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Timestamp: 2019-04-22 19:33:28+00:00

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[169 U.S. 613, 614] James Hagerman, T. N. Sedgwick, and Simon Sterne, for plaintiff in error.
E. W. Cunningham, J. Jay Buck, and W. C. [169 U.S. 613, 615] Perry, for defendants in error.
It appeared in evidence that Hozier Bros. in the spring of 1892 owned and controlled a ranch of several thousand acres of land in Pecos county, Tex., upon which cattle known as Texas cattle were permitted to range. They entered into an agreement with F. Brogan & Sons, whereby the latter were to receive from the former a part of the above cattle at some point in Lyon county, Kan., and take them to their ranch in Chase county, in the same state, to be there grazed during the summer of 1892. In execution of that agreement, Hozier Bros. caused to be shipped by railroad into Kansas from Pecos county, Tex., about 2,500 head of cattle, which were delivered by the defendant company in its stock yards at Hartford, Kan., to F. Brogan & Sons, and by the latter were driven through Lyon and Chase counties to their range. These cattle, it was alleged, communicated Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever to domestic cattle that were owned by the plaintiff and by the cross petitioners.
The case was tried and submitted to the jury only as between the plaintiff, the cross petitioners, and the railway company, [169 U.S. 613, 616] the latter denying liability for any damages sustained by the former. The trial resulted in verdicts and judgments in favor of the plaintiff and of each of the cross petitioners. The judgments having been affirmed by one final judgment in the supreme court of Kansas, the case is here upon a writ of error sued out by the railway company, which contends that effect has been given to statutes of the state that are repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States. That contention involves the federal question presented for determination.
In 1881 the legislature of Kansas passed an act for the protection of cattle in that state against contagious diseases. Laws Kan. 1881, c. 161. But those provisions need not be set out here, because they appear in subsequent enactments to which we will presently refer.
By a state enactment approved March 25, 1884, provision was made for a live-stock sanitary commission, which was charged with the duty of protecting 'the health of the domestic animals of the state from all contagious or infectious diseases of a malignant character,' an was empowered to establish, maintain, and enforce such quarantine, sanitary, and other regulations as it deemed necessary. Laws 1884, c. 2. And by an act approved March 26, 1884, that commission was authorized to create and enforce quarantine against the disease known as Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever in the unorganized counties of the state. Laws 1884, c. 4, 1. The commission was also authorized and directed by another act approved on the same day to co-operate with the commissioner of agriculture of the United States or any officer of the general government in the suppression and extirpation of contagious diseases among domestic animals, and in the enforcement and execution of all acts of congress passed to prevent the importation or exportation of diseased cattle and the spread of infectious or contagious disease among domestic animals. Laws 1884, c. 5, 1.
In 1885 another statute was passed, which was amended in 1891. Laws 1891, c. 201. As amended, and as it appears in 2 Gen. St. Kan. 1897, c. 139, p. 761, [169 U.S. 613, 617] that statute made it a misdemeanor for any person, between the 1st day of February and the 1st day of December of any year, to drive or cause to be driven into or through any county in the state, or to turn upon or cause to be turned or kept upon any highway, range, common, or pasture within the state, any cattle capable of communicating or liable to impart what is known as Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever. Section 13. By another section it was made the duty of any sheriff, undersheriff, deputy sheriff, or constable within the state, upon complaint made to him that there were within the county where such officer resided cattle believed to be capable of communicating or liable to impart the disease known as Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever, to forthwith take charge of and restrain them under such temporary quarantine regulations as would prevent the communication of such disease, and make immediate report thereof to the live-stock sanitary commission. Section 14.
'Sec. 16. Any person or persons who shall drive, ship or transport, or cause to be shipped, driven or transported, into or through any county in this state, any cattle liable or capable of communicating Texas, splenic or Spanish fever, to any domestic cattle of this state, shall be liable to any person or persons injured thereby for all damages that they may sustain by reason of the communication of said disease, or Texas, splenic or Spanish fever, to be recovered in a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction, and the parties so injured shall have a first and priorlien to all other liens for such damages on the cattle communicating the disease of Texas, splenic or Spanish fever.
