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Opinion of the Court.

'clause three of section eight of article I of the Constitution of the United States, which provides that 'Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States.'"

The first two points are disposed of adversely to the company by the decision of this court in Pembina Mining Co. v. Pennsylvania, 125 U. S. 181. In that case we held, following Paul v. Virginia, 8 Wall. 168, that corporations are not citizens within the meaning of clause 1, sec. 2, of art. IV of the Constitution of the United States declaring that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." And we also held that section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution declaring that no State shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" does not prohibit a State from imposing such conditions upon foreign corporations as it may choose, as a condition of their admission. within its limits. See, also, Philadelphia Fire Association v. New York, 119 U. S. 110.

The only question for consideration, therefore, arises under the third assignment of error, above set forth. It is well settled by numerous decisions of this court, that a State cannot, under the guise of a license tax, exclude from its jurisdiction a foreign corporation engaged in interstate commerce, or impose any burdens upon such commerce within its limits. Some of the cases sustaining this proposition are collected in McCall v. California, just decided, ante, 104, and need not be repeated here.

The question before us is thus narrowed to the two following inquiries: (1) Was the business of this company in the State of Pennsylvania interstate commerce? (2) If so, was the tax assessed against it for keeping an office in Philadelphia, for the use of its officers, stockholders, agents and employés, a tax upon such business? We have no difficulty in answering the first of these inquiries in the affirmative. Although the findings of fact are somewhat meagre on this question — much more so, indeed, than the undisputed evidence in the case warranted - enough is stated in the second paragraph of the

Opinion of the Court.

aforesaid finding to show that the company is engaged in interstate commerce in the State. It is there said, in substance: By virtue of its connections and certain traffic contracts with other railroads the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company "has become a link in a through line of road, over which, as part of the business thereof, freight and passengers are carried into and out of this Commonwealth." That is to say, the business of the through line of railroad, of which the plaintiff in error forms a part or in which it is a link, consists, in a measure, of carrying passengers and freight into Pennsylvania from other States, and out of that State into other States. It certainly requires no citation of authorities to demonstrate that such business—that is, the business of this through line of railroad is interstate commerce. That being true, it logically follows that any one of the roads forming a part of, or constituting a link in, that through line, is engaged in interstate commerce, since the business of each one of those roads serves to increase the volume of business done by that through line.

On this point The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 557, 565, is an authority. In that case the steamer Daniel Ball was engaged in transporting goods on Grand River, wholly within the State of Michigan, destined for other States, and goods brought from other States destined for places in the State of Michigan, but did not run in connection with, or in continuation of, any line of vessels or railway leading to other States; and the contention was, that she was not engaged in interstate commerce. But this court held otherwise and said: "So far as she was employed in transporting goods destined for other States, or goods brought from without the limits of Michigan and destined to places within that State, she was engaged in commerce between the States, and however limited that commerce may have been, she was, so far as it went, subject to the legislation of Congress. She was employed as an instrument of that commerce; for whenever a commodity has begun to move as an article of trade from one State to another, commerce in that commodity between the States has commenced. The fact that several different and independent agencies are employed

Opinion of the Court.

in transporting the commodity, some acting entirely in one State, and some acting through two or more States, does in no respect affect the character of the transaction. To the extent in which each agency acts in that transportation, it is subject to the regulation of Congress." See, also, Wabash &c. Railway Co. v. Illinois, 118 U. S. 557, and cases cited.

