Toledo, A. A. & N. M. Ry. Co. v. Pennsylvania Co.

54 F. 746, 19 L.R.A. 395, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2512
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio
DecidedMarch 25, 1893
DocketNo. 1,139
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 54 F. 746 (Toledo, A. A. & N. M. Ry. Co. v. Pennsylvania Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Toledo, A. A. & N. M. Ry. Co. v. Pennsylvania Co., 54 F. 746, 19 L.R.A. 395, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2512 (circtndoh 1893).

Opinion

RICKS, District Judge,

(after stating the facts.) This suit was instituted by the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan Railway Company, to compel the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, the Pennsylvania Company, and other defendants, to receive from it and deliver to it freight and cars destined from one state to another, commonly known as “interstate freight,” which it avers the defendants have refused to do since March 11, 1893, because complainant has employed as locomotive engineers in its service men who are not members of the- Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. The bill further avers that the defendants continue to afford to other railroads full and free facilities for interchange of traffic, thereby illegally discriminating against it. The bill was drawn to enforce the third section of the interstate commerce act, which provides—

“That it shah be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act to make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever, or to subject any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, to any undue or unreasonable' prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever.”

[749]*749The common carriers subject to the provisions of that act are defined by the statute to be “any common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad, or,partly by railroad and partly by water, when both are used, under a common control, management, or arrangement, for a continuous carriage or shipment from one state or territory of the United Slates or the District of Columbia to any other state or territory of the United States. * * *”

The subject-matter of this litigation is, therefore, the construction and enforcement of an act of congress, and the court acquires jurisdiction because of the federal question involved. That such ques -don is involved I think too plain for serious controversy. It is sufficient to constitute a case for cognizance by a federal court if it involves but a single ingredient or question dependent on the constitution or a law or a treaty of the United States, although it may at the same time involve any other questions that depend on the general principles of law. Chief Justice Marshall, in Osborn v. Bank, 9 Wheat. 738, considered this point, and came to the following conclusion:

“Wo think, then, that when a question 1o which the judicial power of the Onion is ('XI ended by the constitution forms an ingredient of the original cause, it is in the power of congress to give circuit courts jurisdiction of that cause, although other questions of fact or law may he involved in it.”

Kennedies of a similar nature might undoubtedly be invoked under .statutes and the common law, but the act in question affords the broadest and most effective relief, and the jurisdiction is therefore safely grounded upon that law.

Upon the filing of this bill on the 3.1th day of March, a mandatory injunction was allowed, directed to the defendants, their agents, officers, servants, and employes, and it was therein ordered—

•‘That the said defendants, Albert G. Blair, Jacob S. Morris, the Pennsylvania Company, the Wheeling & Cake Erie Railway Company, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, the Michigan Central Railroad Company. the Oincinnaii, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad Company, the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway Company, the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway Company, the Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw Railway Company, and each of them, and their officers, agents, servants, and employes, be, and they are hereby, enjoined and restrained from refusing to offer and extend to said the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan Railway Company the same equal facilities for interchange of traffic on interstate business between said railway companies as are enjoyed by other railway companies, and from refusing to receive from said the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan Railway company cars billed from points in one state to points in another state, which may be offered to said defendant companies by the complainant; and from refusing to deliver in like manner to said complainant cars which may lie billed over complainant’s line from points in one state to points in other states. Ordered that a writ of injunction he issued out of and under the seal of this court as prayed tor in the bill of complaint, to remain in force until the further order of the court herein.”

The application for this order was made to me at chambers, in Cleveland, late on Saturday night, March 33 th. The situation set out in the bill disclosed an emergency in which prompt action was [750]*750necessary. I bad granted a similar mandatory order in 1891 on a bill for an injunction filed in tbis court by the Wheeling & Lake Erie Bailroad, and it was enforced witb beneficent results as against its engineers, firemen, and train men, wbo bad refused to handle interstate commerce freight loaded on cars consigned to various ports on Lakes Superior and 'Michigan. The bill in this case clearly entitled the complainant to relief as against the defendant railroads, who were threatening to refuse to receive or deliver interstate freight.

The section of the interstate commerce law above quoted made it mandatory upon connecting railroads to receive and deliver passengers and freight, and to afford equal facilities for the interchange of traffic. Corporations can act only through their officers, agents, and servants, so that the mandatory provisions of the law which apply to the corporation apply with equal force to its officers and employes.

It has been urged by counsel, for the accused that they should have been made parties defendants, should have been served with notice of the application for an injunction, and that notice of the allowance of the order should have been given to them the same as to the defendant railroads, in order to now authorize the court to find that they had such notice as to hold them, for contempt. I do not concede this proposition. As has just been stated, a corporation can act only through its officers and employes, and a duty imposed by law, or by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction, upon a corporation, applies to the officers and employes of that corporation, and takes effect as to them so soon as they are in fact properly notified of the nature and scope of the law or order. Writs of injunction, of whatever nature they may be, when directed to a corporation,- always run against it and its agents, servants, employes, etc. The order now before us was so allowed, and it was so issued. It would very much embarrass the courts in administering the law if counsel are right in this contention. The difficulties would almost be insuperable if it were necessary to make all the several thousand employes of the defendant railroads parties before the orders and processes of the coupt become effective as to them. They belong to the instrumental force of their respective corporations, and in that respect are a part of them. It is therefore sufficient, I think, if in fact they are served with full and proper notice of the orders and processes of the court to make them binding upon them. It is not necessary to make them parties.

The authority of the court to issue such an order has been questioned, but it rests on well-established principles. In Beadel v.

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Bluebook (online)
54 F. 746, 19 L.R.A. 395, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toledo-a-a-n-m-ry-co-v-pennsylvania-co-circtndoh-1893.