The validity of a statute of Georgia under the Commerce Clause (article I, § 8, cl. 3) and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States is challenged by the appellant, a private carrier for hire engaged in interstate commerce.
The statute is known as the 'Motor-Carrier Act of 1931.' Georgia Laws 1931, Ex. Sess., p. 99. It prescribes a system of regulation for private carriers for hire. Common carriers are subject to the provisions of a separate statute. With exceptions to be stated later, every private carrier operating a motor vehicle in the business of transporting persons or property for hire over any public highway in the state must comply with certain conditions. The carrier must apply for and obtain from the Public Service Commission a certificate of public convenience and necessity (section 4, page 102); must give a bond with adequate security for protection against damage caused by negligence (section 7, page 105); must pay for the certificate a fee of $35 (section 17, page 108); and at the same time and annually thereafter must pay a registration and license fee of $25 (section 18, page 108) for every vehicle so operated. The fees, when received by the Comptroller General of the state, are to be transmitted to the State Treasurer who is to keep them in a separate fund. This fund is to be subject to the control of the State Highway Department and is to be devoted to the maintenance and repair of the highways of the state.
The exceptions to the foregoing requirements are stated in section 2. The act does not apply to a business conducted exclusively within the incorporated limits of any city or town. Cf. Continental Baking Co. v. Woodring, 286 U.S. 352, 366, 52 S.Ct. 595, 76 L.Ed. 1155, 81 A.L.R. 1402. It does not apply to 'cars and trucks hauling people and farm products exclusively between points not having railroad facilities, and not passing through or beyond municipalities having railroad facilities, where not more than seven passengers and/or one and one half tons of freight are transported.' Section 2(c)(1), page 101. It does not apply to 'motor-vehicles engaged exclusively in the transportation of agricultural and/or dairy products between any of the following points: farm, market, gin, warehouse, or mill, where the weight of the load does not exceed 10,000 pounds, whether such motor-vehicle is owned by the owner or producer of such agricultural or dairy products or not, so long as the title remains in the producer.' Section 2(c)(2), page 101. Definitions of a 'producer' and of 'agricultural products,' which are contained in the same subdivision, are quoted in the margin. There are other exceptions in other subdivisions, but they are omitted from this summary, for the attack upon the statute is not aimed at their provisions.
The appellant, a private carrier for hire, is engaged in the transportation of household and office furniture between points in Georgia and other states, and is not within the range of any of the exceptions. It obtained a certificate of convenience and necessity, and paid the statutory fee therefor. It gave approved security for the protection of its customers and the public in the event of injury through negligence. All this it did before beginning the present suit, and in so doing took out of the case any question as to the validity of the statute in respect of those conditions. What it is contesting now is the validity of the requirement that for every motor vehicle it must pay an annual fee of $25 in order to obtain a license. Joining as defendants the Georgia Public Service Commission, the members thereof, and the Comptroller General of the state, it brought this suit to restrain interference with its business by the arrest or prosecution of its drivers or otherwise as a consequence of its refusal to pay the annual fee. The trial court sustained a demurrer and dismissed the complaint. The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed. 179 Ga. 431, 176 S.E. 487. The case is here upon appeal. Judicial Code § 237, 28 U.S.C. § 344 (28 USCA § 344).
First. The statute, in imposing an annual license fee for the maintenance of the highways, does not lay an unlawful burden on interstate commerce.
The fee is moderate in amount; it goes into a fund for the upkeep of highways which carriers must use in the doing of their business; it is exacted without hostility to foreign or interstate transactions, being imposed also upon domestic vehicles operated in like conditions.