'Sec. 17. In the trial of any person charged with the violation of any provisions of this act, and in the trial of any civil action brought to recover damages for the communication of Texas, splenic or Spanish fever, proof that the cattle which such person or persons are charged with shipping, driving or keeping, or which are claimed to have communicated the said diseases, were brought into this state from south of the thirty- seventh parallel of north latitude, shall be taken as [169 U.S. 613, 618] prima facie evidence that such cattle were, between the first day of February and the first day of December of the year in which the offense was committed, capable of communicating and liable to impart Texas, splenic or Spanish fever, within the meaning of this act, and that the owner or owners or person or persons in charge of such cattle had full knowledge and notice thereof. If the owner or owners or person or persons in charge of said cattle shall show by such certificate or certificates, as shall hereafter be designated by the live stock sanitary commission of the state, that the said cattle had been kept since the first day of December of the previous year west of the twenty-second meridian of longitude west from Washington, and north of the thirty-fourth parallel of north latitue , the provisions of this section shall not apply thereto.
The general contention of the plaintiff in error is that the act of congress of March 29, 1884 (23 Stat. 31, c. 60), known as the 'Animal Industry Act,' together with the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1044, 1049, c. 544), appropriating money to carry out the provisions of that act, and section 5258 of the Revised Statutes, relating to the transportation of passengers, freight, property, etc., from one state to another state by railroad, cover substantially the whole subject of the transportation from one state to another state of live stock liable to impart or capable of communicating infectious or contagious diseases, and therefore that the state of Kansas has no authority to deal in any form with that subject. [169 U.S. 613, 619] Are the acts of congress and the regulations established under their authority of such a character that the legislation of Kansas is without effect so far as it relates to injury done to domestic cattle by the bringing into that state of cattle liable to impart or capable of communicating Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever to domestic cattle?
The act of congress of March 29, 1884, provided for the establishment of a bureau of animal industry, and for the appointment of a chief thereof, and two competent, practical stock raisers or experienced business men, familiar with questions pertaining to commercial transactions in live stock, whose duty it should be, under the instructions of the commissioner of agriculture, to investigate and report upon the condition of the domestic animals of the United States, their protection and use, and also to examine and report upon the best methods of treating, transporting, and caring for animals, and the means to be adopted for the suppression and extirpation of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and to provide against the spread of other dangerous, contagious, infectious, and communicable diseases. Sections 1, 2.
'Sec. 3. That it shall be the duty of the commissioner of agriculture to prepare such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary for the speedy and effectual suppression and extirpation of said diseases, and to certify such rules and regulations to the executive authority of each state and territory, and invite said authorities to co-operate in the execution and enforcement of this act. Whenever the plans and methods of the commissioner of agriculture shall be accepted by any state or territory in which pleuro-pneumonia or other contagious, infections, or communicable disease is declared to exist, or such state or territory shall have adopted plans and methods for the suppression and extirpation of said diseases, and such plans and methods shall be accepted by the commissioner of agriculture, and whenever the governor of a state or other properly constituted authorities signify their readiness to co-operate for the extinction of any contagious, infectious or communicable disease in conformity with the provisions of [169 U.S. 613, 620] this act, the commissioner of agriculture is hereby authorized to expend so much of the money appropriated by this act as may be necessary in such investigations, and in such disinfection and quarantine measures as may be necessary to prevent the spread of the disease from one state or territory into another.
'Sec. 4. That in order t promote the exportation of live stock from the United States the commissioner of agriculture shall make special investigation as to the existence of pleuro-pneumonia, or any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, along the dividing lines between the United States and foreign countries, and along the lines of transportation from all parts of the United States to ports from which live stock are exported, and make report of the results of such investigation to the secretary of the treasury, who shall, from time to time, establish such regulations concerning the exportation and transportation of live stock as the results of said investigations may require.
'Sec. 5. That to prevent the exportation from any port of the United States to any port in a foreign country of live stock affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, and especially pleuropneumonia, the secretary of the treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to take such steps and adopt such measures, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as he may deem necessary.
