Chicago, B. & QR Co. v. Cram, 228 U.S. 70 (1913)

228 U.S.
70
33 S.Ct. 437
57 L.Ed. 734
CHICAGO, BURLINGTON, & QUINCY RAILROAD

COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,
v.
WILBUR I. CRAM.
No. 193.
Argued March 18, 1913.
Decided April 7, 1913.
The state of Nebraska enacted a law requiring railroads conveying live

stock to convey the same at a rate of speed so that the time consumed in a
journey from the initial point of receiving the stock to the point of feeding
or destination should not exceed one hour for each 18 miles travel,
including the time of stops at stations or other points. It is provided that
where the initial point is not a division station, and on all branch lines not
exceeding 125 miles in length, the rate of speed shall be such that not
more than one hour shall be consumed in traversing each 12 miles of the
distance, including stops at stations or other points, from the initial point
to the first division station or over said branches. The time consumed in
picking up and setting out, loading or unloading stock at stations, shall not
be included in the time required.
It is further provided that upon branch lines not exceeding 125 miles in
length, live stock of less than six cars in one consignment, the railroad
company may designate three days in each week as stock-shipping days,
and publish and make public the days so designated. After notice of ten
days of the days selected and designated, the schedule provided in the act
shall only apply to such stock-shipping days. It is provided that a carrier
'violating any provisions of the act shall pay to the owner of such live
stock the sum of $10 for each hour for each car it extends or prolongs the
time of transportation beyond the period here limited as liquidated
damages, to be recovered in an ordinary action, as other debts are
recovered.' The act was approved March 30, 1905. Mebraska Session
Laws 1905, chaps. 107, 506.
Defendant in error brought an action against plaintiff in error in the district

court of Garfield county, for the sum of $1,770, being the aggregate of
twenty-five violations of the act for stock delivered to the railroad July 14,
1905, and subsequent dates, for transportation in full carloads, each
violation being made a cause of action, the amount of each varying with
the time of prolongation of the transportation of the stock.
There was alleged in the cause of action no ground of recovery other than
the statute and the delay in the transportation of the stock. In other words,
the time consumed in the transportation of the stock, such time being
given and alleged to be 'longer than permitted by the statutes of Nebraska,
to the damage of the plaintiff . . . as provided for by statutes.'
A demurrer was filed to the petition, charging that the statute violated the
due process and equality clauses of the 14th Amendment of the
Constitution of the United States; that the plaintiff (defendant in error)
sought 'to recover property or money from the defendant without its
consent and for the private use of the plaintiff, without compensation, and
which recovery, if had, would amount to confiscation of the property of
the defendant, in violation of the provisions of article 14 of the
Amendments of the Constitution of the United States; that the recovery, if
permitted, would be the recovery of a penalty under an act of the
legislature which is penal in its character, and was not such a right as the
plaintiff could have or enforce, in violation of 5, art. 8, of the
Constitution of Nebraska.'
The demurrer was overruled and the defendant answered, alleging the
following: The shipments were duly and properly made without
unnecessary delay, and the consignments carried were each and all duly
delivered to the consignee in accordance with the contracts made for the
shipment of the stock, and without any fault or negligence on the part of
the defendant company.
A written contract for each shipment was duly made and entered into by
plaintiff and defendant, by which it was contracted and agreed that the
shipments would not be carried within any specified time, nor to arrive at
destination for any particular market.
The damages sought to be recovered are in reality a penalty or forfeiture,
and that a recovery by plaintiff would be in violation of the due process
and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of
the United States.
The plaintiff's cause of action is for the recovery of a penalty sought to be
imposed upon the defendant contrary to the provisions of article 8, 5, of

