Opinion · West Virginia Supreme Court
State v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
78 W. Va. 526
- Type
- Opinion
- Court
- West Virginia Supreme Court
- Jurisdiction
- West Virginia
- Date
- 1916-06-01
- Topic
- general
Rofeenbarger, Judge: The question presented by the record in this cause is whether the State may restrain common carriers from allowing passengers to carry suit cases, trunks or other containers containing .intoxicating liquors as unchecked personal baggage, on the ground that the allowance of that privilege to passengers enlarges the opportunity for violation of the constitutional and statutory laws prohibiting the manufacture, sale and gifts of such liquors. Tt arises upon a final decree, reading in part as follows: “It is therefore adjudged, ordered and decreed that the respondent, The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, be and it is hereby enjoined and restrained from permitting the carriage or transportation as baggage in and on its passenger trains running into or operating within the State of West Virginia, and particularly within said County of Mineral,, or elsewhere within the jurisdiction of this Court, any suit case, trunk or other container labeled as containing liquor. It is further adjudged, ordered and decreed that in the event such suit ease, trunk or other container labeled as containing liquor is found on a passenger train in West Virginia, the same shall be removed at the next stopping point for such train where there is a railroad agent in said State, and unless removed by the person claiming the same, such suit case, trunk *529or other container shall he placed in the hands of the station-agent at snch station and notice given to the Commissioner, of Prohi…
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The question presented by the record in this cause is whether the State may restrain common carriers from allowing passengers to carry suit cases, trunks or other containers containing .intoxicating liquors as unchecked personal baggage, on the ground that the allowance of that privilege to passengers enlarges the opportunity for violation of the constitutional and statutory laws prohibiting the manufacture, sale and gifts of such liquors.
Tt arises upon a final decree, reading in part as follows: “It is therefore adjudged, ordered and decreed that the respondent, The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, be and it is hereby enjoined and restrained from permitting the carriage or transportation as baggage in and on its passenger trains running into or operating within the State of West Virginia, and particularly within said County of Mineral,, or elsewhere within the jurisdiction of this Court, any suit case, trunk or other container labeled as containing liquor. It is further adjudged, ordered and decreed that in the event such suit ease, trunk or other container labeled as containing liquor is found on a passenger train in West Virginia, the same shall be removed at the next stopping point for such train where there is a railroad agent in said State, and unless removed by the person claiming the same, such suit case, trunk
The bill sets forth the prohibition policy of the state, made manifest by its constitution and statutes, and the statutory limitation upon the right to bring liquors into the state for personal use. The allegation recognizing this exception and purporting to give the limitation thereon reads: 1 ‘ And .plaintiff further represents that her public policy, other than as to certain liquors for druggists for the special purposes and un-, der regulations provided by law, as expressed by her laws, only. permits the bringing of intoxicating liquors into her jurisdiction by the person who personally procures the same from the outside dealer and personally carries the same into plaintiff state, and only then when such intoxicating liquors are intended for the personal, lawful use of the person who has so purchased and is so carrying them into plaintiff state for his personal, lawful use, and not for the purpose of-keeping, storing, selling or having for sale such intoxicating liquors; and, then, subject to the requirement that when the aggregate of such intoxicating liquors, so carried into plaintiff state by such person,- for his lawful personal use, shall exceed one-half gallon in quantity that there shall be plainly-printed or written on the side or top of the container of such intoxicating liquors, in large display letters, in the English language, the contents of the container or containers, and the quantity and-kind of intoxicating liquors contained therein.”
It avers knowledge on the part of the defendant, of the fact that many persons transport, and have been .transporting, large quantities of such liquors into the state, by means of its trains, under the guise of personal baggage; that a large part, if not the largest part, of the liquors so brought into the state, is and has been brought in for the purpose of being here unlawfully kept, stored and sold, and the practice is continued
The prayer of the bill is that the defendant, its agents, etc., be enjoined from permitting the carriage of intoxicating liquors as “personal baggage” in any of its passenger coaches, when the containers are so labeled as to disclose the character of the contents, unless the defendant, through its agents, etc., has first ascertained by diligence and caution and in good faith, that such liquors are not intended for unlawful use or disposition.
