Court : US Supreme Court
Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc. v. Hicks - 285 U.S. 502 (1932) U.S. Supreme Court Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc. v. Hicks, 285 U.S. 502 (1932) Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc. v. Hicks No. 430 Argued February 16, 17, 1932 Decided April 11, 1932 * 285 U.S. 502 CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT 1. A corporation operating a factory on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River owned a launch which it used for ferrying employees to and from their work there, a distance of somewhat more than a mile. The launch was not seaworthy when ice was in the river, and the company had therefore instructed the manager of the factory, who also controlled the use of the launch, not to allow it to be used when ice was, or was likely to be, present. Disobedience to these instructions, by the master of the launch, resulted in injuries and deaths of passengers. Held: (1) In view of weather conditions and observation of ice in the river some days before, the manager should no...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. United States - 289 U.S. 627 (1933) U.S. Supreme Court Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. United States, 289 U.S. 627 (1933) Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. United States No. 1 Argued October 12, 13, 1931 Reargued October 11, 12, 1932 Decided May 29, 1933 289 U.S. 627 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS Syllabus 1. Carriers reaching the port of New Orleans with their own rails and reaching Texas ports through connections with which they maintained through routes and joint rates made the same, or substantially the same, rates on export, import, and coastwise traffic between New Orleans and inland points as were charged between those points and the Texas ports, although the rail haul to and from New Orleans was longer. Ocean freights were the same for all of these ports, and the object of the rail carriers in equalizing their rates was to protect their business of the classes named from the competit...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Home Building & Loan Assn. v. Blaisdell - 290 U.S. 398 (1934) U.S. Supreme Court Home Building & Loan Assn. v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398 (1934) Home Building & Loan Assn. v. Blaisdell No. 370 Argued November 8, 9, 1933 Decided January 8, 1934 290 U.S. 398 APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF MINNESOTA Syllabus 1. Emergency does not increase constitutional power, nor diminish constitutional restrictions. P. 290 U. S. 425 . 2. Emergency may, however, furnish occasion for exercise of power possessed. P. 290 U. S. 426 . 3. The clause providing that no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts is not to be applied with literal exactness, like a mathematical formula, but is one of the broad clauses of the Constitution which require construction to fill out details. Pp. 290 U. S. 426 , 290 U. S. 428 . 4. The necessity of construction of the contract clause is not obviated by its association in the same section with other and more specific provisions which ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
United States v. Jefferson Electric Mfg. Co. - 291 U.S. 386 (1934) U.S. Supreme Court United States v. Jefferson Electric Mfg. Co., 291 U.S. 386 (1934) United States v. Jefferson Electric Manufacturing Co. No. 171 Argued December 15, 18, 1933 Decided February 12, 1934 * 291 U.S. 386 CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CLAIMS Syllabus 1. As a general rule, where the legislation dealing with a particular subject consists of a system of related general provisions indicative of a settled policy, new enactments of a fragmentary nature on that subject are to be taken as intended to fit into the existing system and to be carried into effect conformably to it, excepting as a different purpose is plainly shown. P. 291 U. S. 396 . 2. A manufacturer from whom money had been collected as taxes on account of sales of his products, upon the erroneous assumption that the articles sold were automobile parts or accessories and the sales therefore taxable under Revenue Acts, 1924, 600(3) and 1918...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Clark v. Williard - 292 U.S. 112 (1934) U.S. Supreme Court Clark v. Williard, 292 U.S. 112 (1934) Clark v. Williard No. 449 Argued February 15, 1934 Decided April 2, 1934 292 U.S. 112 CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF MONTANA Syllabus 1. Where a judgment reverses the cause and remands it for further proceedings in accordance with the court's opinion, the opinion is incorporated in the judgment, and may be considered in determining whether the judgment is final. P. 292 U. S. 118 . 2. A judgment of a state supreme court in a liquidation proceeding which sustains the validity and priority of an execution levied by an intervening creditor on property of the insolvent, leaving no discretion to the trial court with respect to the matter and fully disposing of the intervention, is a final judgment for the purposes of appeal to this Court. P. 292 U. S. 117 . 3. Under the laws of Iowa, the official liquidator appointed by statute upon the dissolution of an insolvent Iowa insur...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