We pass to the second inquiry above stated, viz.: Was the tax assessed against the company for keeping an office in Philadelphia, for the use of its officers, stockholders, agents and employés, a tax upon the business of the company? In other words, was such tax a tax upon any of the means or instruments by which the company was enabled to carry on its business of interstate commerce? We have no hesitancy in answering that question in the affirmative. What was the purpose of the company in establishing an office in the city of Philadelphia? Manifestly for the furtherance of its business. interests in the matter of its commercial relations. One of the terms of the contract by which the plaintiff in error became a link in the through line of road referred to in the findings of fact, provided that "it shall be the duty of each initial road, member of the line, to solicit and procure traffic for the Great Southern Despatch (the name of said through line) at its own. proper cost and expense." Again, the plaintiff in error does not exercise, or seek to exercise, in Pennsylvania any privilege or franchise not immediately connected with interstate commerce and required for the purposes thereof. Before establishing its office in Philadelphia it obtained from the secretary of the Commonwealth the certificate required by the act of the state legislature of 1874 enabling it to maintain an office in the State. That office was maintained because of the necessities of the interstate business of the company, and for no other purpose. A tax upon it was, therefore, a tax upon one of the means or instrumentalities of the company's interstate commerce; and as such was in violation of the commercial clause of the Constitution of the United States. Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 U. S. 196; Philadelphia Steamship Co. v. Pennsylvania, 122 U. S. 326, and cases cited; McCall v. California, just decided ante, 104.

Opinion of the Court.

For the foregoing reasons the judgment of the court below is reversed, and the case is remanded to that court for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER, MR. JUSTICE GRAY and MR. JUSTICE BREWER dissented.

HOT SPRINGS RAILROAD COMPANY v. WILLIAM

SON.

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS.

No. 93. Submitted November 11, 1889.- Decided May 19, 1890.

The refusal of the court below to grant the defendant's request to charge upon a question in relation to which the plaintiff had introduced no evidence, and which was, therefore, an abstract question, not before the court, was not error.

When a state constitution provides that "private property shall not be taken, appropriated or damaged for public use without just compensation" a railroad company constructing its road in a public street, under a sufficient grant from the legislature or municipality, is nevertheless liable to abutting owners of land for consequential injuries to their property resulting from such construction.

THE case is stated in the opinion.

Mr. John M. Moore for plaintiff in error.

Mr. A. H. Garland for defendant in error.

MR. JUSTICE LAMAR delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action at law brought in the Circuit Court of Garland County, Arkansas, at its February term, 1883, by Curnel S. Williamson and Fannie G. Williamson, his wife, against the Hot Springs Railroad Company, a corporation organized under the laws of that State, to recover damages

Opinion of the Court.

for alleged injuries done to certain described real estate belonging to Mrs. Williamson, in the city of Hot Springs, by the defendant company.

The declaration alleged that the plaintiff, Fannie G. Williamson, was the owner in fee of lots 1 and 2 in block No. 78 and lot 9 in block No. 69 in that city; that lots 1 and 2 are separated from lot 9 by Benton Street, which is one hundred and forty feet wide, and was laid out by the general government and dedicated to the city, with the other streets in the city, before the damages for which suit was brought were committed; that lot 9 lies south of Benton Street, lot 1 directly across the street on the north, and lot 2 lies immediately north of lot 1; that the defendant, a railroad company, organized as aforesaid, with its termini at Hot Springs and at Malvern, in Hot Springs County, in that State, by and through its agents and employés, on and prior to the 10th of December, 1881, constructed, threw up and completed in and along the centre of Benton Street, between lots 1 and 9, and running the full length of those lots, a permanent embankment of earth and stone, fifty feet wide and of great height, to serve as a road-bed for its railroad track, under a fraudulent and unauthorized contract secretly and clandestinely entered into between it and the city, for the purpose of defrauding and injuring plaintiffs; that the defendant also constructed a turning table at the southeast corner of that embankment and the northeast corner of lot 9, and immediately thereafter proceeded to lay and fix its railroad track permanently on the embankment, which thereby became and thereafter was a part or extension of its railroad; that by the embankment, extension and turning table plaintiff's and others were cut off from and deprived of the use of that street in connection with said lots, and their egress and ingress therefrom and therein impaired and destroyed; that said lots, which, by reason of their lateral frontage upon Benton Street, were of great value, were thereby greatly damaged and decreased in value to the extent of five thousand dollars; and that since the dedication. of Benton Street to the city, the defendant had wrongfully appropriated almost the whole of it for its road-bed and other

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