Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Central Stock Yards Co., 212 U.S. 132 (1909)

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Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company

v. Central Stock Yards Company
No. 51

Argued December 10, 11, 1908
Decided January 25, 1909
212 U.S. 132

ERROR TO THE COURT OF APPEALS

OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY

Syllabus

A provision in the constitution of a state that a carrier must deliver its cars to connecting carrier without providing adequate protection for their return, or compensation for their use, amounts to a taking of property without due process of law within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, and so held as to § 213, 214 of the Constitution of Kentucky.

The law must save the rights of parties, and not leave them to the discretion of the courts as such.

Where a general provision in the constitution of a state is void as taking property without due process or compensation, and compensation has not been provided by statute, the defect cannot be cured by the courts’ inserting provisions for compensation in judgments under such constitutional provision.

The duty of a carrier to accept goods tendered at its station does not require it to accept cars offered by competing roads at arbitrary points near its terminus for the purpose of using its terminal station. A law requiring the carrier so to do is unconstitutional as taking property without due process of law.

7 S.W. 778 reversed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.