'Sec. 6. That no railroad company within the United States, or the owners or masters of any steam or sailing or other vessel or boat, shall receive for transportation or transport, from one state or territory to another, or from any state into the District of Columbia, or from the District into any state, any live stock affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, and especially the disease known as pleuro-pneumonia; nor shall any person, company or corporation deliver for such transportation to any railroad company, or master or owner of any boat or vessel, any live stock, knowing them to be affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease; nor shall any person, company or corporation drive on foot or transport in private conveyance from [169 U.S. 613, 621] one state or territory to another, or from any state into the District of Columbia, or from the District into any state, any live stock, knowing them to be affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, and especially the disease known as pleuro-pneumonia: provided, that the so-called splenetic or Texas fever shall not be considered a contagious, infectious or communicable disease within the meaning of sections four, five, six and seven of this act, as to cattle being transported by rail to market for slaughter, when the same are unloaded only to be fed and watered in lots on the way thereto.
1. The answer of the railway company, as well as its requests for instructions, and the opinion of the supreme court of the state, show that the company contended throughout this litigation that legislation by congress, and the regulations prescribed by the secretary of agriculture in execution of the animal industry act, furnished a complete defense to all claims for damages asserted in this action. That contention [169 U.S. 613, 622] was overruled y the trial court, as well as by the supreme court of the state. If the contention of the railway company had been sustained, the verdict and judgment must have been in its favor without reference to any other question in the case. In other words, the state court could not properly have disposed of the case without deciding the federal question raised by the company. This court, therefore, has jurisdiction to inquire whether the supreme court of Kansas erred in holding that the legislation of congress and the regulations of the secretary of the interior1 gave to the railway company the right, privilege, and immunity specially set up and claimed by it. The motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction in this court is consequently overruled. Willson v. Marsh Co., 2 Pet. 245, 251; Insurance Co. v. Needles, 113 U.S. 574, 579 , 5 S. Sup. Ct. 681; Sayward v. Denny, 158 U.S. 180, 184 , 15 S. Sup. Ct. 777; Railroad Co. v. City of Chicago, 166 U.S. 226, 232 , 17 S. Sup. Ct. 581.
2. If sections 16 and 17 of the Kansas act of 1885, as amended in 1891, are not inconsistent with the legislation of congress, no question can be raised as to other provisions of the Kansas statutes. The sixteenth section, we have seen, provides that any person or persons, driving, shipping, or transporting, or causing to be driven, shipped, or transported, into or through any county in that state, cattle liable to impart or capable of communicating Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever to any domestic cattle of Kansas, shall be liable in a civil action to any person injured thereby for all damages sustained by reason of the communication of such fever to his cattle; while the seventeenth section makes the bringing into the state, from south of the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, of cattle alleged to have communicated Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever [169 U.S. 613, 623] to domestic cattle, prima facie evidence that such cattle were, between February 1st and December 1st in any year, capable of communication that disease, and that the owner or person in charge of such cattle had full knowledge and notice thereof.
May not these statutory provisions stand without obstructing or embarrassing the execution of the act of congress? This question must, of course, be determined with reference to the settled rule that a statute enacted in execution of a reserved power of the state is not to be regarded as inconsistent with an act of congress passed in the execution of a clear power under the constitution, unless the repugnance or conflict is so direct and positive that the two acts cannot be reconciled or stand together. Sinnot v. Davenport, 22 How. 227, 243.
We have seen that the first section of the animal industry act provided for an investigation as to the condition of the domestic animals of the United States, their protection and use, the causes of contagious, infectious, and communicable diseases among them, and the means for the prevention and cure of such diseases. The second section provided for an examination as to the best methods of treating, transporting, and caring for animals, and the means to be adopted for the suppression and extirpation of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and to guard against the spreading of other dangerous, contagious, infectious, and communicable diseases. If any state was ready to co-operate with the commissioner of agriculture, then, by the third section, that officer was authorized to use the money appropriated by congress in sc h investigations and in such disinfection and quarantine measures as were necessary 'to prevent the spread of the disease from one state or territory into another.' While the states were invited to co-operate with the general government in the execution and enforcement of the act, whatever power they had to protect their domestic cattle against such diseases was left untouched and unimpaired by the act of congress.
