Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1912-05-10
MISSISSIPPI SUIT
IN SUPREME COURT
INVOLVES coNSTITUTIONALITY OF
ANTI,REM0vAL LAW.
LITIGATION is IMPORTANT
Case Grew Out of Refusal of L. & N. to
Stop Trains as Ordered by the
State Railroad Commission.

Jackson.-Assistant Attorney General
Claude Clayton returned from Washing
ton, d. c., where he has been in com
pany with Judge w. ID. Anderson look
ing after the interests of the state before
the United States supreme court in the
case OF the Mississippi Railroad Commits
sion VS.. the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad Company, which has been ap-
pealed to that tribunal by the state.
This is one OF the most important lit
igations that has occurred in Mississippi
for years and has been watched with
deep interest by business men and law
yers over the state ever since its incep-
ton.
The suit began with the issuance Of
an order by the railroad commission OF
this state to the l.. 4 n. requiring them
not only to stop their trains at the
regular depot in Bay st. Louis, but at
the Front street crossing in that city
as well. This the railroad company re-
fused TO do, whereupon the railroad COM
mission filed a bill in the chancery court
of Hancock county to e%njoin the railroad
from further disobedience OF
the orders Of the railroad commission
The railroad company, by petition, had
this suit transferred to the circuit court
of the United States for the Southern
District of Mississippi. Attorney Gen
eral S. S. Hudson then filed in the chan
cery court of Harrison county a bill
against the railroad company to GUST it
from the state Of Mississippi and claim
ing the statutory penalties, claimring
that the railroad had violated the anti
removal statutes of the state, which is
as follows:
Chapter 1922, Laws of 1908.
Section /. BE it enacted by the leg
~islature of the State Of Mississippi, that
any foreign railroad, sleeping car, cleo
trio railway, telegraph or telephone cor
p~oration or any other public service cor
poration whatsoever now engaged in bus
mess in this state or which may come
into the state hereafter and engage II
business here which shall, when sued II
any court of this state, remove sucl
cause to a federal court Of this state, o,
which shall institute any suit IN a led
eral court of this state which it coul'
not maintain if it were a domestic com
pany, Incorporated and organized unde
the laws of this state, shall:
(a) Forfeit its rights to and be pre-
hibited from engaging in intrastate con
merce within this state, forfeit its riyh
of eminent domain and be prohibite
from further exercising the same in thi
state.
And any such corporation 80 remo'
ING a cause to the federal court or II
shutting a suit therein and which shaI
thereafter continue to engage in intra
state commerce within this state shaI
forfeit not less than $500 or more tina
S., 900 for every such oifcnse and eac
day such corporation shall continue t
SO engage in such m shall be
separate ofrense. The penalty IN eae
to be recovered by an action in tn
name of the state at the relation OF tn
attorney general or any district attorne
in whose district such oiTense may occu
and when so recovered to be paid int
the state treasury.