Railroad Commission v. Ala. North. Ry. Co.

62 So. 749, 182 Ala. 357, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 485
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJune 13, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 62 So. 749 (Railroad Commission v. Ala. North. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Railroad Commission v. Ala. North. Ry. Co., 62 So. 749, 182 Ala. 357, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 485 (Ala. 1913).

Opinion

ANDERSON, J.

Article 12 of the Constitution of 1901, composed of sections 242-246, deals with railroads and canals, and section 243 provides in part as follows: “The power and authority of regulating railroad freight and passenger tariffs, the locating and building of passenger and freight depots, correcting abuses, * * * are hereby conferred upon the Legislature, whose duty it shall be to pass laws,” etc. The Legislature, availing [362]*362itself of this constitutional provision, created a railroad commission and enacted laws for the purpose of compelling obedience to the mandate of our organic law. Section 5543 of the Code of 1907 requires every railroad in this state, on the order of the railroad commission, to provide, construct, and maintain adequate depots and depot buildings for the accommodation of passengers and for receiving and handling freight, where public necessity demands it, and the revenue at such point will be sufficient to justify it. Section 5545 authorizes the railroad commission, when any two or more railroads enter any city or town, to require a union passenger depot when practicable, or when the necessities of the case in the judgment of the railroad commission demands it. It also authorizes the commission to require the different railroads to unite in the joint undertaking and expense of erecting, constructing, and maintaining such union passenger stations on such terms, regulations, provisions, and conditions as said railroad commission may prescribe, and provides a penalty for a default.

The object of the constitutional provisions and these legislative enactments was to give proper protection to the traveling public against inconvenient and in-' adequate depot facilities. “It was not expected that the Legislature should do more than pass laws to accomplish the ends in view. When this was done, its duty had been discharged. All laws are carried into execution by means of officers appointed for that purpose; some with more, others with less, but all must be clothed with power sufficient for the effectual execution of- the law to be enforced. Legislative grants of power to the officers of the law to make rules and regulations which are to have the force and effect of laws are by no means uncommon in the history of our legislation.” — Georgia [363]*363R. Co. v. Smith, 70 Ga. 694 (affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, 128 U. S. 174, 9 Sup. Ct. 47, 32 L. Ed. 377).

Our own court is in accord with the holding that thej Legislature performs its function in creating the laws and can delegate the execution of same to officials legally selected for said purpose, and that the giving of said officials some latitude in the execution of same does not[ amount to the delegation of the authority to legislated —Whaley v. State, 168 Ala. 152, 52 South. 941, 30 L. R. A. (N. S.) 499; State v. McCarty, 5 Ala. App. 212, 59 South. 543 (which was subsequently approved by this court in the denial of the writ of certiorari to review the holding of the Court of Appeals); Ward v. State, 154 Ala. 227, 45 South. 655; Tallassee Co. v. Coms. Court, 158 Ala. 263; 48 South. 354.

Indeed, the power of the Legislature to create a railroad or corporation commission, and through them to exercise its power of regulation over railroads, has been repeatedly sustained, subject to the limitations that they cannot be invested with strictly legislative or judicial powers, and that their power and proceedings must be within constitutional restrictions relating to due process of law, and equal protection of the laws, and that a state cannot authorize a railroad commission to regulate interstate commerce.

So a railroad commission legally constituted is an administrative body, and not legislative, or a court, although they do in some cases exercise some functions of a judicial character; nor are their decisions judgments in the ordinary sense of the term. — 33 Cyc. 45 and cases cited in note. “In some cases the statutes give a right of appeal from the orders of railroad commissioners, or authorize the railroad company to bring an action against the commissioners to have the regulations, or-[364]*364tiers, or finding vacated, with a right of appeal from the judgment there rendered to the supreme appellate court, and the orders of railroad commissioners may also be reviewed on certiorari, but on appeal the court will not revise an order of the commissioners unless clearly erroneous. So also in an action or proceeding to enforce an order of the railroad commissioners the court may inquire into whether the commissioners have exceeded their jurisdiction, or whether the order of the commissioners is under the circumstances unreasonable or unjust, and upon an affirmative finding in either case refuse to enforce the order. Courts of equity also have jurisdiction to prevent illegal or improper acts on the part of the railroad commissioners, and so a court of equity may enjoin proceedings or the enforcement of orders of railroad commissioners when they are acting under a statute which is unconstitutional, or in making the order they have exceeded their jurisdiction, or the order under the circumstances is unreasonable or unjust; but in so doing the court cannot fix and determine what would be reasonable or enjoin the commissioners from making a different order, and it is not a violation of an injunction against putting Jn force a certain schedule of rates for the commissioners to establish a different schedule.” — 33 Cyc. 52. We might add that it would not necessarily violate the injunction to readopt the same schedule under changed conditions, if the new conditions justified it, though not justified under the conditions existing when the injunction was issued.

In some jurisdictions, including this one, the regulation of questions relating to the establishment, location, maintenance, removal, or abandonment of stations is vested by statute to a greater or lesser extent in boards of railroad commissioners whose orders are re[365]*365viewable by the courts, but will not be reversed unless clearly erroneous. — 33 Cyc. 144, and cases cited in note 38.

It may be that the Constitution does not in words mention a union depot or provide for the relocation of depots, but the right to locate means the right to relocate or change an existing location to meet the' necessities or exigencies of business development, or changes in the tide and course of travel or business centers. The right to locate also carries the right to locate a passenger depot for different roads at the same place or point, if the public convenience requires it; the facilities required being in keeping with the financial ability of the road to maintain them, so that the same is not an unreasonable burden upon the railroads affected thereby. Certainly the statutes in question are not only sanctioned by the Constitution, but would no doubt be within the legislative province, if not expressly authorized by the Constitution, as the Constitution does not prohibit the exercise of police regulation over public carriers and the Legislature can do all things not prohibited by state or federal Constitutions.

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Bluebook (online)
62 So. 749, 182 Ala. 357, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 485, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/railroad-commission-v-ala-north-ry-co-ala-1913.