The act of congress did not assume to give any corporation, company, or person the affirmative right to transport from one state to another state cattle that were liable to impart or capable of communicating contagious, infectious, or communicable [169 U.S. 613, 624] diseases. On the contrary, it was made a misdemeanor to deliver for transportation, or to transport or drive from one state to another, cattle known to be affected with contagious, infectious, or communicable diseases. Whether a corporation transporting, or the person causing to be transported, from one state to another, cattle of the class specified in the Kansas statute, should be liable in a civil action for any damages sustained by the owners of domestic cattle by reason of the introduction into their state of such diseased cattle, is a subject about which the animal industry act did not make any provision. That act does not declare that the regulations established by the department of agriculture should have the effect to exempt from civil liability one who, but for such regulations, would have been liable either under the general principles of law or under some state enactment for damages arising out of the introduction into that state of cattle so affected; and, as will be seen from the regulations prescribed by the secretary of agriculture, that officer did not assume to give protection to any one against such liability.
The cattle in question were originally received by the Texas & Pacific Railroad at Midland, Tex., outside of, but near to, the boundary of the 'infected district' as defined by the secretary of agriculture. They were received by the defendant company at Dennison, Tex., as a connecting carrier, in the same cars in which they were loaded, and the entire route to the southern boundary line of Kansas was through that district. It may be that in the transportation of the cattle in question from Pecos county, Tex., through the infected district, all the regulations prescribed by the secretary were observed. But that fact does not show that congress intended or assumed to exempt any one complying with those regulations from liability to the owners of domestic cattle to which were communicated the contagious disease with which the cattle brought into the state were affected. The controlling object of the regulations was to prevent the spreading from one state to another of the cattle disease in question, not to deprive any one of the rih t to recover damages for injury inflicted upon his domestic cattle by reason of their being brought into contact with diseased cattle.
Nor is the statute of Kansas to be deemed a regulation of [169 U.S. 613, 627] commerce among the states, simply because it may incidentally or indirectly affect such commerce. Hennington v. Georgia, 163 U.S. 299, 317 , 16 S. Sup. Ct. 1086; New York, N. H. & H. R. Co. v. New York, 165 U.S. 628, 631 , 17 S. Sup. Ct. 418; Railway Co. v. Solan, 169 U.S. 133 , 18 Sup. Ct. 289; Richmond & A. R. Co. v. Patterson Tobacco Co., 169 U.S. 311 , 18 Sup. Ct. 335; and authorities cited in each case. Although the power of congress to regulate commerce among the states, and the power of the states to regulate their purely domestic affairs, are distinct powers, which, in their application, may at times bear upon the same subject, no collision tha would disturb the harmony of the national and state governments or produce any conflict between the two governments in the exercise of their respective powers need occur, unless the national government, acting within the limits of its constitutional authority, takes under its immediate control and exclusive supervision the entire subject to which the state legislation may refer. 'The same bale of goods,' Mr. Justice Johnson well said in his concurring opinion in Gibbons v. Ogden, 'the same cask of provisions, or the same ship, that may be the subject of commercial regulations, may also be the vehicle of disease. And the health laws that require them to be stopped and ventilated are no more intended as regulations on commerce than the laws which permit their importation are intended to inoculate the community with disease. Their different purposes mark the distinction between the powers brought into action, and, while frankly exercised, they can produce no serious collision.' 9 Wheat. 235. It is therefore a mistake to say that the Kansas statute, so far as it gives a right of action for injuries arising from disease communicated to domestic cattle by cattle of a particular kind brought into the state, comes into conflict with any regulation established under the authority of congress to prevent the spread of contagious or infectious diseases from one state to another. That statute we repeat, only embodies a rule of civil conduct prescribed by a state whose government is competent to regulate-in subordination always to the supreme law of the land and its [169 U.S. 613, 628] own fundamental law-the relative rights and obligations of all within its jurisdiction. Neither corporations nor individuals are entitled, by force alone of the constitution of the United States and without liability for injuries resulting therefrom to others, to bring into one state from another state cattle liable to impart or capable of communicating disease to domestic cattle. The contrary cannot be affirmed under any sound interpretation of the constitution. This court, while sustaining the power of congress to regulate commerce among the states, has steadily adhered to the principle that the states possess, because they have never surrendered, the power to protect the public health, the public morals, and the public safety, by any legislation appropriate to that end which does not encroach upon rights guarantied by the national constitution, nor come in conflict with acts of congress passed in pursuance of that instrument. Although the powers of a state must in their exercise give way to a power exerted by congress under the constitution, it has never been adjudged that that instrument by its own force gives any one the right to introduce into a state, against its will, cattle so affected with disease that their presence in the state will be dangerous to domestic cattle.
