Court Opinion

ID: 4729953
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2021-08-12 02:54:56.645005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:08:00.088099
License: Public Domain

Fullerton, J.
(dissenting)—Since the supreme court of the United States holds that a railroad company cannot be compelled without compensation to afford facilities to a private shipper other than it offers at its general public stations, I am constrained to concur in the judgment the majority have directed to be entered in this case. I cannot concur, however, in all that is. said in' the opinion. I cannot concur in the view that to compel a railway company to stop at points other than its public stations and take on for carriage the property of a private shipper is taking its property for the private use of another in violation of the due process of law clauses in the state and Federal constitutions. As I understand it, the principal purpose for which a railroad is constructed is to carry from one point to another the private property of the individual; that it is for this purpose it has its existence and is given the vast powers and rights it possesses. This function then the state may compel it to fulfill. If, therefore, its public stations do not afford an adequate facility for the shipment of the property of a particular individual, I know of no legal reason why the company cannot be compelled, on due compensation, to furnish that particular individual with additional facilities, even to the extent of putting in an additional side track for him. For this reason I dissent from the holding that to do so is to take private property for a private use.