Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co. v. Daniel, Attorney General, et al. (333 U.S. 118)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 16, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 333 U.S. 118 · 68 S. Ct. 426
- Decided
- February 16, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mb. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. The constitution and statutes of South Carolina provide that railroad lines within that State can be owned and operated only by state-created corporations; a railroad corporation chartered only under the laws of another state is forbidden under heavy penalties to exercise such powers within South Carolina. There is a way, however, in which a foreign railroad corporation may, under South Carolina statutes, indirectly exercise some powers over its South Carolina operations. It may organize a South Carolina subsidiary. In addition, it may, under South Carolina law, consolidate that corporation with itself. In that event, so far as South Carolina statutes can govern, the consolidated result would be a corporation both of South Carolina and of another state. In 1946 the appellant, Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company, with the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission, succeeded to the ownership and operation of a unitary railroad system with 4,200 railway miles in six southern states. Seven hundred and thirty-six miles of its lines traverse South Carolina connecting with its lines in adjoining states. Appellant is a Virginia created corporation, has no South Carolina subsidiary, and has effected no consolidation with a South Carolina created corporation. It is therefore subject to the penalties provided by South Carolina…
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