The decision in that case was placed distinctly on the ground that although the state could prevent persons and animals suffering under contagious or infectious diseases, or convicts, etc., from entering the state, it could not, under the cover of exerting its police powers, substantially prohibit or burden either foreign or interstate commerce; and the Missouri statute was held to be unconstitutional, because it went beyond the necessities of the case, having been so drawn as to exclude all Texas, Mexican, or Indian cattle from the state (except cattle to be transported across and out of the state), whether free from disease or not, or whether they would or would not do injury to the inhabitants of the state.
So, it has been held that, in the absence of legislation by congress on the subject, a state may prescribe, as a rule of civil conduct, that engineers on railroad trains engaged in the transportation of passengers and freight, including interstate trains, shall undergo an examination by a state board as to their qualifications, before becoming entitled to operate locomotive engines within such state, and that persons employed on railways shall be subjected to like examination with respect to their powers of vision. Smith v. Alabama, 124 U.S. 465, 482 , 8 S. Sup. Ct. 564; Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Alabama, 128 U.S. 96, 101 , 9 S. Sup. Ct. 28.
These cases all proceed upon the ground that the regulation of the enjoyment of the relative rights, and the performance of the duties, of all persons within the jurisdiction of a state, belong primarily to such state, under its reserved power to provide for the safety of all persons and property within its limits; and that even if the subject of such regulations be one that may be taken under the exclusive control of congress, and be reached by national legislation, any action taken by the state upon that subject that does not directly interfere with rights secured by the constitution of the United States or by some valid act of congress, must be respected until congress intervenes.
It is suggested that the statute is so drawn that the railway company would be liable, even if it acted in good faith, and had no reason to believe, after the exercise of the utmost diligence, that the cattle it received for transportation were liable to impart or were capable of communicating the fever named in the statute. If the statute were thus interpreted, it might be-though upon that point we express no opinion-that it would be so oppressive in its necessary operation as to be deemed a burden upon the transportation of all cattle from Texas, whether diseaded or not, and for that reason be liable to the same objection urged against the statute involved in Railroad Co. v. Husen. But we do not so construe the statute. Its sixteenth section must be interpreted in connection with the seventeenth section. The latter, as we have stated, declares that in the trial of any civil action, under the statute, proof that the cattle were brought into the state from south of the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude (the southern boundary line of Kansas) should be prima facie evidence that they were, between the 1st day of February [169 U.S. 613, 636] and the 1st day of December, capable of communicating and liable to impart Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever, and that 'the owner or owners, or person or persons, in charge of such cattle, had full knowledge or notice thereof.' As the state is competent to protect its domestic cattle against disease that may be communicated by cattle coming from beyond its limits, this rule of evidence cannot be regarded as inconsistentw ith any right secured by the national constitution, or as obstructing commerce among the states; for the rule finds its justification in the fact, heretofore recognized by this court, and substantially by the act of congress, that Texas cattle, when brought northward during the spring and summer months, often carry the germs of fever, or are often, though not always, infected with fever that may be communicated by them to domestic cattle. That rule, as prescribed, implies that damages shall not be recovered if, from all the evidence, it appears that the defendant had no knowledge or notice that the cattle were of the kind forbidden by the statute to be brought into the state. This was the interpretation placed upon the statute by the plaintiff. His petition alleges that, before the cattle in question were shipped, transported, and driven as stated, the defendants had knowledge, and were put upon inquiry, and had reason to know, that 'said Texas cattle so kept, shipped, transported, and driven were of a kind capable of communicating and liable to communicate and impart said disease to the domestic cattle of this state, and to the aforesaid cattle of the plaintiff.' And under this construction of the statute the case was tried. The trial court, among other things, instructed the jury: 'The mere fact that the cattle of the plaintiff or those of any of the cross-petitioning defendants became sick and died from this disease, imparted to them by cattle transported by the said defendant into Lyon or Chase counties, is not sufficient to warrant a finding against said defendant railway company. You must find from the evidence-First. That Texas cattle were, in fact, brought into this state. Of this there is no denial, and you can consider that fact as established. Second. That the cattle of the plaintiff and each of the cross-petitioning defendants who seek to recover herein against [169 U.S. 613, 637] said railway, because of the loss of cattle, became infected and died because of the disease imparted to them by such Texas cattle, and that such disease was Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever. And, third, that the officers, employees, or agents of the railway company defendant had knowledge that such Texas cattle transported by it to this state were liable to impart such disease to the native cattle of this state, or that they ought, by the exercise of diligence and care, to have known of the dangerous character of these cattle, and that they would or were liable to impart said disease to the native cattle of this state.' We do not understand from the opinion of the supreme court of the state that it disagreed with this interpretation of the statute.
