Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/224/474/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 08:11:23+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 224 › ICC v. Humboldt Steamship Co.
Alaska is a Territory of the United States within the meaning of § 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended June 29, 1906, 34 Stat. 584, c. 3591.
An organized Territory of the United States does not necessarily mean one having a local legislature, as distinguished from one having a less autonomous form of government, such as that of Alaska.
Even if "Territory of the United States," as used in § 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act as amended, includes only organized territories, Alaska falls within its meaning. The Steamer Coquitlam, 163 U. S. 346; Binns v. United States, 194 U. S. 486; Rassmussen v. United States, 197 U. S. 516.
The Hepburn Act of June 29, 1906, 34 Stat. 584, c. 3591, extended the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act to inter-territorial commerce and for the first time gave to the Commission the power to fix rates. In so doing, it made the act completely comprehensive, and the power given to the Commission superseded the power of the Secretary of the Interior to revise and modify rates of railroads in Alaska given by § 2 of the Act of May 14, 1898, 30 Stat. 409, c.299.
Mandamus can be issued to direct performance of a ministerial act but not to control discretion. It may be directed to a tribunal, one acting in a judicial capacity, to proceed in a manner according to his or its discretion.
The jurisdiction to determine jurisdiction, Ex Parte Harding, 219 U. S. 363, does not exist in an administrative body which is subject to having its jurisdiction defined by the courts.
to proceed and decide the case according to its judgment and discretion.
The Interstate Commerce Commission has jurisdiction to investigate violations of the Act to Regulate Commerce in Alaska, and to compel carriers in that Territory to conform to the law, and if the Commission refuses to act on the ground that it has no jurisdiction, mandamus will issue directing it to take jurisdiction.
39 Wash.L.Rep. 386 aff'd, and 19 I.C.C. 81, disapproved.
The facts, which involve the status of common carriers in Alaska under the Interstate Commerce Act, and the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission over common carriers in Alaska, are stated in the opinion.
The ultimate question in the case is whether Alaska is a territory of the United States within the meaning of the Interstate Commerce Act as amended.
The Interstate Commerce Commission resolved the question in the negative and dismissed the petition of the Humboldt Steamship Company, the relator, which alleged violations of the act by the White Pass & Yukon Railway Company, operating in Alaska, applying its decision in In re Jurisdiction Over Rail & Water Carriers Operating in Alaska, 19 I.C.C. 81.
"ample authority to assume jurisdiction over common carriers in Alaska, the same as in any other territory, and over those carriers operating between the State of Washington and Alaska, and between Alaska and Canada, and if they took jurisdiction, no one could successfully question their right to do so."
"to require the Interstate Commerce Commission to act contrary to its own judgment in a matter wherein, after investigation, it had reached a conclusion, honestly and fairly, which might be contrary to the conclusion which the court would reach."
"with directions to issue a peremptory writ of mandamus directed to the Interstate Commerce Commission, requiring it to take jurisdiction of said cause and proceed therein as by law required."
To this ruling the Interstate Commerce Commission prosecutes this writ of error.
points in the Dominion of Canada and other places; to establish through routes and joint rates in conjunction with the petitioner between certain named places in Alaska and Seattle, in the State of Washington; to afford all reasonable, proper, and equal facilities for the interchange of traffic between their respective lines, and to cease and desist from preventing by sundry devices the carriage of freights from being continuous from place of shipment to place of destination when such freight is originated or in any wise handled by the Humboldt Steamship Company.
The companies proceeded against filed answers. There were intervening companies on both sides of the controversy.
A hearing was assigned and had in October, 1909, and subsequently, July 6, 1910, the Commission decided that it was "without jurisdiction to make the order sought by complainant," resting its ruling upon the authority of its decision in In re Jurisdiction over Rail & Water Carriers Operating in Alaska, supra.
"shall apply to 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 States or the District of Columbia to any other state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or from one place in a territory to another place in the same territory, . . . or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States. . . ."
34 Stat. 584, c. 3591.
territory, . . . or from one place in a territory to another place in the same territory,"
"territory" being the especially significant word.
If we may venture to reduce to a single proposition an elaborate discussion of elements and considerations, we may say that the Commission gave to the word "territory" the signification of "organized territory," the chief and determining feature of which is a local legislature, as distinguished from a territory having a more rudimentary and less autonomous form of government which it considered Alaska possessed.
To this signification and distinction the arguments of counsel are addressed, and much of the reasoning of the lower courts. That field, however, has been traversed by cases in this Court, and it need not again be passed over. We may accept and apply the conclusions which have been reached and expressed.
In the case of Steamer Coquitlam v. United States, 163 U. S. 346, the relation of the courts of Alaska to the federal judicial system, and the applicability of certain statutes concerning the same, were decided after a review of those statutes and those defining the status of Alaska.
