Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co. v. Conley, 230 U.S. 513 (1913)

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Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company v. Conley

No. 111

Argued April 8, 1912
Decided June 1, 1913
230 U.S. 513

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS

OF THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Syllabus

Where the state court has held that the carrier is exempted from the operation of the penalty clause of a ratemaking statute during prosecution by it in good faith of a suit to determine the constitutionality of such statute, the carrier cannot attack the validity of the statute on the ground of its penal provisions.

Classification in a ratemaking statute of railroads less than fifty miles in length is not unreasonable, and does not render the statute unconstitutional as violating the equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment. Dow v. Beidelman, 125 U.S. 680.

As construed by the state court, the statute of West Virginia of 1907 is not unconstitutional because the classification of railroad under fifty miles in length only applies to such roads as are not under the control, management, or operation of other railroads.

A classification excepting electric lines and street railways from a railroad rate statute is reasonable and proper, and does not offend the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Omaha & Council Bluffs Railway Co. v. Int. Com. Comm., ante, p. 324. Minnesota Rate Cases, ante, p. 352, followed to effect that a state statute prescribing rates exclusively for intrastate traffic is within the power of the state to enact.

The facts, which involve the constitutionality of the two-cent rate act of West Virginia of 1907, are stated in the opinion.