PANAMA REFINING CO. v. RYAN - 292 U.S. 388 (1935) U.S. Supreme Court PANAMA REFINING CO. v. RYAN, 293 U.S. 388 (1935) 293 U.S. 388 PANAMA REFINING CO. et al. v. RYAN et al. AMAZON PETROLEUM CORPORATION et al. v. SAME. Nos. 135, 260. Argued Dec. 10, 11, 1934. Decided Jan. 7, 1935. Page 293 U.S. 388, 391 Messrs. J. N. Saye, of Longview, Tex., and F. W. Fischer, of Tyler, Tex., for petitioners. Page 293 U.S. 388, 398 Mr. Harold M. Stephens, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondents. Page 293 U.S. 388, 405 Mr. Chief Justice HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court. On July 11, 1933, the President, by Executive Order No. 6199 (15 USCA 709 note), prohibited 'the transportation in interstate and foreign commerce of petroleum and the products thereof produced or withdrawn from storage in excess of the amount permitted to be produced or withdrawn from storage by any State law or valid regulation or order prescribed thereunder, by any board, commission, officer, or other duly Page ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan - 293 U.S. 388 (1935) U.S. Supreme Court Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, 293 U.S. 388 (1935) Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan Nos. 135 and 260 Argued December 10, 11, 1934 Decided January 7, 1935 293 U.S. 388 CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT Syllabus 1. Upon review of a decree affirming the validity of an executive regulation, and refusing to enjoin its enforcement, rendered in a suit begun and ended below after the regulation had been withdrawn, the question of validity does not cease to be moot because the regulation has since been reinstated and the Government has declared its intention to enforce it from the time of reinstatement. P. 293 U. S. 412 . 2. A suit to enjoin the enforcement of executive regulations is not made moot by amendments of the regulations, adopted pending the litigation, which continue in force the requirements complained of and present the same constitutional question as before. P. 293 U. S. 41...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins - 304 U.S. 64 (1938) U.S. Supreme Court Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938) Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins No. 367 Argued January 31, 1938 Decided April 25, 1938 304 U.S. 64 CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT Syllabus 1. The liability of a railroad company for injury caused by negligent operation of its train to a pedestrian on a much-used, beaten path on its right-of-way along and near the rails depends, in the absence of a federal or state statute, upon the unwritten law of the State where the accident occurred. Pp. 304 U. S. 71 et seq. 2. A federal court exercising jurisdiction over such a case on the ground of diversity of citizenship, is not free to treat this question as one of so-called "general law," but must apply the state law as declared by the highest state court. Swift v. Tyson, 16 Pet. 1, overruled. Id. 3. There is no federal general common law. Congress has no power to declare su...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Elec. Co. - 304 U.S. 175 (1938) U.S. Supreme Court General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Elec. Co., 304 U.S. 175 (1938) General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Electric Co. No. 357 Argued December 13, 14, 1937 Decided May 2, 1938 304 U.S. 175 CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT Syllabus 1. Review by certiorari is confined to questions specifically brought forward by the petition for the writ. P. 304 U. S. 177 . The supporting brief is not a part of the petition for this purpose; specifications of error in that brief do not expand or add to the questions stated in the petition; they serve merely to identify and challenge rulings upon which is grounded ultimate decision of the matter involved. P. 304 U. S. 178 . 2. A writ of certiorari will not be granted in a patent case to bring up questions of acquiescence and estoppel dependent on questions of fact, as to which there were concurrent findin...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Coleman v. Miller - 307 U.S. 433 (1939) U.S. Supreme Court Coleman v. Miller, 307 U.S. 433 (1939) Coleman v. Miller No. 7 Argued October 10, 1938 Reargued April 17, 18, 1939 Decided June 5, 1939 307 U.S. 433 CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF KANSAS Syllabus 1. Upon submission of a resolution for ratification of a proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution, known as the Child Labor Amendment, twenty of the forty senators of the State of Kansas voted in favor of its adoption and twenty voted against it. The Lieutenant Governor, the presiding officer of the Senate, then cast his vote in favor of the resolution, and later it was adopted by the other house of the legislature on a vote of a majority of its members. The twenty senators who had voted against ratification, challenging the right of the Lieutenant Governor to cast the deciding vote in the Senate, and alleging that the proposed amendment had lost its vitality because of previous rejection by Kansas and other State...
Tag this Judgment!