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ALABAMA & VICKSBURG RY. CO. V. MISSISSIPPI R. COMM'N, 203 U. S. 496 (1906)

203 U. S. 496

U.S. Supreme Court

Alabama & Vicksburg Ry. Co. v. Mississippi R. Comm'n, 203 U.S. 496 (1906)

Alabama & Vicksburg Railway Company

v. Mississippi Railroad Commission

No. 17

Argued November 13, 14, 1906

Decided December 17, 1906

203 U.S. 496

Syllabus

A state may insist upon equality of rates, and although a state may not compel a railroad company to do business at a loss, and even though the company may, against the power of the state, establish rates which afford reasonable compensation, if it voluntarily establishes local rates for some shippers -- even though under the guise of a rebilling rate on interstate shipments -- it cannot resist the power of the state to enforce the same rate for all shippers or claim that the rate so fixed by the Commission, acting under authority of the state, deprives it of its property without due process of law.

86 Miss. 667 affirmed.

On November 16, 1903, the Railroad Commission of Mississippi, by written order, directed the Alabama & Vicksburg Railway Company, hereinafter called the Vicksburg Company, to put into effect, over its line of road from Vicksburg to Meridian, a flat rate of 3 1/2 cents per 100 pounds on grain and grain products. December 3, 1903, an application was made by the railway company to the Chancellor of the Fifth Chancery District of the state to restrain the enforcement of this order. July 11, 1904, a temporary injunction issued on the filing of the bill was dissolved, and the bill dismissed. On appeal to the supreme court of the state, this decree of the chancellor was affirmed (86 Miss. 667), and thereupon this writ of error was sued out. clubjuris

Page 203 U. S. 499


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