Lattavo Bros. v. Hudock

119 F. Supp. 587, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4153
District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania·Decided November 12, 1953·No. Civ. A. No. 10483·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

STALEY, Circuit Judge.

This is a suit for a permanent injunction, restraining defendant from enforcing certain of the weight limitations of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code against plaintiff’s vehicles. Most of the important facts were stipulated.

Plaintiff, an Ohio corporation, is a common carrier by motor truck and operates between points in Ohio and western Pennsylvania under a consolidated certificate issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Defendant commands the squadron of the Pennsylvania State Police having jurisdiction of that part of the state over which plaintiff operates.

In carrying out their duty to enforce the maximum weight provisions of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code, defendant’s subordinates have stopped and weighed plaintiff’s vehicles and, when found to be overweight, have detained the vehicle until the excess was removed and arrested and caused the driver to be fined. There appear to have been quite a few such incidents, but the one that brought matters to a head occurred on March H, 1952. On that day, defendant’s subordinates stopped and weighed petitioner’s truck and four-wheeled trailer in Freedom, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The outfit as a whole was found to be within the legal limits, but the gross weight of the four-wheeled trailer was 30,680 pounds, which was 3,380 pounds over the maximum gross weight allowed by Section 903(c) of the Motor Vehicle Code1 for a Class G four-wheeled trailer. This vehicle was registered under the laws of Ohio.

Plaintiff asserts that the application of the maximum-weight laws of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code to its vehicles, traveling in interstate commerce and properly registered and in compliance with Ohio’s maximum weight laws, imposes an unreasonable burden upon interstate commerce, in violation of the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution, art. 1, § 8, cl. 3. Because [589] of this attack upon the enforcement of a state statute on grounds of unconstitutionality, a statutory court of three judges was convened.2

Except for one or two points which we will discuss later, plaintiff’s contentions do not present a substantial federal question. It is no longer open to dispute that a state, - in the exercise of its police power and in the absence of Congressional action, may impose reasonable restrictions upon the weight and size of vehicles which travel over its highways, equally applicable to intrastate and interstate commerce, without running afoul of the Commerce or Due Process Clauses, art. 1, § 8, cl. 3 and Amend. 14. Maurer v. Hamilton, 1940, 309 U.S. 598, 60 S.Ct. 726, 84 L.Ed. 969; South Carolina State Highway Department v. Barnwell Brothers, Inc., 1938, 303 U.S. 177, 58 S.Ct. 510, 82 L.Ed. 734; Sproles v. Binford, 1932, 286 U.S. 374, 52 S.Ct. 581, 76 L.Ed. 1167; Morris v. Duby, 1927, 274 U.S. 135, 47 S.Ct. 548, 71 L.Ed. 966. Those cases give a conclusively adverse answer to nearly every one of the many points raised by plaintiff. If this were all there were to the case, there would have been no justification for convening three judges. California Water Service Co. v. City of Redding, 1938, 304 U.S. 252, 58 S.Ct. 865, 82 L.Ed. 1323; Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. v. Oklahoma Packing Co., 1934, 292 U.S. 386, 54 S.Ct. 732, 78 L.Ed. 1318. There is more, however, and it is the interesting part.

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Lattavo Bros. v. Hudock, 119 F. Supp. 587, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4153 (W.D. Pa. 1953).

119 F. Supp. 587 (Lattavo Bros. v. Hudock) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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