3. In support of the contention that national legislation leaves no room for state enactments relating to the bringing of diseased cattle into one state from another state, the railway company refers to the act of congress approved March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1044, 1049, c. 544), appropriating $500,000 for carrying out the provisions of the act for establishing the bureau of animal industry, and which authorized the secretary of agriculture to use any part of that sum he might deem necessary or expedient, and in such manner as he might think best to prevent the spread of pleuro-pneumonia and other diseases of animals, and for this purpose to employ as many persons as he might deem necessary, and to expend any part of that sum in the purchase and destruction of diseased or exposed animals and the quarantine of the same, whenever, in his judgment, it is essential to prevent the spread of pleuropneumonia or other diseases of animals from one state into another. This contention is disposed of by what has already been said.
4. In support of the same contention, the company refers to section 5258 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, brought forward from the act of June 15, 1866 (14 Stat. 66, c. 124), which authorizes every railroad company in the United States, operated by steam, its successors and assigns, 'to carry upon and over its road, boats, bridge and ferries, all passengers, troops, government supplies, mails, freight [169 U.S. 613, 638] and property on their way from any state to another state, and to receive compensation therefor, and to connect with roads of other states so as to form continuous lines for the transportation of the same to the place of destination.' It is scarcely necessary to say that an act of congress that does no more than give authority to railroad companies to carry 'freight and property' over their respective roads from one state to another state will not authorize a railroad company to carry into a state cattle known, or which by due diligence may be known, to be in such a condition as to impart or communicate disease to the domestic cattle of such state. A railroad company carrying diseased cattle into a state cannot claim the protection of section 5258, any more than it could when carrying into a state rags known, or which by proper diligence could have been known, to be infected with yellow fever. If the carrier takes diseased cattle into a state, it does so subject for any injury thereby done to domestic cattle to such liability as may arise under any law of the state that does not go beyond the necessities of the case and burden or prohibit interstate commerce. A statute precribing as a rule of civil conduct that a person or corporation bringing into the state cattle that are known, or which by proper diligence could be known, to be capable of communicating disease to domestic cattle, cannot be regarded as beyond the necessities of the case, nor as interfering with any right intended to be given or recognized by section 5258 of the Revised Statutes.
Applying the principles settled in prior cases to the case before us, it is clear that a railroad company is not in any just sense hindered or obstructed by the statute of Kansas in the exercise of any privilege given or authority conferred by section 5258 of the Revised Statutes. This must be so, unless the company should be held to be entitled, of right, to carry into a state, from another state, as freight or property, cattle liable to impart or capable of communicating disease, and of whose condition at the time it had knowledge, or could have had knowledge by the exercise of reasonable diligence. We cannot so hold. And we adjudge that if congress could authorize the carrying of such cattle from one state into another [169 U.S. 613, 639] state, and by legislation protect the carrier against all suits for damages arising therefrom, it has not done so; nor has it enacted any statute that prevents a state from prescribing such a rule of civil conduct as that found in the statute of Kansas.
5. Much was said at the bar about the finding of the jury being against the evidence. We cannot enter upon such an inquiry. The facts must be taken as found by the jury, and this court can only consider whether the statute, as interpreted to the jury, was in violation of the federal constitution. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. City of Chicago, 166 U.S. 226 , 242-246, 17 Sup. Ct. 581.
Perceiving no error in the record in respect of any question of a federal nature, the judgment of the supreme court of Kansas is affirmed.
