Lindsay & Phelps Co. v. Mullen

Citations

• 176 U.S. 126
• 20 S. Ct. 325
• 44 L. Ed. 400
• 1900 U.S. LEXIS 1727

Syllabus

<p>The provision in § 2400 of the statutes of Minnesota of 1894, requiring each ' surveyor general to survey all logs and timbers running out of any boom now chartered or which may hereafter be chartered by law in his district, refers to corporations organized under a general- law, as well as to those whose organization is provided for by special act.</p> <p>The business of booming logs on the waters of streams running through the forests of the West is a lawful business, and the Minnesota Boom Company was a lawfully organized corporation for the purpose of doing such lawful business.</p> <p>The statute of Minnesota requiring all logs running out of a -boom to be surveyed, inspected and scaled is compulsory, and such legislation was within the power of the State.</p> <p>The scale bills in this case were certified as required by .the laws of the State, and, being so certified, were competent evidence; and, when taken in connection with other evidence, supported the finding of the court that the work was done as alleged.</p> <p>A record in the books of the surveyor general is not preliminary to a right to a lien for such work.</p> <p>The logs of one party passing the boom can be subjected to a lien for surveying and scaling not only his own logs, but also for surveying and scaling the logs of other parties, as any log owner may send his logs down the river without the use of the boom, taking proper care of them, and if he uses the boom he takes it subject to the conditions prescribed by the legislature.</p> <p>The improvement made in the Mississippi River by the construction of the boom and its works, and the exaction of reasonable charges for the use of such works, including fees of state officials for inspecting and scaling, if done under state authority, cannot be considered in any just sense a burden upon interstate commerce.</p>