Larkin v. Public Utilities Commission

180 N.E. 54, 124 Ohio St. 554, 124 Ohio St. (N.S.) 554, 1932 Ohio LEXIS 363
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 27, 1932
Docket23194
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 180 N.E. 54 (Larkin v. Public Utilities Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Larkin v. Public Utilities Commission, 180 N.E. 54, 124 Ohio St. 554, 124 Ohio St. (N.S.) 554, 1932 Ohio LEXIS 363 (Ohio 1932).

Opinion

Allen, J.

The following facts are established by the record:

Hannah H. Larkin is the owner of certain trucks and other equipment, engaged in business in the city of Dayton as a transportation and storage company, doing business under the firm name of Larkin Transfer & Storage Company. Her son, Daniel C. Larkin, is engaged in business in the city of Dayton as Larkin Motor Freight Terminal. Daniel C. Larkin owns the freight terminal, but possesses no equipment. The record shows that neither of these businesses is incorporated, being owned respectively by Hannah H. Larkin and Daniel C. Larkin. For approximately the past year Daniel C. Larkin has been operating under so-called “contracts” or “arrangements” made with certain shippers for the transportation of freight from points within a radius of thirty miles of Dayton, such as Xenia, Piqua, Troy, West Carrollton, and Miamisburg, through Dayton for points destined beyond Dayton. These shipments are carried by Hannah H. Larkin with her trucking service from outside the city of Dayton into the Larkin Motor Freight Terminal at Dayton, owned by Daniel C. Larkin, and from that point are shipped to interstate points, being carried by the Interstate Trucking Company and by other interstate carriers, which companies pay the consideration for such shipments to Daniel C. Larkin under a private agreement with him. Daniel C. Larkin reimburses Hannah H. Larkin for this service at a *557 stated rate per hundred pounds, and no consideration moves from the shippers direct to Daniel C. Larkin or to Hannah H. Larkin. This controversy concerns only the service rendered from outside points into the city of Dayton, and from the city of Dayton to outside points, and'not the intracity service rendered hy Hannah H. Larkin and hence raises no question of the regulation of transportation operated exclusively within the boundaries of municipalities under Section 614-84, General Code.

It is the contention of Daniel C. Larkin that inasmuch as he owns no equipment and operates under alleged private contracts, he is a private contract carrier within the holding in Hissem v. Guran, 112 Ohio St., 59, 146 N. E., 808, and Motor Freight, Inc., v. Public Utilities Commission, 120 Ohio St., 1, 165 N. E., 355. In the case of Hissem v. Guran, it was held: “The owner of a motor-propelled vehicle engaged in the business of carrying and transporting property in such vehicle for hire over the highways of this state pursuant to a definite contract describing the property to be carried and the points to and from which the same shall be carried and the compensation to be paid, such owner not holding himself out to the public as willing to carry property for other persons, and not in fact carrying property for any other persons than those with whom he has thus contracted, and not operating under any public franchise, is not a common carrier, and is not a motor transportation company as that term is defined in Sections 614-2 and 614-84, General Code (110 O. L., 212, 213).” In that ease Guran was employed by a milk producer’s association, for which he hauled under exclusive contract, not serving the *558 public generally, or any person or firm other than the members of the milk producers’ association.

In Motor Freight, Inc., v. Public Utilities Commission, 120 Ohio St., 1, 165 N. E., 355, decided February 13, 1929, it was held that the contract to provide for transportation is equivalent to a contract to transport, but that in order to constitute a “motor transportation company,” as defined in the General Code, the transportation company must own, control, manage, or operate the motor vehicles used in transportation. In that case a company rendering service as haulage contractors or brokers, owning no equipment and exercising no supervision over the management or operation of the motor vehicles used in transportation, was held not to constitute a motor transportation company. However, in this case Daniel C. Larkin exercises a positive supervision and direction over the trucking carried on in the trucks which are owned by his mother. This was testified to by Eugene Schaefer, general manager of Larkin Transfer & Storage Company, who stated that Daniel C. Larkin “tells us what customer — what to pick up and what not to pick up,” and also stated that Hannah H. Larkin, in furnishing this service outside of Dayton, operates under the direction of the Larkin Freight Terminal; that is to say, under the direction of Daniel C. Larkin.

.Subsequent, moreover, to the decision of Motor Freight, Inc., v. Public Utilities Commission, Sections 614-2 and 614-84, General Code, were amended (April 6, 1929,113 Ohio Laws, 482). Section 614-2, General Code, as it existed before the amendment, did not include a person furnishing transportation *559 service, and excepted private contract carriers from the operation of Section 614-84. The latter section made the owning, controlling, operating, or managing of motor-propelled vehicles an essential part of the definition of a motor transportation company. Obviously, therefore, the Legislature amended the statute to take care of the precise situation which existed when this court held that Motor Freight, Inc., did not come within the purview of the statutes. The statute (Section 614-2) now defines a “motor transportation company” as:

“Any person of persons, firm or firms, co-partnership or voluntary association, joint stock association, company or corporation, wherever organized or incorporated. * * *

“When engaged in the business of carrying and transporting persons or property, or both, or of providing or furnishing such transportation service, for hire, in or by motor propelled vehicles of any kind whatsoever, including trailers for the public in general, over any public street, road or highway in this state, except as otherwise provided in Section 614-84 * * *.”

We proceed, therefore, to inquire whether under the statute in its present form Daniel C. Larkin is engaged in the business of transporting property or providing or furnishing such transportation for hire for the public in general, in motor-propelled vehicles over the highways of the state.

Since this court held in Motor Freight, Inc., v. Public Utilities Commission, supra, that a contract to provide for transportation is equivalent to a contract to transport, within the holding of that case Daniel C. Larkin is engaged in the business both of *560 providing or furnishing transportation and of transporting property. It is conceded that he does this for hire, in motor-propelled vehicles over the highways of the state, and the only serious question remaining for disposition is whether he does this for the public in general. If he does, Hissem v. Guran, supra, does not apply. It is Daniel C. Larkin’s contention that he furnishes terminal facilities merely; that he coordinates existing modes of communication by contract so that delivery schedules are shortened and the actual time consumed in transit over existing transportation lines is materially lessened.

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Related

Highway Freight Co. v. P. S. C.
164 A. 835 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1932)
Motor Freight, Inc. v. Public Utilities Commission
181 N.E. 479 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
180 N.E. 54, 124 Ohio St. 554, 124 Ohio St. (N.S.) 554, 1932 Ohio LEXIS 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/larkin-v-public-utilities-commission-ohio-1932.