I am unable to concur in the opinion filed in this case. The statute provides that a carrier bringing into the state cattle which are capable of communicating Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever to domestic cattle shall be liable to any persons injured thereby for all damages they may sustain by reason of the communication of said fever. This liability is not limited to the injury which may be done by the cattle while in the possession of the carrier, but extends to that which may be done at any time thereafter in whosesoever possession they may be. And in this particular case it is found by the jury that the fever was communicated and the injury done after the cattle had passed out of the custody of the carrier, and into the possession of other persons. The statute also provides that proof that the cattle were brought into Kansas from e rritory south of the Kansas state line shall be prima facie evidence that they were capable of communicating the fever, and that the carrier had knowledge of that fact.
I am not disposed to belittle this question, or the difficulties which attend the effort to prevent a communication of Texas fever and the injuries which result therefrom. On the contrary, [169 U.S. 613, 640] I fully appreciate the importance of securing to all stock owners in Kansas and elsewhere the fullest protection against this so fatal disease, and believe that stringent measures may properly be adopted to accomplish this result. I differ with my brethren only as to the authority by which such measures should be enacted, and as to the validity of the legislation before us. It is conceded in the opinion of the majority that congress has full control over interstate commerce, and that it is the only authority by which that commerce can be regulated. On the other hand, it is equally clear, as pointed out, that the states may make many police restrictions and provisions which, while indirectly affecting interstate commerce, do not directly regulate it, and the question is whether this particular statute comes within the category of such police regulations.
And in the regulations concerning cattle transportation, promulgated by the United States department of agriculture on February 26, 1892, as appears from the record in this case, as also in similar regulations issued by the same department on December 15, 1897, it is provided that, within certain specified [169 U.S. 613, 641] dates, no cattle are to be transported from below the federal quarantine line except by rail or boat for immediate slaughter. These cattle are being constantly forwarded by the thousands to the packing houses of this country, and, when butchered, their meat is shipped all over the world, and used with impunity. Statistics found in the cases of Cotting v. Stockyards Co., -- Sup. Ct. --, and Hopkins v. U. S., -- Sup. Ct. --, now pending in this court, show that in the year 1896 (and that is but a sample of other years), of something over 1,700,000 head of cattle shipped to the Kansas City stockyards, more than 500,000 came from the territory proscribed by the Kansas statute, and that of these cattle 60 per cent. or more were sold to the packing houses there situate for immediate slaughter.
It appears from the report above referred to that this fever is generally disseminated by means of a tick, technically called 'boophilus bovis,' though the jury in this case, in answer to specific questions, found that the fever was communicable otherwise than in that way. The presence of ticks upon the cattle does not necessarily indicate disease. They are purely external, like fleas on a dog, and do not prove that the body is in an unhealthy condition. It may be a curious fact, the cause of which is not yet fully explained, that these cattle range in the South without developing in themselves or communicating too thers this Texas fever, while, when brought into the temperate zone, they seem to communicate it freely and in a most dangerous form. Whatever may be the explanation of this fact does not abridge its significance. Hence it is that these Southern cattle, although they may have ticks upon them, and thus be liable to communicate the disease to Northern cattle, may be entirely free from any disease, their meat a perfectly healthy article of food, and they themselves legitimate subjects of commerce. If they are, when brought into the North, pastured at a distance from native cattle, and the latter are not thereafter permitted to range in the field in which the former have been kept, the disease will not be communicated; the Southern cattle may safely be fattened, and prepared for market and use. It is only when the native [169 U.S. 613, 642] cattle are permitted to pasture in or near the grounds in which the Southern cattle are or have recently been kept that injury results. The case presented, therefore, is not that of legislation to prevent importation of diseased meat,-that which in itself is unhealthy and unfit for use,-but something which, if improperly or carelessly handled, may communicate disease and do injury. The very phraseology of the statute indicates this. It does not name diseased cattle, but only those liable to communicate disease. If other Northern states follow with like legislation, commerce between the two sections of the country in this most important product of portions of the South will be practically interrupted.
