State v. Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad

Schmucker, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court for Allegany County dismissing a petition filed on behalf of the State of Maryland against the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The petition, was filed under chapter 257 of the Acts of 1906, for the purpose of procuring a decree of forfeiture of the charter oí the railroad company for its refusal to comply with the provisions of that Act. To this petition the railroad company filed an answer containing twenty-two paragraphs, to all of which the State demurred except the fourteenth and twentieth, to which it replied.

At the hearing of the dgmurrers the Court, mounting up to the first error in the pleadings, held the original petititon to be bad, and the State refusing to amend, the order was passed dismissing the petition and the State appealed. The petition avers that the railroad company was incorporated by the State by a special Act, ch. 469 of the Acts of 1849, which reserved to the Legislature the right to alter, amend or annul at its pleasure the charter thereby granted, for the main purpose of constructing a railroad into the coal fields of Allegany County to promote their development. That by the Act of 1906, ch. 257, the charter of the railroad company was amended by adding thereto the following provision: "The Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company shall not, after the 31st day of May next, permit its tracks to connect with the tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and shall not permit its tracks, right of way or other property to be used by the said Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, or by any other railroad company leased, operated, owned or controlled by the said Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, unless. the said Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company shall on or before said date so arrange its freight charges upon coal delivered to it from the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company for shipment ⁴⁸¹ over its lines, that the joint and combined freight charges of the said two railroad companies shall not exceed the lowest total freight charges upon coal shipped to the same destination over the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, or over the line of any railroad company leased, operated, owned or controlled by the said Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company from any point in the State of Pennsylvania, or West Virginia, which is as far or further distant from such destination as or than the point in Allegany County, at which such coal is delivered to the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company; the intention of this provision being to provide that shippers of coal from Allegany County, in the State of Maryland, shall not be required to pay greater freight charges than shippers of coal from the States of Pennsylvania and West Virginia are required to pay upon their, coal hauled equally far or further. ” That the said Act of 1906 also made it the duty of the State’s Attorney for Allegany County on and after June the 1st of that year to cause inquiry to be made whether the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company was then permitting its tracks to connect with or its right of way to be used by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company or any other railroad company, leased, operated, owned or controlled by it, in violation of the terms of said Act, and required him,, if he had reason to believe on or after said date that the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company was not complying with the terms and provisions of the Act', to institute proceedings in the Circuit Court for Allegany County to ascertain whether the said railroad company had been guilty of such misuse or abuse of its corporate powers and franchises as would by law authorize and make proper the forfeiture of its charter, corporate powers and franchises; “the mode of proceedure to be the same as is now provided by the General Laws of this State in such cases. ” That it was further provided by the same Act that, if at the trial of any such proceeding instituted by the State’s Attorney under its provisions, it should be judicially determined that ⁴⁸² the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company was permitting-its tracks to connect with those of the Baltimore and Ohio R. R. Co., or of any railroad company leased, operated, owned or controlled by it, in violation of the provisions of the Act, then it should be the duty of the Court to decree the forfeiture of the charter of the Cumberland and Penna. R. R. Co., “and that thereafter such proceedings shall be had as are now provided under the general laws of this State in such cases.” The petition then charges that the State’s Attorney has since June 1st, 1906, caused inquiry to be made whether the Cumberland & Penna.

R. R. Co. is permitting its tracks to connect with, and its right of way and other property to be used by the .Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Co. or any other company leased, operated, owned or controlled by it, and that he has reason to believe that the Cumberland & Penna. R. R. Co. has been and is now permitting its tracks to be so connected and its right of way and other property to be so used, in violation of the provisions of the Act, and that it has never complied therewith, although the time limited by the Act for its compliance with the provisions thereof, has long since expired and that by reason thereof it is liable to a forfeiture of its charter and franchises. A certified copy of the Act of 1906, ch. 257, is filed with the petition as an exhibit and an inspection of the copy shows that the provisions of the Act have been stated with substantial accuracy in the petition. It is unnecessary for the purposes of this opinion to state fully the contents of the answer of the railroad company to this petition for the forfeiture of its charter.

