Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/169/613/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:08:30+00:00

Document:
"to carry upon and over its road, boats, bridges, and ferries all passengers,, troops, government supplies, mails, freight, 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,"
as Congress has not assumed to give to 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 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 Act of March 28, 1884, c. 60, 23 Stat. 31, known as the Animal Industry Act, did not make any provision.
The provision in the Kansas act imposing such civil liability is in aid of the objects which Congress had in view when it passed the Animal Industry Act, and it was passed in execution of a power with which the state did not part when entering the Union, namely, the power to protect the people in the enjoyment of their rights of property and to provide for the redress of wrongs within its limits, and is not, within the meaning of the Constitution nor in any just sense, a regulation of commerce among the states.
A state statute, although enacted in pursuance of a power not surrendered to the general government, must in the executions of its provisions yield in case of conflict to a statute constitutionally enacted under authority conferred upon Congress, and this without regard to the source of power whence the state legislature derived its enactment.
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.
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 anyone 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.
Prior cases reviewed and held to 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 belongs 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.
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.
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, and a statute prescribing as a rule of civil conduct that a person or corporation shall not bring into the state cattle 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 § 5268 of the Revised Statutes.
If Congress could authorize the carrying of such cattle from one state into another 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.
This action was brought in one of the courts of Kansas against the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, a corporation of that state, and certain persons constituting the respective firms of F. Brogan & Sons and Hozier Bros. Its object was to recover the damages sustained by the plaintiff Charles Haber, one of the appellees, by reason of the defendants having brought and caused to be brought into that state certain cattle alleged to have been affected with the disease known as Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever, and communicated by them to the plaintiff's cattle, whereby the latter sickened and died.
Many persons having like causes of action intervened as parties defendant, and each by cross petition asked judgment against the railway company.
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, Texas, 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, Kansas, 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, Texas, about 2,500 head of cattle, which were delivered by the defendant company in its stockyards at Hartford, Kansas, 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 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 of Kansas, 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," and was empowered to establish, maintain, and enforce such quarantine, sanitary, and other regulations as it deemed necessary. Laws of 1884, c. 2. § 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 of 1884, c. 4, § 1. The commission was also authorized and directed by another act approved on the same day to cooperate 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 of 1884, c. 5, § 1.
that statute made it a misdemeanor for any person, between the first day of February and the first 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. § 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 livestock sanitary commission. § 14.
"§ 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 prior lien to all other liens for such damages on the cattle communicating the disease of Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever."
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 livestock 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 latitude, the provisions of this section shall not apply thereto."
"§ 18. Whenever two or more persons shall in violation of this act at the same time or at different time during the same year, drive or cause to be driven upon the same highway, range, common or pasture within this state, any cattle capable of communicating or liable to impart Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever, they shall be jointly and severally liable for all damages that may arise from the communication of such disease at any time thereafter during the same year to any native, domestic or acclimated cattle that shall have been upon the same highway, range, common or pasture so previously traveled over by such first mentioned cattle."
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 § 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 livestock 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.
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 businessmen, familiar with questions pertaining to commercial transactions in livestock, 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. §§ 1, 2.
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."
"§ 4. That in order to promote the exportation of livestock 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 livestock 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 livestock as the results of said investigations may require."
"§ 5. That to prevent the exportation from any port of the United States to any port in a foreign country of livestock affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, and especially pleuro-pneumonia, 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."
one state or territory to another, or from any state into the District of Columbia, or from the District into any state, any livestock, 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."
"§ 7. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture to notify, in writing, the proper officials or agents of any railroad, steamboat, or other transportation company doing business in or through any infected locality, and by publication, in such newspapers as he may select, of the existence of said contagion, and any person or persons operating any such railroad, or master or owner of any boat or vessel, or owner or custodian of or person having control over such cattle or other livestock within such infected district, who shall knowingly violate the provisions of section six of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine not less than one hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment."
"§ 10. That the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be immediately available, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry into effect the provisions of this act."
was overruled by 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 Interior * 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. Black Bird Creek Marsh Co., 2 Pet. 245, 27 U. S. 251; Chicago Life Ins. Co. v. Needles, 113 U. S. 574, 113 U. S. 579; Sayward v. Denny, 158 U. S. 180, 158 U. S. 184; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad v. Chicago, 166 U. S. 226, 166 U. S. 232.
to domestic cattle prima facie evidence that such cattle were, between February first and December first 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, 63 U. S. 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 cooperate with the Commissioner of Agriculture, then, by the third section, that officer was authorized to use the money appropriated by Congress in such 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 cooperate 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.
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.
with the regulations made by said states for the admission of Southern cattle thereto."
The cattle in question were originally received by the Texas and Pacific Railroad at Midland, Texas, 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, Texas, 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, Texas 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 anyone of the right to recover damages for injury inflicted upon his domestic cattle by reason of their being brought into contact with diseased cattle.
"But the framers of our Constitution foresaw this state of things and provided for it by declaring the supremacy not only of itself, but of the laws made in pursuance of it. The nullity of any act inconsistent with the Constitution is produced by the declaration that the Constitution is the supreme law. The appropriate application of that part of the clause which confers the same supremacy on laws and treaties is to such acts of the state legislatures as do not transcend their powers, but, though enacted in the execution of acknowledged state powers, interfere with or are contrary to the laws of Congress made in pursuance of the Constitution or some treaty made under the authority of the United States. In every such case, the act of Congress or the treaty is supreme, and the law of the state, though enacted in the exercise of powers not controverted, must yield to it."