the Constitution of Nebraska, and plaintiff had no right or authority under
the law to prosecute the action, or to recovery therein.
An amended answer was filed which repeated the above, and alleged that
the stock was accepted and carried according to the laws, rules, and
usages that regulated and governed common carriers, and in accordance
with the schedules for the movement of trains, as established and in force
at the times the shipments were made. The line of the defendant's railroad
was alleged, the manner of conducting its business, the times of receiving
the various shipments, their arrival at particular stations and at destination.
A replication was filed to the answer, denying its allegations.
The case was tried by the court without a jury, and judgment was rendered
for plaintiff in the sum of $1,640 and costs.
The supreme court decided that the judgment was excessive in the
amounts of $250 and $170, and those sums, in accordance with the order
of the court, were remitted by the plaintiff, and with those reductions the
judgment was affirmed. 84 Neb. 607, 26 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1022, 122 N. W.
31, 85 Neb. 586, 26 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1028, 123 N. W. 1045, 19 Ann. Gas.
170.
Messrs. Halleck F. Rose, Jhn F. Stout, and James E. Kelby for plaintiff in
error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 73-77 intentionally omitted]
Messrs. E. J. Clements and S. H. Cowan for defendant in error.
Statement by Mr. Justice McKenna:
[Argument of Counsel from pages 77-81 intentionally omitted]
Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court, after stating the
case as above:
The case is here in a simple aspect. There was no attempt made to explain or
justify the delays in the shipments, and any attack on the statute on the ground
that it includes delays resulting from the act of God, or cause over which the
carriers have no control, is precluded by the construction put upon the act by
the supreme court of the state.
2
The only proposition, then, which is presented, is whether the statute is beyond
the power of government, and therefore offends the 14th Amendment of the
Constitution of the United States by depriving plaintiff in error of its property
without due process of law.
This is contended upon two grounds: 1. That statute, as considered by the

supreme court of the state, is a legislative determination of the quantum of
damages arising from a breach of a private contract for the shipment of live
stock, and a legislative determination of damages wholly distinct and apart
from the exercise of police power, and not a punitive measure to enforce
compliance with the commands of the statute. 2. The statute, being declared of
such character, is 'a usurpation of functions which are exclusively judicial,
contrary to the law of the land,' and repugnant to the provisions of the 14th
Amendment.
It is the concession of the contentions that had the statute been considered by
the supreme court a police regulation, the objection made to it would be
without foundation. But, meeting the effect of the concesion, plaintiff in error
asserts that if the court had so ruled, defendant in error would have had no right
of action, because, under 5, article 8, of the Constitution of the state, all
penalties must be appropriated to the use and support of the common schools.
The court found no conflict between the law and the Constitution of the state.
Section 5, article 8, however, was not discussed in any of the opinions. Other
provisions of the Constitution were considered and the contentions based on
them decided to be untenable. The omission is not important to our inquiry, and
we shall assume, as plaintiff in error contends, that the court regarded the
statute as giving compensation for damages for injuries suffered, rather than
penalties for omission of duties prescribed. It does not follow, however, that the
court decided that the statute was not passed in exercise of the power of the
state to regulate the conduct of the carriers in the performance of their duties to
the public. The opinion of the court makes the contrary manifest. The court
said: 'In the instant case the enforcement of the law, as we view the record, will
not deprive defendant of any constitutional guaranty, state or national.
Defendant's property is affected by a public interest; having devoted that
property to a use in which the public have an interest, it must, to the limit of the
interest thus acquired by the public, submit to the control of such property for
the public good. . . . The public is interested not only in being permitted to have
its property transported for a reasonable compensation, but also in having that
property, especially if subject to rapid depreciation, transported with reasonable

promptness and care. . . . It is a matter of common knowledge that live stock
confined in a freight car deteriorates in condition, and that if the animals are to
be placed on market within a short time of the termination of the transportation,
the depreciation is not confined to a shrinkage in weight, but to many other
factors difficult to prove, but actually existing, and seriously affecting the
market value of said property. As the damage accruing from the protracted
confinement of stock is difficult to prove with reasonable exactitude, and yet
always exists, the legislature has the power to provide for liquidated damages.
Such legislation is not unsound in principle and has been upheld in many
courts.' [84 Neb. 611, 26 L.R.A. (N.S.) 1022, 122 N. W. 31.]
6
The court, in illustration of its views and the quality of the statute, compared it
to 4966 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901,
p. 3415), which provides for a liability of $100 for the first infringing
performance of a copyrighted dramatic piece, and $50 for the second
performance, as, the court said, 'a reasonable liquidation of damages which the
proprietor had suffered from the wrongful acts of the defendant.'
The court also adduced two examples from statutes of the state, sustained by
decisions, in both of which $50 was given as liquidated damages; in one,
against an officer for collecting a fee greater than allowed by law; in the other,
against a mortgagee for failing to release a chattel mortgage; and $500 against
an officer for rearresting a person after his discharge on habeas corpus.
Answering the objection that the legislature might subject an occupant of a

