Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Puget Sound & Willapa Harbor Railway Co.

delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendant in error, Puget Sound &. Wiliapa Harbor Railway Company, hereinafter designated the Wiliapa Company, a railroad corporation organized under the laws of the State of Washington, in the construction of a new line of railroad in 1914, found it necessary to cross at grade, at two places, tracks which had been constructed in 1890-1892 by the plaintiff in error, Northern Pacific Railway Company, hereinafter designated the Pacific Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Wisconsin. ,, „

In appropriate proceedings, provided for by the state law, the Public Service Commission of the State of Washington granted authority and permission to the Wiliapa Company to cross the tracks of the Pacific Company at grade at the two designated places. This permission was subject to the condition that suitable interlocking devices, of a type to be agreed upon between the two companies, should be installed at the crossings. The companies agreed upon all of the conditions involved in the crossing of their tracks, excepting as to . the cost of installing and maintaining the required interlocking devices,

The decision of the Supreme Court of Washington is based upon the interpretation which it placed upon applicable state statutes enacted in 1913 (c. 30, Laws of Washington, 1913, p. 74), and the case is presented to this court on the single assignment of error:

“The State Supreme Court erred in holding and deciding that Chapter 30.of the Laws of 1913, as construed and applied to the facts of this case, is not repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”

Conceding that the construction placed upon the state statute by the State Supreme Court will be accepted by this court, the contention of the Pacific Company is that when that company entered the State of Washington and constructed its line, an act of the legislature, passed in 1888, was in effect, which gave to railway companies formed under the act the right to cross any other railway theretofore constructed, but subject to conditions .which the State Supreme Court held, -in 1908, in State v. Northern Pacific Railway Company, 49 Washington, 78, required the junior company to pay the entire cost of the crossing, including the installing, and maintaining of interlocking devices where necessary; that this constituted a vested right of property in the senior company, and that the later statute of 1913, which the Supreme Court held in this case required it to bear one-half of the cost of installing and maintaining .the interlocker, deprived it of its property without due process of law.

Obviously this is a slender thread on which to hang a grave constitutional argument, and it is difficult to treat it seriously.

At most the earlier statute, and the interpretation which the State Supreme Court placed upon it, was a rule of law applicable to the assessment of damages in a proceeding to appropriate a crossing to which a junior company was entitled by the statute. It was no part of the charter of the Pacific Company, which was organized under the Wisconsin law, and that company had no vested right to insist that the rule should not be changed by. statute or by court decision. Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. Miller, 132 U. S. 75 , 83; Chicago & Alton R. R. Co. v. Tranbarger, 238 U. S. 67 , 76 ; New York Central R. R. Co. v. White, 243 U. S. 188 , 189; and Chicago & Alton R. R. Co. v. McWhirt, 243 U. S. 422 -5.

While this is sufficient to dispose of the case, it may be added that the Act of 1913 was passed in an obviously legitimate and customary exercise of the police power of the State to protect travelers and employees from injury and death at such crossings, and als,o to protect property in

The judgment of the Supreme Court of Washington is

AMrmed.