"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."
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.
of such transportation, and the existence of such disease along such route shall be prima facie evidence that such disease has been communicated by such transportation."
"If any person or persons shall bring into this state any Texas, Mexican or Indian cattle in violation of the first section of this act, he or they shall be liable in all cases for all damages sustained on account of disease communicated by said cattle."
"persons and property are subjected to all kinds of restraints and burdens, in order to secure the general comfort, health, and prosperity of the state, of the perfect right of the legislature to do which no question ever was or upon acknowledged general principles ever can be made, so far as natural persons are concerned."
"would justify the exclusion of property dangerous to the property of citizens of the state -- for example, animals having contagious or infectious diseases."
"Tried by this rule, the statute of Missouri is a plain intrusion upon the exclusive domain of Congress. It is not a quarantine law. It is not an inspection law. It says to all natural persons, and to all transportation companies:"
they may do an injury to the inhabitants of the state or not, and if you do bring them in, even for the purpose of carrying them through the state without unloading them, you shall be subject to extraordinary liabilities."
"Such a statute we do not doubt it is beyond the power of a state to enact. To hold otherwise would be to ignore one of the leading objects which the Constitution of the United States was designed to secure."
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.
No such criticism can be made of the statute of Kansas. It does not prohibit the bringing into the State of all Texas cattle. It does not in any true sense prohibit or burden any commerce among the states specifically authorized by Congress, but, for purposes of self-protection only and in the exercise of its inherent power to protect the property of its people, declared that any corporation or person bringing into the state or driving into or through any county of the state cattle liable to impart or capable of communicating Texas, splenic, or Spanish fever to domestic cattle, should be responsible in damages to any one to whose cattle that disease was communicated by the cattle so brought into the state.
in this state any such Texas cattle, he shall be liable for any damages that may accrue from allowing said cattle to run at large, and thereby spreading the disease among other cattle known as the Texas fever, and shall be punished as is prescribed in the preceding section."
"Section 4059, with which we are concerned, provides that any person who has in his possession in the State of Iowa any Texas cattle which have not been wintered north shall be liable for any damages that may accrue from allowing such cattle to run at large and thereby spread the disease. We are unable to appreciate the force of the objection that such legislation is in conflict with the paramount authority of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. We do not see that it has anything to do with that commerce. It is only leveled against allowing diseased Texas cattle held within the state to run at large."
citizens of other states and citizens of Iowa stand upon the same footing."
be urged against legislation prescribing the form in which contracts shall be authenticated, or property descend or be distributed on the death of its owner, because applicable to contracts or estates of persons engaged in such commerce. In conferring upon Congress the regulation of commerce, it was never intended to cut the state off from legislating on all subjects relating to the health, life, and safety of their citizens, though the legislation might indirectly affect the commerce of the country. Legislation, in a great variety of ways, may affect commerce and persons engaged in it without constituting a regulation of it, within the meaning of the Constitution."
"Until Congress therefore makes some regulation touching the liability of parties for marine torts resulting in the death of the persons injured, we are of opinion that the statute of Indiana applies, giving a right of action in such cases to the personal representatives of the deceased, and that, as thus applied, it constitutes no encroachment upon the commercial power of Congress."
"exclude from their midst, not only convicts, paupers, idiots, lunatics, and persons likely to become a public charge, but animals having contagious diseases."
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, 124 U. S. 482; Nashville &c. Railway v. Alabama, 128 U. S. 96, 128 U. S. 101.
"upon railroad companies engaged in commerce among the states, whatever may be the extent of such authority, does not interfere in any degree with the passage by the State of laws having for their object the personal security of passengers while traveling, within their respective limits, from one state to another, on cars propelled by steam."
and with due diligence, is not an addition to the duty which it would owe in the absence of such a statute. Can it be said that the imposition of a penalty for the violation of a duty which the company owed by the general law of the land is a regulation of or an obstruction to interstate commerce, within the meaning of that clause of the federal Constitution under discussion? We think not."
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.
"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."
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 pleuro-pneumonia or other diseases of animals from one state into another. This contention is disposed of by what has already been said.
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 prescribing 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.
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, Burlington & Quincy Railroad v. Chicago, 166 U. S. 226, 166 U. S. 242-246.
* 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, February 26, 1892.
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 territory 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 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.
"The presence of the parasite in Southern cattle does not seem to materially affect their health, although it may maintain a more or less constant breaking up of the red corpuscles on a small scale, which would necessarily tax certain vital organs. . . . From a practical economic standpoint, we must maintain that Southern cattle may be healthy, and yet be the cause of Texas fever."
And in the final summing up of the conclusions of the investigators, on page 290, it is further stated: "Cattle from the permanently infected territory, though otherwise healthy, carry the microparasite of Texas fever in their blood."
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. Kansas City Stockyards Company and Hopkins v. United States, 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 percent or more were sold to the packing houses there situate for immediate slaughter.
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.
Bowman v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway, 125 U. S. 465, 125 U. S. 486. 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 with 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.
"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?"
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.

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