The answer specifically denies that the defendant transports or permits transportation of baggage as such containing intoxicating liquors; that any law of the state imposes duty upon it to prevent or regulate the carriage of intoxicating liquors in its trains by passengers; in their own possession and under their personal control; that it knows or can know, or is required by law to know, what was to be done with liquors so transported by its passengers; that the larger part of the liquors that have been, or are being so brought into the state, are brought in for the purpose of being unlawfully sold, kept or stored, so far as defendant knows; that it has any knowledge of the purpose for which they are so brought in; that it is under any legal obligation to prevent passengers from carrying liquors into the state or to determine the purposes for which they do so; that it has ever knowingly permitted the transportation of intoxicating liquors for unlawful purposes; that it is under any legal duty to perform the acts for the performance of which demands have been made upon it by the officers charged with enforcement of the prohibition law; that it has any right to refuse to carry a passenger,because of any supposition as to the character of his business on the trip he desires to make; that it has any right to inquire as
In neither the bill nor the argument, is it claimed that a common carrier may not lawfully transport or carry a citizen as a passenger, with a package of intoxicating liquors in his personal possession, for the purpose of- taking it to his home for his personal use. On the contrary, such right is, at least, impliedly admitted in the bill. In oral argument, it was expressly admitted. It must be true, under a statute which expressly recognizes the right of the citizen to do so, provided he labels the package so as clearly to show its contents, when the quantity is more than one-half of a gallon. Sec. 31, ch. 13, Acts 1913, added by eh. 7, Acts 1915, sec. 31, ch. 32A, Code, Barnes’ Handy Edition, makes it unlawful for any person to bring or carry into this state, or from one place to another within the state, even when intended for personal use, liquors
The statutory exception of the right of the citizen to bring such liquors into the state for his personal use at his home, in a prescribed manner, and keep them there, is obviously the equivalent of a grant of the right. It existed before the statute, without restriction as to the manner of carriage. The statute does not take it aAvay. It merely regulates it and, in so doing, expressly recognizes it. Nor does it prescribe or limit the mode of travel of those who see fit so to bring liquors in. Prior to the passage of the act, a citizen, in carrying them
However this may be, there is a general rule of construction and interpretation, uniformly recognized and applied in all jurisdictions, to the effect that the grant or allowance of a privilege impliedly carries with it, in the absence of a limitation, all the means, methods, agencies and instrumentalities that are usually employed in the enjoyment or exercise there
If a railroad company cannot legally carry a passenger with a labeled liquor package in his possession, no- other common carrier can do- so. No steamboat could do so. No ferry could transport such a person across a river. No transfer omnibus, hack, cab, taxi-cab, or other common conveyance could carry him on the streets of a city or town. Nor could he employ a private conveyance to carry him. He would be compelled to walk or furnish his own means of conveyance, however great the distance might be. To obtain what the statute allows him to have, a citizen in the interior of the state might have to walk, or go by automobile, in a carriage or on horseback, a hundred or two hundred miles, and then be refused passage across a ferry. Surely the legislature never intended to grant the right, or except it as it existed at common law, .and then deny all the usual and ordinary means and methods of the exercise thereof. It did not say so. By no express terms did it'take any of them away or forbid their use. The act contains no word from which intention to do so can be inferred. It cannot reasonably be assumed it intended to allow the right
If such carriage’ of liquors by common carriers as is here complained of and admitted were a criminal offense, that . -alone would not authorize a court of equity to enjoin the commission of the act or repetitions thereof. I Lack of power in such courts to enjoin acts merely because they are criminal or constitute public nuisances in the sense of the criminal law, or the popular sense of the term “nuisance,” was declared by . this court in State v. Ehrlick, 65 W. Va. 700, as the result of a very thorough and exhaustive examination of the authorities. To warrant such interposition, in the absence of a statute giving the remedy, the nuisance, -whether public or private, must injure property or substantially interfere with the enjoyment .thereof, directly or indirectly, or constitute a purpresture, excluding citizens from the enjoyment of their civil rights in . highways and other public grounds and places, or otherwise
Whether the legislature has power to prevent such carriage of liquors as has been enjoined here, need not be determined. The question does not arise. It may never be attempted. If it can forbid the practice, it can no doubt also provide for abatement thereof by injunction.
