Frost & Frost Trucking Co. v. Railroad Comm’n, 271 U.S. 583 (1926)

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Frost & Frost Trucking Co. v.

Railroad Commission of California
No. 828

Argued April 21, 22, 1926
Decided June 7, 1926
271 U.S. 583

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Syllabus

1. Assuming that the use of its highways by private carriers for hire is a privilege which the state may deny, it cannot constitutionally affix to that privilege the unconstitutional condition precedent that the carrier shall assume against his will the burdens and duties of a common carrier. P. 592.

2. Under the Auto Stage and Truck Transportation Act of California, as amended in 1919, and as construed and applied by the state supreme court in this case, private carriers by automobile for hire cannot operate over the state highways between fixed termini without having first secured from the Railroad Commission a certificate of public convenience and necessity, and therein they not merely become subject to regulations appropriate to private carriers, but submit themselves to the condition of becoming common carriers and of being regulated as such by the Commission. Held violative of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 591.

70 Cal.Dec. 457 reversed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of California which sustained an order of the Railroad Commission directing the plaintiffs in error to suspend operations under a single private contract for the transportation of fruit over public highways, between fixed termini, unless and until they should secure from the Commission a certificate that public convenience and necessity required the resumption or continuance thereof.