Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Co. v. Railroad Commission of Wisconsin

116 N.W. 905, 136 Wis. 146, 1908 Wisc. LEXIS 214
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJune 5, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by95 cases

This text of 116 N.W. 905 (Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Co. v. Railroad Commission of Wisconsin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Co. v. Railroad Commission of Wisconsin, 116 N.W. 905, 136 Wis. 146, 1908 Wisc. LEXIS 214 (Wis. 1908).

Opinions

TimliN, J.

On September 15, 1906, the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin, upon complaint made by and in behalf of a number of persons residing in the town of Garfield, Polk county, and after hearing said complainants and the railway company, made an order that the Minneapolis, St. Pcml & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Company erect and construct at a point on its line between the stations of Nye and Deronda, which point was formerly known as Dwight’s Siding or Spur, a platform suitable for the loading and unloading of cream and other merchandise shipped by express; that such platform should be constructed so as to be accessible to [154]*154teams, and of the kind and dimensions usually and customarily furnished at small stations where no depot is maintained, and should be sufficient to enable passengers to get on and off trains with safety. The railway company was further ordered to stop its local passenger trains numbered 84 and 85, as shown on its time-card of August 10, 1906, at the point above designated for the purpose of receiving and discharging passengers and express packages". Except in the season during which cream is shipped, the trains are required to stop only upon signal or request by prospective or actual passengers. According to appellant’s time-card of August 10, 1906, Nye is 61.8 miles and Deronda 69.6 miles eastwardly from -Minneapolis, and each about ten miles nearer to St. Paul. Local passenger train No. 84, east bound, arrives at Nye at 10:54 a. m. and at Deronda at 11:10 a. m., daily except Sunday. Local passenger train No. 85, west bound, arrives at Deronda at 2:47 p. m. and at Nye at 3:06 p. m., daily except Sunday. Nye and Deronda are 7.8 miles apart. The new stopping place, called Dwight, is about midway between the stations and in or about the center of an agricultural and dairying community consisting of sixty-four families of 294 persons, and this area, two by three miles in extent, is naturally tributary to Dwight for railroad purposes. The probable contribution to railroad traffic from Dwight will be six cans of cream daily in summer and three cans three times a week in winter, together with some shipments of butter and eggs and an occasional passenger, all of which would at current rates pay the railroad company a small profit over and above the expense caused by this extra stop at Dwight There are five flag stations in the first 114 miles eastwardly from Minneapolis at which trains numbered 84 and 85 stop. These trains carry no freight, but do carry express packages in a sort of combination car. The railway company formerly maintained a spur at Dwight. The order does not prevent the trains numbered 84 and 85 from making their ordinary and [155]*155usual connections, and tbe stop is attended witb no danger on account of tbe proximity of tbe trains in question to other trains on tbe same road at tbat bonr. There is a good road from Dwight to Deronda, where there is a small village or hamlet. At Dwight there is a general store, a church, and a schoolhouse. There are other evidential matters, but the foregoing are the principal facts.

The railway company brought an action under sec. 16, ch. 362, Laws of 1905, in the circuit court for Dane county against the Railroad Commission to vacate and set aside the order in question, and after trial and hearing the circuit court made findings of fact and conclusions of law to the effect that the order of the Commission was not unreasonable, and rendered judgment refusing to vacate this order. This court is asked to review and reverse on its merits the judgment of the circuit court. After the case was presented to this court upon briefs and arguments on January 28, 1908, a reargument was ordered. The following questions, but in different order, were suggested for reargument:

(1) Is it within the legislative power to confer upon courts authority to review the reasonableness of rules or orders of the Railroad Commission?

(2) "What is the scope of review by courts of the orders of the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin contemplated in the action provided for by sec. 16, ch. 362, Laws of 1905 ?

(3) "What is the true construction of the word “unreasonable” in that section?

The able counsel who presented the case on the first argument have been assisted upon the reargument by other able and distinguished members of the bar, and we gratefully acknowledge that the thorough presentation of the questions involved from varying viewpoints and with much legal learning and acumen has been of great service to this court. We have also given the subject painstaking investigation and careful consideration.

Ch. 362, Laws of 1905, is the first attempt in this state to [156]*156regulate tbe rates and service of railroads by or through a commission, although much experimental legislation of this kind has come into existence by the enactment of federal statutes and by the enactment of statutes and the adoption and amendment of constitutions in many of the states during the last twenty-one years. The exact legal relation of the railroad to the state and its citizens presents many grave and difficult legal problems. It was unknown to the ancient jurists. Restrictions of written constitutions and of our dual system of federal and state control of commerce, the vastness of the interests affected, the multitude of detail, and the many-sided legal and economic nature of the questions ordinarily presented, are responsible for much of this difficulty; the extraordinary development of the carrying trade in modem times for more. Consequently the law on this subject, statute and unwritten, is more or less in a state of transition at the present time.

After creating the Commission, to consist of three persons, one of whom shall have a general knowledge of railroad law and the others a general understanding of matters relating to railroad transportation, it is provided that such officers shall be and remain disinterested upon pain of forfeiture of office, and that no member of the Commission shall hold any other office or any position of profit or pursue any other business, but shall devote his whole time to the duties of his office. These qualifications required for the office and these safeguards to insure the impartial exercise of its functions and the great power vested in the Commission by this act and by later statutes evince an intention of the legislature to create an office of great dignity and great responsibility. The Commission has the charge and determination of interests vast in amount, delicate and complicated in their legal and economic relations, affecting the happiness and prosperity of all the people of the state, and involving the consideration and protection of private rights of the most sacred [157]*157character. Experience tends to show that public officers, as well as private citizens, are apt to rise in character and dignity to meet great responsibilities, but to shift responsibility where opportunity of shifting is easily afforded and thereby to deteriorate in efficiency and in character. Besides this, the work of the Commission requires much expert knowledge of the difficult subject of transportation and rates, the consideration and application of economic as well as legal principles, and an intimacy with local and state traffic conditions. Consequently, unless required to do so by the mandate of law, the circuit courts should interfere as little as they may with the determinations and the work of the Railroad Commission. But courts, too, are bounden to duty, and cannot throw off at will that which is imposed upon them by law fairly construed and properly understood.

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Bluebook (online)
116 N.W. 905, 136 Wis. 146, 1908 Wisc. LEXIS 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minneapolis-st-paul-sault-ste-marie-railway-co-v-railroad-commission-wis-1908.