public office to damages for particular unlawful acts, and not have such power
over others, the court said that the reason applied as well to 'like provisions in
statutes passed to regulate public carriers in the transaction of their business.'
It is clear from the excerpts from the opinion of the court that it considered the
statute as passed to regulate public carriers, and to give damages against them
for the omission of the duties prescribed by it, which, though existing, could
not be exactly estimated or proved. The court, therefore, only announced and
applied the principle of liquidated damages. It would seem, too, by the
examples it adduced from other statutes of the state, to reject the view asserted
by plaintiff in error, that even if the statute be regarded as imposing penalties
upon the carriers, it was thereby made to conflict with 5, article 8, of the state
Constitution, and could not be made payable to the party injured. This was
declared in Clearwater Bank v. Kurkonski, 45 Neb. 1, 63 N. W. 133, and sums
provided to be recovered by other statutes were decided in other cases to be in
the nature of penalties. Graham v. Kibble, 9 Neb. 184, 2 N. W. 455; Phoenix
Ins. Co. v. Bohman, 28 Neb. 251, 44 N. W. 111; Phoenix Ins. Co. v. McEvony,
52 Neb. 566, 72 N. W. 956; Deering v. Miller, 33 Neb. 655, 50 N. W. 1056.
These cases are distinguishable from those cited by plaintiff in error in which
the court disapproved a statute which purported to give double damages, and
the court, in the case at bar, explicitly distinguished them from cases in which
liquidated damages were provided for. In other words, the court decided that
the statute imposed only compensatory damages, fixing them at a sum certain
because of the difficulty 'of the ascertainment of the actual damages suffered by
the aggrieved person.'
10
We need not extend the discussion. We repeat, the case is here in a simple
aspect. Two propositions only are involved: (1) the power of the legislature to
impose a limitation of the time for the transportation of live stock; (2) to
provide a definite measure of damages which may be difficult to estimate or
prove. It is too late in the day to deny the possession of the first power, and we
think the other is as fully established, and that the statute was enacted to meet
conditions which had arisen from the conduct of carriers, and which, in the
judgment of the legislature, demanded a remedy. And the court confined the
act strictly to culpable violation of its requirements. To the plea of extra
expense which might be incurred by obedience to the statute, the court said it
could be compensated by extra charge.
11
The contention is made that the statute impairs the obligation of the contracts
which existed between plaintiff in error and defendant in error; but that
contention was not made in the court below and cannot therefore be made here.
Besides, there is no evidence of the contracts in the record. Contracts were
pleaded, and there appears to have been some attempt to introduce them in
evidence, but unsuccessfully, and they were stricken from the bill of
exceptions. But, assuming the contracts may be considered on this record, a
complete answer to the contention that the statute impairs their obligation is,
they were made subsequently to the statute, and therefore are subject to it.
12
Judgment affirmed.

Chicago, B. & QR Co. v. Cram, 228 U.S. 70 (1913)

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228 U.S.

CHICAGO, BURLINGTON, & QUINCY RAILROAD

The state of Nebraska enacted a law requiring railroads conveying live

Defendant in error brought an action against plaintiff in error in the district

imposed upon the defendant contrary to the provisions of article 8, 5, of

This is contended upon two grounds: 1. That statute, as considered by the

property, especially if subject to rapid depreciation, transported with reasonable

Answering the objection that the legislature might subject an occupant of a

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