Southern Pacific Co. v. Schuyler

Citations

• 227 U.S. 601
• 33 S. Ct. 277
• 57 L. Ed. 662
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2335

Syllabus

<p>Whether the anti-pass provision of the Hepburn^ Act prohibits a carrier from giving free interstate transportation to employés.of the Railway Mail Service when not on duty but traveling for their own benefit, is a Federal question.</p> <p>One holding a government commission that entitles him to free interstate railway transportation- while on duty and who while not on duty enters a train, relying on such' commission and with the consent of the officials in charge of the train, and remains thereon with their consent, isnot a trespasser even if in so doing he violates the ánti-pass ■ .provision of the Hepburn law.</p> <p>Whether the relation of carrier and passenger arises in the case of one traveling gratuitously in violation of the anti-pass provision of the Hepburn Act, in the absence of any Federal statute regulating the matter, is a question not of Federal, but of state, law.</p> <p>Where the decision of the state court adverse to plaintiff in error proceeds upon two independent grounds, one' of which does not involve a Federal question and is sufficient to support it, the writ of error will be'dismissed or the judgment affirmed according to circumstances.</p> <p>On writ of error to a state court, while this court does not ordinarily review findings of fact, if a Federal right has beeu denied as the result of a finding of fact which is without support in the evidence, this court may examine the evidence to the extent necessary to give plaintiff in error the benefit of the Federal right asserted.</p> <p>In this case the finding of the state court that a railway mail clerk while traveling on his own business was a gratuitous passenger was well founded on the evidence. -.</p> <p>There is no presumption that a railway company gives free interstate transportation, and that is a faGt that must be established by evidence.</p> <p>The anti-pass provision of the Hepbúrn Act does not make an outlaw of one traveling interstate on a pass and so deprive him of the benefit .