Sullivan v. City of Shreveport

delivered the opinion of the court..

In 1907 the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, passed an ordinance requiring that each street car used in its streets should be operated during designated hours by two persons, a conductor and a motor-man; and providing penalties for its violation;

The company with street' railway lines in the city complied with the requirement until in June, 1917, when it procured some cars equipped for operation by one'man, and attempted to use them on its “Allendale.Line,” with only a motor-man in charge. Thereupon the plaintiff in error, hereinafter designated the defendant; who was superintendent of the railway company, was arrested for violation of the ordinance.

He defended by filing a motion to quash the affidavit for arrest, on the ground that the ordinance was unreasonable and arbitrary and that the enforcement of it would deprive the company of its property without due process of law and without compensation, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the. United States.

The motion to quash was “referred to the merits,” a full trial was . had, the motion was overruled and the defendant, found guilty, was sentenced to pay a fine. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Louisiana affirming this judgment is before us for review on writ of error.

The defense introduced evidence tending to show that the new type of car used was so equipped that it could be o’perated by one motor-man with safety to the public as great as was secured by cars theretofore used when operated by two men. The car, designated in the record as “a one-man car,” is described as so arranged that passengers enter and leave it only at the front end, where the motor-man is placed. It is so equipped electrically that the motor-man must remain in an assigned

It is apparent from this description derived from the . record that it presents for decision the question: Whether the ordinance of 1907, confessedly a valid exercise of the police power when it was passed, was rendered arbitrary and invalid by the development of a car which it is claimed can be operated by one man with as much safety to the traveling public as, and with less cost than, was secured by the two-man car, in use at the time the ordinance was passed and which was contemplated by it.

It is not necessary to decide in this case whether a valid regulating ordinance can be rendered invalid by a change of conditions which render it arbitrary and confiscatory (Lincoln Gas Co. v. Lincoln, 250 U. S. 256 , 269; Minnesota Rate Cases, 230 U. S. 352 , 473; Johnson v. Gearlds, 234 U. S. 422 , 426; Perrin v. United States, 232 U. S. 478 , 481; Municipal Gas Co. v. Public Service Commission, 225 N. Y. 89 , 95, 97, and Castle v. Mason, 91 Ohio St. 296 , 303), for the claim that such a change of condition had arisen in the case is stoutly disputed by the city authorities.

While on the record before us it might be plausibly contended that when all the appliances on the “one-man car” work as it was intended they should, it could be operated with a hijgh degree of safety in streets where the traffic is not heavy, yet there is evidence that in the short period of the operation of such cars in Shreveport,

It is obvious, and not disputed, that such cars are better adapted to light than to heavy travel, for all passengers must enter and leave at one door, and one man must take fares, make change, issue transfers, answer questions and also remain in position to start the car promptly. So occupied and placed, plainly this one man could not render such assistance as is often necessary to infirm or crippled or very young passengers, or to those encumbered with baggage or bundles, and it would not be difficult to suggest emergencies of storm- or accident in which a second mari might be of first importance to the safety and comfort of passengers.

These “one-man cars” at the time of trial were, as yet, experimental, and enough has been said to show that in each community the operation of street cars presents such special problems, — due to the extent and character of the travel, to grades and other conditions, — that with peculiar appropriateness they have been committed by the law primarily to the disposition of the local authorities, whose determination will not be disturbed by the courts, except in cases in which the power has been exercised in a manner clearly arbitrary and oppressive. The rule is, “that every

Affirmed.