Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/219/467.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 17:31:28+00:00

Document:
[219 U.S. 467, 468] Mr. Henry L. Stone for plaintiff in error.
[219 U.S. 467, 470] Messrs. Lewis McQuown, Clarence U. McElroy, and G. D. Milliken for defendants in error.
The railroad company adhered strictly to this agreement for many years, but finally refused further to perform it, on the ground that the act of Congress of June 29th, 1906, amendatory of the act regulating commerce, approved February 4th, 1887, made its enforcement illegal. Thereupon Mottley and wife brought suit in the circuit court of the United States for the western district of Kentucky, to enforce the agreement, and obtained a decree in their favor. 150 Fed. 406. But upon a direct appeal to this court, that decree was reversed, and the case was remanded, with directions to dismiss the suit for want of jurisdiction. Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Mottley, 211 U.S. 149 , 53 L. ed. 126, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 42; Metcalf v. Watertown, 128 U.S. 586 , 32 L. ed. 543, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 173; Tennessee v. Union Planters' Bank, 152 U.S. 454, 459 , 38 S. L. ed. 511, 513, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 654. the grounds upon which the Federal court was held to be without jurisdiction are not important here.
The act of June 29th, 1906, regulating commerce and enlarging the powers of the interstate Commerce Commission, made its provisions applicable to 'any common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property . . . by railroad . . . 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, etc.;' and in this respect it has not [219 U.S. 467, 474] been amended. It also provides that a common carrier violating the clause forbidding it after January 1st, 1907, directly or indirectly to issue or to give any interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation for passengers, should pay to the United States a penalty of not less than $ 100 nor more than $2,000. Any person (other than those of the excepted classes) who used any such interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation, became subject to a like penalty. Id. 585, 1.
It may be, as suggested, that a refusal to enforce the agreement of 1871 will operate as a great hardship upon the defendants in error. But that consideration cannot control the determination of this controversy. Our duty is to ascertain the intention of Congress in passing the statute upon which the railroad company relies as prohibitive of the further enforcement of the agreement in suit. That intention is to be gathered from the words of the act, interpreted according to their ordinary acceptation, and, when it becomes necessary to do so, in the light of the circumstances as they existed when the statute was as they existed when the statute was passed. Platt v. Union P. R. Co. 99 U.S. 48, 64 , 25 S. L. ed. 424, 429. The court cannot mold a statute simply to meet its views of justice in a particular case. Having, in the mode indicated, ascertained the will of the legislative department, the statute as enacted must be executed, unless found to be inconsistent with the supreme law of the land.
In our consideration of the case it will be assumed-indeed, the parties themselves assume-that the agree- [219 U.S. 467, 475] ment of 1871 was not, when made, in conflict with the Constitution or laws of the United States. But we must first inquire whether such an agreement, if made after the passage of the original and amendatory commerce acts, would have been valid under those acts. If those acts forbid agreements of that character, we must then inquire whether the one in suit can be now enforced simply because it was valid when made.
The act of February 4th, 1887, regulating commerce, declared it to be an unjust and unlawful discrimination for any carrier subject to the provisions of that act, directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, to charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person or persons 'a greater or less compensation' for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property than was charged, demanded, collected, or received from any other person or persons for doing him or them a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions. 24 Stat. at L. 379, chap. 104, 2, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3154. But the act of June 29th, 1906, made a material addition to the words of the act of 1887; for it expressly prohibited any carrier, unless otherwise provided, to demand, collect, or receive 'a greater or less or different compensation' for the transportation of persons or property, or for any service in connection therewith, than the rates, fares, and charges specified in the tariff filed and in effect at the time. We cannot suppose that this change was without a distinct purpose on the part of Congress. The words 'or different,' looking at the context, cannot be regarded as superfluous or meaningless. We must have regard to all the words used by Congress, and, as far as possible, give effect to them. Washington Market v. Hoffman, 101 U.S. 112, 115 , 25 S. L. ed. 782, 783. The history of the acts relating to commerce shows that Congress, when introducing into the act of 1906 the word 'different,' had in mind the pur- [219 U.S. 467, 476] pose of curing a defect in the law, and of suppressing evil practices under it by prohibiting the carrier from charging or receiving compensation except as indicated in its published tariff. 11th Ann. Rep. Interstate Com. Com. 141; 19th Id. 78, 15; 40 Cong. Rec. Pt. 7, p. 6608; Id. 6617; Id. 7428, 7434; Rept. of Confer. Com., 40 Cong. Rec. 9522; 42 Cong. Rec. Pt. 2, p. 1746.