The cases referred to in the opinion of the majority in which the police power of the state has been sustained were cases in which the restrictions or regulations only indirectly affected interstate commerce,- as, for instance, requiring an engineer to take out a state license (Smith v. Alabama, 124 U.S. 465 , 8 Sup. Ct. 564); or to be free from and submit to an examination for color blindness (Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Alabama, 128 U.S. 96 , 9 Sup. Ct. 28); prescribing the mode of heating passenger cars (New York, N. H. & H. R. Co. v. New York, 165 U.S. 628 , 17 Sup. Ct. 418); requiring the prompt delivery of telegraphic messages under condition of a penalty (Telegraph Co. v. James, 162 U.S. 650 , 16 Sup. Ct. 934). Nothing of that kind is prescribed by this statute. No inspection is provided for by the state; none required of the carrier; no duty imposed in respect to the handling and care of the cattle while in its possession. It simply prescribes the conditions upon which the carrier may bring cattle into the state, to wit, liability not merely for injury which its own improper handling may cause, but for injury which may result at any time thereafter from any future improper handling by the consignee or subsequent party into whose custody the cattle may pass. It seems to me, beyond any peradventure, this is legislation directly regulating commerce between the states, and, as such, is within the sole dominion of congress. It materially affects the conduct of the carrier outside of the limits of the state; and that is one of the tests of invalidity. Hall v. De Cuir, 95 U.S. 485 -488; [169 U.S. 613, 643] Bowman v. Railway Co., 125 U.S. 465 -486, 8 Sup. Ct. 689, 1062. Suppose cattle are presented to a carrier in Texas for shipment to Kansas, can it properly refuse to receive and transmit? Can it plead the Kansas statute in defense of its duty as a common carrier? If it says that the cattle have ticks upon them, and therefore are liable to communicate Texas fever, or, if not having ticks upon them, may otherwise (as shown by the verdict of this jury) communicate the disease, the shipper may reply that he intends them for immediate slaughter, and that they are a legitimate article of commerce. But that will not relieve the carrier. The liability imposed by the Kansas statute does not depend upon the intent with which the cattle are shipped into the state; and, having delivered them to the consignee, the carrier has no further control. Although shipped wt h the intention of immediate slaughter, the consignee may change his mind and pasture them in the state. Whatever may have been the intention of the shipment, the liability of the carrier is the same.
I cannot believe that the carrier is thus placed beneath the upper and the nether millstone, liable, under the law of Texas, to the owner of the cattle if he refuses to ship them (Bowman v. Railway Co., supra), and liable to any one in Kansas, under the Kansas statute, if injuries result from the improper handling by the consignee or others. The presumption of knowledge, which is provided for in section 17, is, in this aspect of the case, entirely immaterial, and does not affect the validity of the statute. Apply the principle of this legislation to other objects than cattle, and see in what it results. Gunpowder, dynamite, many of the drugs used in medicine, while legitimate articles of commerce, and of great value for certain purposes, may, if improperly or carelessly handled, be the means of doing immense injury. Can a state say to a carrier, 'You may bring gunpowder or any other article of danger into the state, but, if you know its dangerous character, you shall be responsible for all damages that it may cause in the hands of the consignee or any subsequent party through improper handling?' It certainly places it in the power of the state to most materially interfere with interstate [169 U.S. 613, 644] commerce if it can prescribe that as a condition of its being carried on. The number of articles and the amount of interstate commerce thus subjected to the will of the state can scarcely be overestimated.
It is undoubtedly true that legislation should be had in respect to matters of this kind, but, in my judgment, such legislation can only come from congress, and that body, and that body alone, can prescribe the conditions upon which commerce in these cattle can be carried on. Congress has legislated, but only partially, and the fact that its legislation does not go so far as in the judgment of the legislature of Kansas is required, is not, in my opinion, sufficient to warrant the state in enacting this statute. For these reasons, thus briefly stated, I am compelled to dissent from the opinion of the court.
[ Footnote 1 ] By the act approved February 9, 1889 (25 Stat. 659, c. 122), the department of agriculture was made an executive department. And by the act of March 2, 1889 (25 Stat. 835, 840, c. 373), the authority granted to the commissioner of agriculture by the act of May 29, 1884, establishing the bureau of animal industry, and by the provision of the appropriation act for the agricultural department, approved July 18, 1888, relating to that bureau, was vested in the secretary of agriculture. The regulations above referred to were issued by Secretary Rusk. Fehruarv 26, 1892.

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