St. Louis, Iron Mountain & St. Paul Railway Co. v. Paul
Case Details
- Judge(s)
- Fuller
- Status — whether other courts must follow this ruling
- Published
- Procedural Posture — the stage the case had reached
- appeal
- State
- Arkansas
- Circuit
- Federal Circuit
Related Laws
No specific laws identified for this ruling.
Claim Types
Outcome
The Supreme Court affirmed the Arkansas Supreme Court's ruling upholding an 1889 Arkansas statute requiring railroad corporations to pay employees their unpaid wages at the contract rate without abatement upon discharge. The Court held the statute was a valid exercise of the state's reserved power to amend corporate charters and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment.
Excerpt
ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS. This action was commenced in a justice’s court in Saline Township, Saline County, Arkansas, by Charles Paul against the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Arkansas, and owning and operating a railroad within that State, to recover $21.80 due him as a laborer, and a penalty of $1.25 per day for failure to pay him what was due him when he was discharged. The case, was carried by appeal to the Circuit Court of. Saline County and there tried de novo. Defendant demurred to so much of the complaint as sought. to recover the penalty on the ground that the act of the general assembly of Arkansas entitled “ An act to provide for the protection of servants and employés of railroads,” approved March 25,. ,1889, Acts Ark. 1889, 76, which provided therefor, was in violation of articles five and fourteen of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and also in violation of the constitution of the State of Arkansas. The demurrer was overruled, and defendant answered, setting up certain matters not material here, and reiterating in its third paragraph the objection that the act was unconstitutional and void. To this paragraph plaintiff demurred, and the demurrer was sustainéd. The case was then heard by the court, the parties, having. waived a trial by jury, and the court found that the plaintiff was entitled to recover the sum claimed and the penalty at the rate of daily wages from the daté of the discharge until the date of the commencement of the suit, and entered judgment accordingly. Defendant appealed to the Supreme Court of the State of Arkansas, which affirmed the judgment, 64 Arkansas, 83, and this writ of error was then brought. . The act-in question is as follows: “ SectioN 1. Whenever any railroad company or any company, corporation or person engaged in the business of operating or constructing any railroa
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