Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/121/444/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 10:33:50+00:00

Document:
Wharfage is, in the absence of federal legislation, governed by local state laws, and if the rates authorized by them and by municipal ordinances enacted under their authority are unreasonable, the remedy must be sought by invoking the laws of the state.
A municipal ordinance of New Orleans which authorizes the collection of a Wharfage rate, to be measured by the tonnage of the vessels which use the wharves and estimated to be sufficient to light the wharves, and to keep them in repair, and to construct new wharves as required, and which may realize a profit over these expenses, is held not to conflict with the Constitution or with any law of the United States.
In equity. Decree dismissing the bill. Complainants appealed. The case is stated in the opinion of the court.
compelled to pay for their vessels at New Orleans are unreasonable and excessive are really duties of tonnage, and imposed in violation of the Constitution of the United States. The defendants Joseph A. Aiken & Co. at the time of filing the bill, were lessees of the public wharves belonging to the City of New Orleans, under a lease from the city made in May, 1881, for the term of five years, and as such lessees charged and collected the wharfage complained of. The object of the bill, as shown by its prayer, was to obtain an injunction to prevent the defendants from exacting the excessive charges referred to, the complainants expressing a willingness to pay all reasonable wharfage.
"Not over five days, ten cents per ton, and each day thereafter, five dollars per day; boats arriving and departing more than once a week, five cents per ton each trip; boats lying up for repairs during the summer months, to occupy such wharves as may not be required for shipping, for thirty days or under, one dollar per day."
The entire ordinance was filed with the bill as an exhibit, showing the rates of wharfage to be charged for vessels of every kind.
devoted exclusively to the payment of salaries of wharfingers, signal officers, and other employees on the levees. The sale was to be adjudicated to the persons who should agree to charge the lowest rates of wharfage. Joseph A. Aiken put in a proposal to take the lease on the conditions specified at the rates of wharfage named in the ordinance of 1875, with certain reductions which he agreed to make from time to time, and this proposal was accepted by the council.
The power to construct and maintain levees and wharves and to prescribe and collect rates of levee dues and wharfage had been conferred upon the city council by its charter, Act March 16, 1870, No. 7, § 12; and, by the Act of March 13, 1871, it was authorized to lease the wharves upon adjudication, for any term not to exceed ten years at a time. Laws of 1871, No. 48, § 7.
"that the exactions of wharfage are substantially expended for the benefit of those using the wharves, and that the proof does not satisfy us that the rates are exorbitant or excessive."
States cannot, as such interfere with the regulations made by the state, nor sit in judgment on the charges imposed for the use of improvements or facilities afforded, or for the services rendered under state authority. It is for Congress alone, under its power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states, to correct any abuses that may arise, or to assume to itself the regulation of the subject. If in any case of this character the courts of the United States can interfere in advance of congressional legislation, it is (as was said in Morgan v. Louisiana, qua supra) where there is a manifest purpose, "by roundabout means, to invade the domain of federal authority."
Wharfage, the matter now under consideration, is governed by the local state laws; no act of Congress has been passed to regulate it. By the state laws, it is generally required to be reasonable, and by those laws its reasonableness must be judged. If it does not violate them, as before said, the United States courts cannot interfere to prevent its exaction. Of course, neither the state, nor any municipal corporation acting under its authority, can lay duties of tonnage, for that is expressly forbidden by the constitution; but charges for wharfage may be graduated by the tonnage of vessels using a wharf, and that this is not a duty of tonnage, within the meaning of the Constitution, has been distinctly held in several cases, among others in those of Packet Co. v. Keokuk, 95 U. S. 80; Packet Co. v. St. Louis, 100 U. S. 423; Packet Co. v. Catlettsburg, 105 U. S. 559, and Transportation Co. v. Parkersburg, 107 U. S. 691.
compensation for improvements. The fact that if any surplus remains from the tolls over what is used to keep the locks in repair, and for their collection, it is to be paid into the state treasury as a part of the revenue of the state, does not change the character of the toll or impost. In prescribing the rates, it would be impossible to state in advance what the tolls would amount to in the aggregate. That would depend upon the extent of business done; that is, the number of vessels and amount of freight which may pass through the locks. Some disposition of the surplus is necessary until its use shall be required, and it may as well be placed in the state Treasury, and probably better, than anywhere else."
"It is also obvious that since a wharf is property, and wharfage is a charge or rent for its temporary use, the question whether the owner derives more or less revenue from it, or whether more or less than the cost of building and maintaining it, or what disposition he makes of such revenue can in no way concern those who make use of the wharf, and are required to pay the regular charges therefor, provided always that the charges are reasonable, and not exorbitant."
state laws furnish no remedy; in other words, if the charges are sanctioned by them, then, as before stated, it is for Congress, and not the United States courts, to regulate the matter, and provide a proper remedy. Such an interposition may become necessary, for although the imposition of unreasonable wharfage by a city or a state is always the dictate of a suicidal policy, the temptation of immediate advantage under stringent pressure will often lead to its adoption.
"It is an undoubted rule of universal application that wharfage for the use of all public wharves must be reasonable. But then the question arises, by what law is this rule established, and by what law can it be enforced? By what law is it to be decided whether the charges imposed are or are not exorbitant? There can be but one answer to these questions. Clearly it must be by the local municipal law -- at least until some superior or paramount law has been prescribed. . . . The courts of the United States do not enforce the common law in municipal matters in the state because it is federal law, but because it is the law of the state."

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