Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/290/169.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 03:19:21+00:00

Document:
Appeal from the Supreme Court of the State of South Carolina. [290 U.S. 169, 170] Messrs. B. Wofford Wait, of Tampa, Fla., and J. N. Nathans and John P. Grace, both of Charileston, S.C., for appellant.
Mr. Irvine F. Belser, of Columbia, S.C., for appellees.
The Railroad Commission of South Carolina brought this suit in the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the state seeking the enforcement of the state statutes regulating transportation by motor vehicles. 1 The peti- [290 U.S. 169, 171] tion alleged that the respondents below, including the present appellant, fell within Class F of motor vehicle carriers, that is, those known as contract carriers of property, not proposing to operate upon a regular schedule or over a regular route, and that they were carrying on their business on the public highways without having obtained the required certificates or paying the prescribed license fees. Appellant demurred to the petition and also made return and answer. The petitioners filed reply. Appellant contended that the statutory requirements, as applied to him as a private contract carrier, denied the equal protection of the laws and deprived him of due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and also, as he was engaged in interstate transportation, were repugnant to the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution. The Supreme Court of the state decided the federal questions adversely to these contentions. 168 S.C. 440, 167 S.E. 674, 679.
Appellant complains of this construction of the statute as being contrary to its terms, but that question is not for us. The decision of the state court is controlling as to the meaning and extent of the statutory requirements. St. Louis, Southwestern R. Co. v. Arkansas, 235 U.S. 350, 362 , 35 S.Ct. 99; Supreme Lodge, Knights of Pythias v. Meyer, 265 U.S. 30, 32 , 33 S., 44 S.Ct. 432; American Railway Express Co. v. F. S. Royster Guano Co., 273 U.S. 274, 280 , 47 S.Ct. 355. Nor does the statute as construed exhibit a fatal defect of indefiniteness. Its requirements as to the appellant, as the state court has defined them, are not uncertain.
Another objection, that the Railroad Commission was authorized to regulate the rates of private contract carriers, was answered by the state court in saying that the Commission had never exercised such a power, 'if any it has under the act,' and hence that appellant had no ground for complaint. This is an adequate answer here, [290 U.S. 169, 173] on the present showing, as the Court does not deal with academic contentions. Stephenson v. Binford, supra, 287 U.S. page 277, 53 S.Ct. 181.
Second. Appellant insists that an undue burden is placed upon interstate commerce because the license fees are based on the 'carrying capacity' of the vehicles. The state court held that the fees 'are collected, as provided for by section 8517, for the purpose of maintaining the public highways over which such motor vehicles shall operate, as compensation for their use.' The statute provides for the segregation, for this purpose, of the moneys collected. See Clark v. Poor, 274 U.S. 554 , 555-557, 47 S.Ct. 702. In this view the fees are not open to the objection raised in Interstate Transit, Inc., v. Lindsey, 283 U.S. 183, 186 , 188 S., 51 S.Ct. 380. Carrying capacity, the size and weight of trucks, unquestionably have a direct relation to the wear and hazards of the highways. It is for this reason that the authority of the state to impose directly reasonable limitations on the weight and size of vehicles, although applicable to interstate carriers, has been sustained. Morris v. Duby, 274 U.S. 135, 143 , 47 S.Ct. 548; Sproles v. Binford, 286 U.S. 374, 388 , 389 S., 52 S.Ct. 581. As the state may establish such regulations directly, the state may adjust its license fees, otherwise valid as being reasonable and exacted as compensation for the use of the highways, according to carrying capacity in furtherance of the same purpose. Clark v. Poor, supra.
The exemptions in the instant case are not as limited as that in Continental Baking Co. v. Woodring, but they differ materially from that found to be objectionable in Smith v. Cahoon. The state court thus construed the scope, and described the effect, of the exemption in favor of farmers and dairymen: 'Unquestionably, the use by farmers and dairymen for the transportation of farm and dairy products is seasonal and involves only a moderate use of the highways; and the exemption here is further limited by the fact that it can apply only to one whose principal business is that of a farmer or dairyman and not to one merely incidentally engaged in farming or dairying.' Further, in its pleading, the Railroad Commission averred that it had uniformly construed the statute 'as exempting farmers and dairymen only when hauling their own product, or only when hauling them occasionally and not as a regular business' and had adopted a formal regulation to that effect. 2 In support of its pleading, and [290 U.S. 169, 176] made a part of it, the Commission presented an affidavit by the Superintendent of the Motor Transportation Division of the Commission showing the manner in which the statute had been applied.
The state court in its opinion said that it reached its conclusion as to the validity of the statutory provision 'independently of the construction placed by the Railroad Commission upon the contested provision of the act.' And the Court pointed out that that construction was 'in part' unsound inasmuch as 'one hauling his own products in his own motor vehicle' did not come within the purview of the act and no provision for his exemption was necessary. 'The exemption,' said the Court, 'can refer only to farmers and dairymen hauling farm and dairy products for compensation.' The state court, however, did not express disagreement with the Commission's construction set forth in its regulation, that the exemption applied 'to farmers and dairymen who occasionally, but do not regularly as a part of an established business, haul farm and/or dairy products for others for hire, but that persons who may also be engaged in part in farming operations but who make a regular business of transporting farm and/or dairy or other products for others for hire are not to be deemed farmers or dairymen for the purpose of this Act, and hence are required to comply with the Act, and hence spects like other persons engaged in motor transportation for hire.' Nor have we anything before us to show that the statute is being enforced and the exemption construed in any other sense. Upon the present record, it appears that the exemption is applied with two limitations, first, that, as construed by the state court, it can refer only 'to one whose principal business is that of a farmer or dairyman and not to one merely incidentally engaged in farming or dairying,' and, second, under the construction of the Commission in enforcing the statute-a construction not disapproved by [290 U.S. 169, 177] the state court-that it applies only to farmers and dairymen who occasionally, and not as a regular business, transport farm or dairy products for compensation. We cannot say that a classification based on such a use of the highways is an arbitrary one and thus encounters constitutional objection.
The exemption in favor of those hauling lumber and logs 'from the forest to the shipping points' relates to a limited class of transportation simply to places of shipment and does not appear to be unreasonable. See Sproles v. Binford, supra, 286 U.S. page 394, 52 S.Ct. 581.
The judgment of the state court is affirmed. Affirmed.
[ Footnote 1 ] Section 8507 to 8530, chapter 162 of the Code of 1932; Acts of 1925, p. 252, of 1928, p. 1238, of 1930, pp. 1068, 1100, 1327, and of 1931, p. 145.

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