Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co. v. Conley

Citations

• 230 U.S. 513
• 33 S. Ct. 985
• 57 L. Ed. 1597
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2690

Syllabus

<p>Where the state court has held that the carrier is exempted from the operation of the penalty clause of a rate-making statute during prosecution by it in good faith of a suit to determine the constitutionality of such statute, the carrier cannot attack the validity of the statute on the ground of its penal provisions.</p> <p>Classification in a rate-making statute of railroads less than fifty miles in length is not unreasonable and does not render the statute unconstitutional as violating the equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment. Dow v. Beidelman, 125 U. S. 680.</p> <p>As construed by the state court, the statute of West Virginia of 1907 is not unconstitutional because the classification of railroads under fifty miles in length only applies to such roads as are not under the control, management or operation of other railroads.</p> <p>A classification excepting electric lines and street railways from a railroad rate statute is reasonable and proper and does not offend the equal protection clause of the_Fourteenth Amendment. Omaha & Council Bluffs Railway Co. v. Int. Comm. Comm., ante, p. 324.</p> <p>Minnesota Rate Cases, ante, p. 352, followed to effect that a state statute prescribing rates exclusively for intrastate traffic is within the power . of the State to enact.</p>