That money only was receivable for transportation is the basis upon which the Interstate Commerce Commission has proceeded; for, in one of its Conference Rulings (207) issued in 1909, the Commission held that nothing but money could be lawfully received or accepted in payment for transportation, whether of passengers or [219 U.S. 467, 477] property, for any service connected therewith, 'it being the opinion of the commission that the prohibition against the charging or collecting a greater or less or different compensation than the established rates or fares in effect at the time precludes the acceptance of service, property, or other payment in lieu of the amount specified in the published schedules.' It is now the established rule that a carrier cannot depart to any extent from its published schedule of rates for interstate transportation on file without incurring the penalties of the statute. Union P. R. Co. v. Goodridge, 149 U.S. 690, 691 , 37 S. L. ed. 902, 903, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 970; Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Hefley, 158 U.S. 98, 102 , 39 S. L. ed. 910, 912, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 802; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Chesapeake O. R. Co. 200 U.S. 361, 391 , 50 S. L. ed. 515, 521, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 272; Texas & P. R. Co. v. Abilene Cotton Oil Co. 204 U.S. 426, 439 , 51 S. L. ed. 553, 558, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 350, 9 A. & E. Ann. Cas. 1075. That rule was established in execution of a public policy which, it seems, Congress deliberately adopted as applicable to the interstate transportation of persons or property. The passenger has no right to buy tickets with services, advertising, releases, or property, nor con the railroad company buy services, advertising, releases, or property with transportation. The statute manifestly means that the purchase of a transportation ticket by a passenger, and its sale by the company, shall be consummated only by the former paying cash and by the latter receiving cash of the amount specified in the published tariffs. In the first of the cases last above cited (the Goodridge Case) the court, referring to the practice of allowing rebates, said: 'So opposed is the policy of the act to secret rebates of this description that it requires a printed copy of the classification and schedule of rates to be posted conspicuously in each passenger station for the use of the patrons of the road, that everyone may be apprised not only of what the company will exact of him for a particular service, but what it exacts of everyone else for the same service, so that in fixing his own prices he may know precisely with what he has to compete. To hold a defense thus pleaded to be [219 U.S. 467, 478] valid would open the door to the grossest frauds upon the law, and practically enable the railroad company to avail itself of any consideration for a rebate which it considers sufficient, and to agree with the favored customer upon some fabricated claim for damages which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to disprove. For instance, under the defense made by this company, there is nothing to prevent a customer of the road, who has received a personal injury, from making a claim against the road for any amount he chooses, and in consideration thereof, and of shipping all his goods by that road, receiving a rebate for all goods he may ship over the road for an indefinite time in the future. It is almost needless to say that such a contract could not be supported. There is no doubt of the general proposition that the release of an unliquidated claim for damages is a good consideration for a promise, as between the parties, and if no one else were interested in the transaction, that rule might apply here; but the legislature, upon grounds of public policy, and for the protection of third parties, has made certain requirements with regard to equality of rates, which, in their practical application, would be rendered nugatory if this rule were given full effect.' That Congress had the constitutional power to adopt such a policy and to prescribe appropriate means to give it effect, we do not doubt.
We now come to the question whether, assuming that the agreement of 1871 was valid when made, could Congress, by any statute subsequently enacted, make its enforcement by suit impossible. There are certain propositions at the base of this inquiry which we need not discuss at large, because they have become thoroughly established in our constitutional jurisprudence. One is, that the power granted to Congress to regulate commerce among the states and with foreign nations is complete in itself, and is unrestricted except by the limitations upon its authority to be found in the Constitution. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 6 L. ed. 23; Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419, 6 L. ed. 678; Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. United States, 175 U.S. 211, 229 , 44 S. L. ed. 136, 143, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 96; Scranton v. Wheeler, 179 U.S. 141, 162 , 163 S., 45 L. ed. 126, 137, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 48; Chicago B. & Q. R. Co. v. Illinois, 200 U.S. 561 , 50 L. ed. 596, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 341, 4 A. & E. Ann. Cas. 1175; Union Bridge Co. v. United States, 204 U.S. 364, 400 , 51 S. L. ed. 523, 539, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 367; Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Riverside Mills, 219 U.S. 186, 202 , 55 S. L. ed. --, 31 Sup.Ct.Rep. 164.
In Pomeroy on Contracts, 280 (Specific Performance), after observing that an illegal contract cannot be made the basis of any judicial proceeding, and that no action in law or equity could be maintained upon it, it was said: 'This impossibility of enforcement exists, whether the agreement is illegal in its inception, or whether, being valid when [219 U.S. 467, 485] made, the illegality has been created by a subsequent statute.' Among the cases cited by the author in support of that view was Atkinson v. Ritchie, 10 East, 530, 534, in which the Chief Justice, Lord Ellenborough, delivering the opinion of the court, said: 'That no contract can properly be carried into effect, which was originally made contrary to the provisions of law, or which, being made consistently with the rules of law at the time, has become illegal in virtue of some subsequent law, are propositions which admit of no doubt.' In Kentucky & I. Bridge Co. v. Louisville & N. R. Co. 2 Inters. Com. Rep. 102, 34 Am. & Eng. R. Cas. 630, Judge Cooley said: 'But the act to regulate commerce is a general law, and contracts are always liable to be more or less affected by general laws, even when in no way referred to. . . . But this incidental effect of the general law is not understood to make it a law imparing the obligation of contracts. It is a necessary effect of any considerable change in the public laws. If the legislature had no power to alter its police laws when contracts would be affected, then the most important and valuable reforms might be precluded by the simple device of entering into contracts for the purpose. No doctrine to that effect would be even plausible, much less sound and tenable.' If one agrees,' said Mr. Parsons, 'to do a thing which it is lawful for him to do, and it becomes unlawful by an act of the legislature, the act avoids the promise.' Parsons, Contr. 6th ed. 675.
We forbear any further citation of authorities. They are numerous and are all one way. They support the view that, as the contract in question would have been illegal if made after the passage of the commerce act, it cannot now be enforced against the railroad company, even though valid when made. If that principle be not sound, the result would be that individuals and corporations could, by contracts between themselves, in anticipation [219 U.S. 467, 486] of legislation, render of no avail the exercise by Congress, to the full extent authorized by the Constitution, of its power to regulate commerce. No power of Congress can be thus restricted. The mischiefs that would result from a different interpretation of the Constitution will be readily perceived.
[ Footnote 1 ] U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1909, p. 1169.

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