Davis v. Farmers Cooperative Equity Co., 262 U.S. 312 (1923)

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Davis v. Farmers Cooperative Equity Company

No. 270

Argued April 17, 18, 1923.-Decided May 21, 1923
262 U.S. 312

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

Syllabus

1. Solicitation of traffic by railroads in states remote from their lines is part of the business of interstate transportation. P. 315.

2. A state statute which provides that any foreign corporation having an agent in the state for the solicitation of freight and passenger traffic over lines outside the state may be served with summons by delivering a copy thereof to such agent imposes an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce, and is void under the Commerce Clause, as applied to an action brought against a railroad company which neither owns nor operates a railroad within the state by a plaintiff who does not and did not reside there, upon a cause of action which arose elsewhere out of a transaction entered into elsewhere. Laws Minnesota, 1913, c. 218. P. 315. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Ry. Co. v. Reynolds, 255 U.S. 565, and St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. v. Alexander, 227 U.S. 218, distinguished.

3. The Court notices judicially the large volume and importance of litigation against interstate carriers on personal injury and freight claims, and the heavy expense and impairment of the carriers’ efficiency entailed when the litigation is in jurisdictions remote from where the cause of action arose; also that the burden imposed on such carriers by the Minnesota statute here involved (supra) is heavy, and that the resulting obstruction to interstate commerce must be serious. P. 315.

4. Avoidance of waste in interstate transportation, as well as maintenance of service, has become a direct concern of the public. P. 317.

150 Minn. 534 reversed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Minnesota affirming a judgment for damages for loss of grain shipped between two points in Kansas.