"the same appellate jurisdiction, by writ of error or appeal, to review the judgments, orders, and decrees of the supreme courts of the several territories as by this act they may have to review the judgments, orders, and decrees of the district court and circuit courts, and for that purpose the several territories shall, by orders of the Supreme Court, to be made from time to time, be assigned to particular circuits."
26 Stat. 826, 830, c. 517.
Court, by an order promulgated May 11, 1891, assigned Alaska to the Ninth Judicial Circuit.
Subsequent to this order, the United States brought a suit in admiralty in the District Court of Alaska for the forfeiture of the steamer Coquitlam because of an alleged violation of the revenue laws. A decree was rendered for the United States, and an appeal was prosecuted to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The United States disputed the jurisdiction of the court on the grounds: (1) that the District Court of Alaska was not a district court within the meaning of the sixth section of the Circuit Court of Appeals Act, and (2) that the District Court of Alaska was not a supreme court of a territory, within the meaning of that act and the order of this Court assigning Alaska to the Ninth Circuit.
"Alaska is one of the territories of the United States. It was so designated in that order, and has always been so regarded. And the court established by the Act of 1884 (providing for a civil government for Alaska) is the court of last resort within the limits of that territory. . . . No reason can be suggested why a territory of the United States in which the court of last resort is called a supreme court should be assigned to some circuit established by Congress that does not apply with full force to the Territory of Alaska, in which the court of last resort is designated as the District Court of Alaska. The title of the territorial court is not so material as its character."
relation of Alaska to the rest of the United States. It was not a description of a definite area of land of "landed possession," but of a political unit, governing and being governed as such.
"Nor can it be doubted that it is an organized territory, for the Act of May 17, 1884, 23 Stat. 24, c. 53, entitled, 'An Act Providing a Civil government for Alaska,' provided that the territory ceded to the United States by Russia by the Treaty of March thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and known as Alaska, shall constitute a civil and judicial district, the government of which shall be organized and administered as hereinafter provided."
"that Congress, in the government of the territories as well as of the District of Columbia, has plenary power, save as controlled by the provisions of the Constitution; that the form of government it shall establish is not prescribed, and may not necessarily be the same in all the territories."
There is much more in that case which might be quoted as establishing that the status of Alaska is that of an organized territory. See also Rasmussen v. United States, 197 U. S. 516.
printed and posted as required by section six of an Act to Regulate Commerce, as amended on March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and such rates shall be subject to revision and modification by the Secretary of the Interior."
"negatived the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission, even if Alaska was apprehended to be within section 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act."
"There is no suggestion of doubt that the ends of justice require as much the application of the same principle and regulation in Alaska as in New Mexico or Arizona."
The two latter at the time this was said were territories.
It is next contended by the Commission that "mandamus is not a proper proceeding to correct an error of law like that alleged in the petition."
The general principle which controls the issue of a writ of mandamus is familiar. It can be issued to direct the performance of a ministerial act, but not to control discretion. It may be directed against a tribunal or one who acts in a judicial capacity, to require it or him to proceed, the manner of doing so being left to his or its discretion. It is true there may be a jurisdiction to determine the possession of jurisdiction. Ex Parte Harding, 219 U. S. 363. But the full doctrine of that case cannot be extended to administrative officers. The Interstate Commerce Commission is purely an administrative body. It is true it may exercise and must exercise quasi-judicial duties, but its functions are defined, and, in the main, explicitly directed, by the act creating it. It may act of its own motion in certain instances -- it may be petitioned to move by those having rights under the act. It may exercise judgment and discretion, and, it may be, cannot be controlled in either. But if it absolutely refuse to act, deny its power, from a misunderstanding of the law, it cannot be said to exercise discretion. Give it that latitude and yet give it the power to nullify its most essential duties, and how would its nonaction be reviewed? The answer of the Commission is by "a reversal by the tribunal of appeal." And such a tribunal, it is intimated, is the United States Commerce Court.
it be conceded, for the sake of argument, that the Commerce Court is by law vested with the exclusive power to review any and every act of the Commission taken in the exertion of the authority conferred upon it by statute -- that is, to exclusively review not only affirmative orders of the Commission granting relief, but also the action of that body in refusing to award relief on the ground that an application was not entitled to relief. This is so because the action of the Commission refusing to entertain a petition on the ground that its subject matter was not within the scope of the powers conferred upon it would not be embraced within the hypothetical concessions thus made. A like view disposes of the cases relied upon in which it was decided that certain departmental orders were not susceptible of being reviewed by mandamus. We do not propose to review the cases, as we consider them to be plainly inapposite to the subject in hand.
"upon authority of the decision recently announced in In re Jurisdiction over Rail & Water Carriers operating in Alaska, 19 I.C.C. 81, that the Commission is without jurisdiction to make the order sought by complainant,"

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