein the ruling of the Railroad 'Commission is arbitrary, and we find nothing in the record indicating that the commission acted arbitrarily or unreasonably. The contention that the ruling of the commission is not in accordance with the evidence cannot be considered by this court so long as the order is not shown to be arbitrary or unreasonable. The evidence before the commission shows that there are two passenger trains each way on the Milwaukee Railway, afid that there is train service on two other railways,. the Omaha and the Great Northern possibly six or eight trains a day, and that most of the towns served, or proposed to be served, by the bus line are also served by one or more of the railways. The witnesses for the applicant agree that it would' be a convenience to have the bus line continued, but none of them go to the length of saying that it is necessary. The testimony in substance shows that the railway service is sufficient for the travel needs of the public, but is not so convenient as the bus line which picks up passengers at places in the several towns [212]*212served, when otherwise they would have to walk to the station, and that the time schedules maintained by the bus line are to certain degree more convenient than those of the railway. But this court cannot substitute its judgment for that of the commission, where there is any substantial basis in the evidence of the finding of the commission. 42 C. J. 692.

The statute expressly provides that “the findings and conclusions of the Board on questions of fact shall be final and shall not be subject to review.” We do not deem it necessary to decide whether this provision of the statute can be sustained or not. It is assailed ¡by áppellant as placing judicial power in the board of railroad commissioners, and to that extent 'being- unconstitutional.

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Bluebook (online)
228 N.W. 179, 56 S.D. 207, 1929 S.D. LEXIS 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-sioux-falls-traction-system-sd-1929.