. If the defendant allowed intoxicating liquors to be sold, exposed for sale, given away, bartered or. stored for such purposes in any of its cars, injunction would no doubt lie, under secs. 14 and 17 of the act, to abate such cars as nuisances. Under these sections, there is a limited statutory jurisdiction by injunction in liquor cases. It is limited to the abatement of what the statute terms nuisances occasioned by unlawful sales of liquors, not all sales, but sales under certain circumstances. There is no allegation, however, that any of the defendant’s cars are so used as to make them nuisances under this statute. The bill does allege that the conduct of the defendant is in aid and assistance of the unlawful handling, disposition and use of intoxicating liquors, and the statute declares that any person who shall aid and abet, or knowingly be associated with others in maintaining such a nuisance as is defined in sec. 14 of the act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. In as much as there is no allegation of the use of the defendant’s cars as places of manufacture, sale, gift, distribution,
Nor would the bill be sufficient, if the carriage of a person known to be an illicit dealer, with his packages of liquor treated as personal baggage in Ms -own hands and custody, would make the defendant an aider and abettor of such person, and subject it to restraint by injunction as to Mm. It points out no such person, nor was it the design or intention of the pleader to do so. Its purpose is to enjoin the carriage of all persons having labeled packages of liquors in their possession, because some such persons make unlawful use of the liquors so carried. If a common carrier can be made an aider and abettor of a violator of the liquor laws and enjoined from rendering aid and assistance to him, it is obviously necessary to locate the building, house or other place constituting the nuisance and the persons who maintain it. The statute does not give this remedy against every violator of the liquor laws. It goes not against individuals primarily, but against places. The legislature has not seen fit to give it against men who merely make unlawful sales from baskets, suit cases, cartons, packages or other mere containers. It gives it against the maintenance of places in which people habitually, regularly or generally carry on the inhibited acts. A boat, wagon or other vehicle would constitute such a place. It might be an unenclosed place. But it must be a place or station of some sort in which the traffic is carried on in some form. In other words, the writ goes primarily against the place and only in
The clear right of citizens to bring into the state, over common carriers, in a proper manner, intoxicating liquors, for personal use in their homes, would call for reversal of this decree, if right to enjoin the defendant from carrying certain persons with their labeled packages of liquor had been shown. Injunction goes only to wrongful acts. . The defendant has clear right to carry some people with their packages, and those people have right to be carried. The exercise of neither of these rights could be enjoined merely because of right to enjoin other acts. Could a railroad company be enjoined from carrying cattle at all because it has shipped some diseased cattle over its road, in violation of law! If a merchant has unlawfully sold or used liquors in his establishment, could his store be shut up and abated as a place of sale of dry goods, furniture, shoes or clothing as the case might be? If a man sold liquors in his home, would the court abate the place as a residence and turn his family out in the street? Though perhaps not so intended, such is the principle of the decree. It goes far beyond the prayer of the bill.
The view of the Commissioner of Prohibition and the. trial court seems to be that the defendant must recognize, respect and further the declared policy of the state to prevent the manufacture, sale and gift of intoxicating liquors, in so far as it lies in its power to do so by any reasonable effort, and that its failure to do so makes it an aider and abettor of all the violations of law to which its lawful act of carrying passengers with labeled packages of- liquor may have contributed, without regard to the intention of its agents, officers and employees in the exercise of its right, which violators of the law turn to their advantage as they do the public roads and other agencies of travel and transportation. It might be that a merchant, in selling a weapon to a man he knew intended immediately to commit a crime with it, would make himself a parti-ceps.criminis, but that would not justify a court in restraining
No doubt the restraint this bill and decree seek to put upon the defendant, if applied to all common carriers, would advance the state’s policy respecting intoxicating liquors, but it is not the province of the courts, nor of the executive officers of the state, to adopt measures for such purpose. On this subject, I expressed the following views in Norman v. Coal Co., 68 W. Va. 405, 419, which are more clearly applicable here than they were there: “When the legislature has signified its intention, by some statute, to establish a certain line of public policy,- courts are often, indeed almost always, called upon to extend that policy, in various ways, so as to include things not expressed by the legislature at all, either
The authorities relied upon in the brief filed for the appel-lee, as supporting the theory of this bill, do not sustain it in any particular. In each of them, the act enjoined was in direct violation of an express provision of a statute, as construed by the court. Here the act is not forbidden. In all but one of them, (which is now in the Supreme Court of the United States on appeal), the remedy by injunction was authorized by statute. -For the acts here complained of, no statute gives that remedy, if they were unlawful. In State v. United States Express Co., 145 N. W. 451, the injunction was against delivery of liquors in direct violation of express provisions of statutes, and the injunction seems to have been limited to deliveries to a certain individual. In its opinion, the court says: "The question of purchase and shipment to a consignee for his own personal use is entirely eliminated. ’ ’ This could only mean that the injunction did not extend to such shipments. If it had been general, as this one is, it would have prevented them. In Southern Express Co. v. State, 66 So. Rep. 115., the injunction was authorized only against deliveries of liquors to such individuals as the company had reason to know intended to use them unlawfully, not against all deliveries. On this phase of the case, the court said: “When in good faith,
As the acts alleged in the bill are not contrary to the laws of this state, it is wholly unnecessary to discuss the Webb-Kenyon law. It certainly adds nothing to the statute of any state.
Nor is it necessary to attempt to define the rights of the defendant as an interstate carrier, respecting intoxicating liquors. It is not complaining of the statute as it is here construed.
For the reasons stated, the decree complained of will be reversed, the demurrer to the bill sustained and the cause remánded with leave to amend the bill.