Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/300/290/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 21:56:27+00:00

Document:
as reimbursement for the expense of providing facilities, or of enforcing regulations of the commerce which are within its constitutional power. This may appear from the statute itself, or from the use of the money collected, to defray such expense. P. 300 U. S. 294.
"from without the State, of any motor vehicle operated on its own wheels or in tow of another vehicle for the purpose of selling or offering the same for sale . . . to any purchaser"
"intended to reimburse the state treasury for the added expense which the State may incur in the administration and enforcement of this Act, and the added expense of policing the highways over which such caravaning may be conducted, so as to provide for the safety of traffic on such highways where caravaning is being conducted."
(1) From a consideration of the Act in connection with other California enactments, it appears that the collections are used not to meet the cost of highway construction or maintenance, but to reimburse the state treasury for the added expense of administering the Caravan Act and policing the caravaning traffic. P. 300 U. S. 295.
(2) The burden of showing that, for this purpose, the exaction is excessive rested upon the person attacking it. P. 300 U. S. 296.
(3) Finding of the trial court that the fee is excessive was sustained by the evidence in this case. Id.
(4) The licensing provisions therefore impose an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce. Morf v. Bingaman, 298 U. S. 407, distinguished. Pp. 300 U. S. 294, 300 U. S. 297.
Appeal from a decree of the District Court of three judges, enjoining the enforcement of provisions of the California Caravan Act.
This suit was brought by appellee in the District Court for Southern California, three judges sitting, to restrain appellants, state officers, from enforcing the provisions of the Caravan Act, Cal.Stat. 1935, c. 402, as a forbidden burden on interstate commerce, and as an infringement of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. From a decree granting the relief prayed, the case comes here on appeal under §§ 238(3), 266, Judicial Code.
the safety of traffic on such highways where caravaning is being conducted."
Appellee, a resident of Los Angeles, California, carries on his business there as a dealer in automobiles. He purchases used automobiles in other states and transports them from the place of purchase to points on the California boundary line, thence over state highways to Los Angeles, and sometimes to other places, where he offers them for sale. He conducts from 20 to 25 percent of the total movement in such traffic. Some of his vehicles are coupled together in twos, and move in caravans or fleets, sometimes aggregating more than 30 cars. He gave testimony, which appellants sharply challenge, that from 30 to 40 percent move singly and not in company with any other vehicle. A permit is required for each car, whether it moves alone or as part of a fleet. The District Court found that such movement of vehicles in caravans of more than four create special traffic difficulties, but that the movement of four or less "constitutes no police problem;" that there is considerable like traffic carried on wholly within the state, for which the fee of $15 is not exacted and for which no similar or other fee is required, and that the demanded fee for each car moving in the interstate traffic is excessive, and bears no reasonable relation to the increased cost of policing. It concluded, as the appellee contends here, that the statute denies to appellee due process and equal protection, and places a forbidden burden on, and discriminates against, interstate commerce.
exact a fee of those engaged in intrastate commerce. It is not denied that the permit fee, imposed upon those engaged in interstate commerce, burdens this commerce, but appellants urge that it is a permissible charge for the use of the state highways and for the cost of policing the traffic, including the cost of administering the Act.
In Morf v. Bingaman, 298 U. S. 407, recently before this Court, the Caravaning Act of New Mexico, containing some features similar to the present act, was likewise assailed as burdening interstate commerce by the imposition of a fee, of $7.50 for each vehicle moving by its own power, and $5 for each vehicle towed by another when moving in caravan. The statute made the privilege of using the highway conditional upon payment of the fee. The fees collected were devoted in part to highway purposes. We held that the fees were a charge for the use of the highways, not shown by the taxpayer to be unreasonable, which the state might lawfully demand. Compare Hendrick v. Maryland, 235 U. S. 610, 235 U. S. 624; Interstate Busses Corp. v. Blodgett, 276 U. S. 245, 276 U. S. 249.
295 U. S. 289; compare Interstate Busses Corp. v. Blodgett, supra, 276 U. S. 249.
"With the exception of money authorized by law to be deposited in the State highway general fund, all money available for the acquisition of real property or interests therein for State highways, or for the construction, maintenance or improvement of State highways or highways in State parks shall be deposited in the State highway fund."
and it does not foreclose the use of the fund for highway maintenance, should the state elect to do so. But, until such appropriation is made, the statute itself states the legislative purpose, and precludes state officials from asserting that the fees are collected for any other.
The burden rests on appellee to show that the fee is excessive for the declared purpose. Hendrick v. Maryland, supra, 235 U. S. 624; Interstate Busses Corp. v. Blodgett, supra, 276 U. S. 250; Morf v. Bingaman, supra, 298 U. S. 410. But the trial court has found that it is excessive, and the finding is amply supported by evidence. In 1934, 9,663 cars were caravaned, and in the first eleven months of 1935, 14,000. This supports the inference of the trial court that 15,000 cars are brought into the state annually for sale under the conditions defined in the Act. There was testimony that the expense involved in issuing caravaning permits is "about $5.00 per car," although it appeared that the permit fee for local pleasure, cars, numbering 1,960,000, was $3 per year, of which only 35 percent ($1.05) is devoted to administrative expenses.
that a total of ten men at a salary of $200 a month, and at an aggregate cost of $24,000 a year, would be adequate to police the traffic, whereas the permit fees from 15,000 cars would yield an annual return of $225,000.
"to operate three or more vehicles or groups of vehicles in caravan unless a space of at least one hundred fifty feet shall at all times be maintained between each vehicle or group of vehicles being so caravaned"
may be enforced if applied, independently of the licensing provisions, in a statute nondiscriminatory in its operation.

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