People ex rel. Delaware & Hudson Co. v. Public Service Commission

226 A.D. 43, 234 N.Y.S. 342, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8641

This text of 226 A.D. 43 (People ex rel. Delaware & Hudson Co. v. Public Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Delaware & Hudson Co. v. Public Service Commission, 226 A.D. 43, 234 N.Y.S. 342, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8641 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinions

Van Kirk, P. J.

The order under review reads as follows: “ That The Delaware and Hudson Company be and hereby is required to provide facilities at or near East Worcester on its Susquehanna Division, to permit the turning of locomotives now regularly engaged in the practice of proceeding from said East Worcester to Delanson in the back up or reverse direction, said turning facilities to be available for use not later than May 1, 1926, and thereafter to discontinue the practice of regularly- backing up locomotives from East Worcester to Delanson.”

A rehearing had been asked and denied before this proceeding was begun. Before the order was made, and since, the Delaware and Hudson Company has used pusher ” or “ helper ” engines to aid freight trains up the heavy grade between Delanson and [45]*45East Worcester. These engines return, running backward, light, to Delanson, a distance of about thirty miles, over many grade crossings and through several villages. During this return trip the general speed limit is twenty miles per hour, but in specified places fifteen miles per hour. These engines are used solely in aid of trains carrying interstate commerce; the return trip is made to take the engine where it is to begin another up-grade crossing service.

The following general rules are well established: The Federal government has absolute power to control and regulate interstate commerce and its acts under that power are supreme; any State acts to control or regulate commerce, in any field within the interstate commerce tract, into which the Federal government has already entered, are inoperative; there can be no divided or rival authority after the Federal government has assumed control. (Savage v. Jones, 225 U. S. 501; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. Co. v. Harold, 241 id. 371; Missouri Pacific R. R. Co. v. Stroud, 267 id. 404, 408.) Where Congress has acted, Its silence as to what it does not do, is as expressive of what its intention is as the direct provisions made by it * * * the will of Congress upon the whole subject is as clearly established by what it had not declared, as by what it has expressed.” (Southern R. Co. v. Railroad Commission, 236 U. S. 439, 447; Matter of Whish v. Public Service Commission, 205 App. Div. 756; affd., 240 N. Y. 677.)

While the respondent does not dispute these rules, it seeks to distinguish the subject-matter covered by the order under review from that covered by those rules because the order is made in the interests of public safety and in the exercise of the police power of the State. We cannot approve this position. In Oregon-Washington R. R. & Nav. Co. v. Washington (270 U. S. 87) the court said (p. 101): “ In the relation of the States to the regulation of interstate commerce by Congress there are two fields. There is one in which the State can not interfere at all, even in the silence of Congress. In the other (and this is the one in which the legitimate exercise of the State’s police power brings it into contact with interstate commerce so as to affect that commerce), the State may exercise its police power until Congress has by affirmative legislation occupied the field by regulating interstate commerce and so necessarily has excluded State action” (citing a number of cases). In this second class are grade crossing cases (Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. Oklahoma, 271 U. S. 303; Matter of Staten Island Rapid Transit R. Co., 220 App. Div. 80; affd., 245 N. Y. 643; Erie R. R. Co. v. Public Utility Comrs., 254 U. S. 394); pure food cases (Savage v. Jones, 225 U. S. 501); cases of quarantines against insect pests (Oregon-Washington R. R. & Nav. Co. v. Washington, 270 U. S. 87), [46]*46as well as others (Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Larabee Flour Mills Co., 211 U. S. 612, 620).

What then is the rule which governs in this second class of cases? Savage v. Jones (supra) arose concerning the sale and shipment of medical preparations in the original packages from Minnesota to Indiana; this is held to constitute interstate commerce. It is said that regulating the sales of food for domestic animals by the State law is within the police power of the State, but such law is invalid if it is in conflict with the Federal Food and Drugs Act. The subject involved related to one on which the State as well as Congress could act. The rule in this class of cases is stated as follows (p. 525): “ But when the local police regulation has real relation to the suitable protection of the people of the State, and is reasonable in its requirements, it is not invalid because it may incidentally affect interstate commerce, provided it does not conflict with legislation enacted by Congress pursuant to its constitutional authority.” Does this order and its subject-matter come within this rule?

The Public Service Commission has made no findings and the only expression of intent in the order is to be found in the recitals thereof, as follows: “ it appearing to the Commission that the practice of regularly backing up locomotives between East Worcester and Delanson * * * is unsafe and not reasonably necessary; and it further appearing that in order to discontinue such practice turning facilities are necessarily required at or near East Worcester, and no such facilities being present at this time, it is Ordered * * *.” So that the one expressed reason for the order is that the backward movement of the engines is unsafe. The evidence does not disclose how the backing of the engine is to any appreciable extent more unsafe than its forward movement would be. The view of the engineer is interfered with when going forward by the boiler, and when going backward by the tender. Whether going backward or forward, the engineer cannot see a man on the track when he is within 100 feet of the engine; all the usual warning signals may be given when going backward as well as forward, and the headlight is the same. Each engine when running backward is attended by three men, the engineer, the fireman and a flagman. The flagman is to watch ahead; to see and report signals; he is an extra man on the engine during a backward run. There is some evidence that, when moving backward, the engineer and fireman are in awkward positions, but by turning in his seat either may avoid much of the inconvenience described and this consideration is not mentioned in the recitals in the order. The evidence does not disclose that this backward movement has' occasioned [47]*47accidents. With engines moving within the speed limit of fifteen or twenty miles per hour and with a strong light on the rear and with the usual signal given, no condition of unusual danger is presented; we find no such urge for the exercise of the police power as is presented, for example, by the grade crossing cases.

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Related

Savage v. Jones
225 U.S. 501 (Supreme Court, 1912)
Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. Oklahoma
271 U.S. 303 (Supreme Court, 1926)
Matter of Whish
148 N.E. 755 (New York Court of Appeals, 1925)
Whish v. Public Service Commission
205 A.D. 756 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1923)
In re the Hearing on Motion of the Commission
220 A.D. 80 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1927)

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Bluebook (online)
226 A.D. 43, 234 N.Y.S. 342, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8641, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-delaware-hudson-co-v-public-service-commission-nyappdiv-1929.