Its salient features are the admission that the company has failed to comply with the requirements of the Act of 1906, ch. 257, and the -assertion that the Act is invalid because of its alleged unconstitutionality. It is insisted in the answer that the Act is in conflict with the provisions of Art. 3, sec. 29, of the State Constitution which requires that every law “shall embrace but .one subject and that shall be des cribed in its title;” and that ⁴⁸³ it is also invalid, under clause 3, of sec. 8, of Art. 1, of the Constitution of the United States because, it attempts in effect to regulate interstate commerce. The State was in our opinion entitled to respond as it did by way of demurrer to the several defenses set up by the answer. The general laws of this State prescribing the method of procedure for the forfeiture of the charter of a corporation, Art. 23, sec. 367, &c., do not in terms authorize the filing of demurrers to an answer to the petition, but that course was pursued with the acquiescence of this Court in the cases of State v. Consolidation Coal Co., 46 Md. 1 ; State v. Easton Social Club, 73 Md. 100 ; and Fraternal Alliance v. State, 77 Md. 557 , and it may now be regarded as a correct mode of pleading.

The demurrers to the answer having thus been properly filed, it becomes our duty to inspect the whole proceeding and mount up to the first fault in pleading. The question of the constitutionality of the Act of 1906, ch. 257, on which the State’s petition relies is thus brought before us for determination. We will first consider whether the statute under consideration is .obnoxious to sec. 29, of Art. 23, of the Constitution of Maryland. New if any other provisions of the fundamental law of our State have been before us for construction as frequently as this one.

We have always given it a broad and liberal construction and have generally been able to uphold the validity of the statutes, alleged to conflict with its provisions, and thus effectuate the legislative intent. It has accordingly been often said by this Court that the true meaning of this section of the Constitution is that, “If the several sections of the law refer to and are germane to the same subject matter which is described in its title, it is considered as embracing but a single subject and as satisfying the Constitution in this respect;” and that, “While the title must indicate the subject of the Act it need not give an abstract of its contents nor mention the means by which the general purpose is to be accomplished.” Mayor, &c., v. Reitz, 50 Md. 574 ; Drennen v. Banks, 80 Md. 316 . ⁴⁸⁴ Yet, as was recently said by us in Kafka v. Wilkinson, 99 Md. 241 , and State v. Savings Bank, 103 Md. 200 , in construing this constitutional provision the Courts “have not hesitated to strike down legislative Acts that were clear infractions of its purpose and object. These have been declared to be two-fold; the first is to prevent the combination in one Act of several distinct and incongruous subjects, and the second is that the Legislature and the people of the State may be fairly advised of the real nature of impending legislation,” or as was said in Stiefel v. Md. Inst. for the Blind, 61 Md. 148 , “Publicity and a knowledge of the true effect and operation of every bill brought before the Legislature are the great safeguards against ill-considered and improper legislation. The provision in question is one among many others designed to promote those objects.” And in Luman v. Hitchkens, 90 Md. 23 , we said: “Though the title need not contain an abstract of the bill nor give in detail the provisions of the Act it must not be misleading by apparently limiting the enactment to a much narrower scope than the body of the Act is made to compass; nor must there be cloaked in the enactment any foreign, discordant or irrelevant matter not disclosed in the title.” When tested by the principles thus announced, how does the Act now before us stand.

Its title is as follows: “An Act to amend ch. 469 of the Acts of 1849, entitled ‘An Act to incorporate the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company,’ and to amend the charter of said company so as to pro • hibit it from allowing its tracks to connect with, or its tracks, right of way or other property, to be used by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and by any other railroad company which is operated,, owned or controlled by, or whose railroad property is leased to, the said Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, except upon certain conditions.” The contents of the first section of the Act if otherwise unobjectionable would be fairly germane to the title as they provide that, after a specified date, the Railroad Company shall not, except upon certain conditions therein specified, permit ⁴⁸⁵ its tracks to connect with or its right of way or other property to be used by the Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Co. or any other railroad company leased, controlled or operated by it. The second section provides that, upon the railrond company continuing to do the acts prohibited by the first section, the State’s Attorney for Allegany County shall, file a petition in the Circuit Court for the forfeiture of the charter and franchises of the company “the mode of procedure to be the same as is now provided by the general laws of this State in such cases;” and the third section affirmatively directs the Court upon the ascertainment of the fact of the commission of the prohibited acts by the railroad company to decree the forfeiture of its charter. These last two sections do not in any sense provide for an . amendment to the charter of the railroad company but they