Farwell v. City of Chicago

Citations

• 71 Ill. 269

Syllabus

<p>I. Licensing public eourriers in cities—one using vehicles in the course ■of his ordinary business.* The city of Chicago, by its charter, was authorized to license, regulate and suppress hackmen, draymen, porters, carters, etc., and, under the charter, the city adopted an ordinance requiring all persons who shall hire out, keep or use for hire, or cause to be kept or used for hire, for the carrying or conveying of persons, or any article or thing whatever, any dray, cart, wagon, or other vehicle, to procure a license therefor, and imposing a penalty for a failure to comply with the provisions of the ordinance. The defendants were wholesale merchants, and kept and used wagons for the purpose of transferring goods sold by them to the depot or wharf for shipment, and charged to and received from the persons to whom the goods were sold and shipped, a sum of money for so transferring the goods: Held, that their wagons were not used for hire, in the sense of the ordinance, and that they were not hackmen, draymen, porters or carters, within the meaning of the charter and ordinance.</p> <p>2. The spirit of the ordinance is, to bring the class of carriers therein named under the police regulations of the city. It is designed to operate upon those who hold themselves out as common carriers in the city for hire, and to so regulate them as to prevent extortion, imposition and wrong to strangers and others compelled to employ them, in having their persons or property carried from one part of the city to another. This is a rightful exercise of the police power.</p>