Chicago, T.H. & S.E. Ry. Co. v. Anderson, 242 U.S. 283 (1916)

Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway Company


No. 34


Argued October 25, 1916
Decided December 18, 1916
242 U.S. 283

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT
OF THE STATE OF INDIANA

Syllabus

When a state statute is unobjectionable as applied in the case in which it is attacked, it will not be held unconstitutional upon a construction which has not been given, and may never be given, by the supreme court of the state. Plymouth Coal Co. v. Pennsylvania, 232 U.S. 531, 546.

A statute of Indiana (Laws 1889, p. 146, c. 82; 2 Burns’ Ann.Ind.Stats.1914, §§ 5524, 5525) requiring all railroad companies doing business in the state to cut down and destroy noxious weeds "on lands occupied by them in any city, village or township of this state" and providing a penalty of twenty-five dollars in case of default, to be recovered in a civil action "by any person feeling himself aggrieved" is not violative of the due process or equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment as applied to a case in which the lands in question are part of a railroad right of way, and the " person feeling himself aggrieved" is the owner of lands contiguous thereto who does not appear to have been guilty of similar neglect. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Ry. Co. v. May, 194 U.S. 267.

Semble that the act under review permits but one recovery for the same offense within the same territory.

182 India. 140 affirmed.

The case is stated in the opinion.