ciation, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever (other than a railroad or street railroad corporation generating electricity for its own use exclusively), owning, operating, managing or controlling any plant or property for generating and distributing, or generating and selling for distribution, or distributing electricity for light, heat or power or for the transmission of electric current for such purposes.

[1.]* The term "transportation of property or freight," when used in this act, includes any service in connection with the receiving, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, ventilation, refrigeration, icing, storage and handling of the property or freight transported.

[m.]* The term " municipality," when used in this act, includes a city, village, town or lighting district, organized as provided by a general or special act.

Definitions under Interstate Commerce Act,- see Inters. Com. Act, § 1, post, Appendix B.

Definitions under Gas & Electricity Commission Act,- see N. Y. Gas & El. Com. Act, § 2.

Nothing in this act is deemed to apply to or operate upon interstate or foreign commerce,- see post, § 86.

General rules of statutory construction,-see ante, § 1, notes [23]-[40].

[1] Classification of railroads for purposes of regulation.

When roads are classified for regulation, the justice or injustice of the regulation must be determined by the effect on the class and not on a particular member of it.- St. Louis & S. F. R. Co. v. Gill, 54 Ark. 101, 15 S. W. 18, 11 L. R. A. 452n; affd. 156 U. S. 649, 15 Sup. Ct. R. (U. S.) 484.

In general.

[2] What constitutes a common carrier Extent to which carrier holds itself out as such as affecting its duty

toward the public,- see post, § 26, note [12].

A corporation is a common carrier to the extent it holds itself out to be such.- Citizens' Bank v. Nantucket S. Co., 2 Story (U. S.), 16.

A common carrier is one who offers to carry goods for any person between certain termini, or on a certain route, and who is bound to carry for all who tender him goods, at the price of carriage.— The Neaffie, 1 Abb. (U. S.) 465, Fed. Cas. No. 10,063.

*Arbitrary paragraph designation not in original Act.-Ed.

A common carrier is one who makes it a business to transport goods, either by land or water, for hire, and holds himself ready to carry them for all persons who apply and pay the hire.- The Huntress, 2 Ware (U. S.), 82, Fed. Cas. No. 6914.

That a carrier does other business than the transportation of passengers or property, or performs a further service than that of carriage in respect to freight transported, does not make it any less a common carrier, within the operation of the Interstate Commerce Act.— In re The Express Companies, 1 Inters. Com. R. 22, 317, 355, 448, 451, 456, 1 I. C. C. R. 349.

A common carrier is one who, by virtue of his calling, undertakes, for compensation, to transport personal property from one place to another, for all such as may choose to employ him.-Jackson A. Iron Works v. Hurlbut, 158 N. Y. 34, 52 N. E. 665, affg. s. c. 15 Misc. (N. Y.) 93, 36 N. Y. Supp. 808; Lough v. Outerbridge, 143 N. Y. 271, 38 N. E. 292, 25 L. R. A. 674, affg. s. c. 68 Hun (N. Y.), 486, 22 N. Y. Supp. 976; Allen v. Sackrider, 37 N. Y. 341; Bank of Orange v. Brown, 3 Wend. (N. Y.) 158.

An express company received at its office packages of coin, bullion, bank notes, commercial paper and such other articles of value as parties thought fit to intrust to the care of the company, for the purpose of being transported.— Held, that such company was a common carrier as to the articles mentioned.- Sherman v. Wells, 28 Barb. (N. Y.) 403.

A common carrier is one who undertakes as a public employment the transportation of goods for persons generally from place to place, to be delivered at the place appointed, for hire or reward, and with or without a special agreement as to price.-Carpenter v. B. & O. R. Co., Pen. (Del.) —, 64 Atl. 252.

The term common carrier" did not, at common law, embrace a carrier of passengers.- Central of Ga. R. Co. v. Lippman, 110 Ga. 665, 36 S. E. 202, 50 L. R. A. 673.

In transporting express matter under a special contract with an express company, a railroad is a private carrier of goods, and is not acting as a common carrier.- Louisville, N. A. & C. R. Co. v. Keefer, 146 Ind. 21, 44 N. E. 796, 38 L. R. A. 93.

To constitute a common carrier, the person or corporation need not own the means of transportation.- Cownie Glove Co. v. Merchants' Dispatch T. Co., 130 Iowa, 327, 106 N. W. 749.

By entering into a special contract to furnish cars for carrying milk, a railroad becomes a common carrier of milk.- Baker v. Boston & M. R. Co.,-N. H.-, 65 Atl. 386.

The Interstate Commerce Act does not apply to express companies which carry on their business in the ordinary manner and do not operate railway lines.- Southern Ind. Exp. Co. v. U. S. Exp. Co., 88 Fed. 659; affd. 92 Fed. 1022.

Express companies, independently organized for the transaction of the express business on their own account, are not subject to the Interstate Commerce Act.-U. S. v. Norsman, 42 Fed. 448.

Express business done as a branch of railroad business is under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Act, but express companies existing as separate organizations are not. In re The Express Companies, 1 Inters. Com. R. 22, 317, 355, 448, 451, 456, 1 I. C. C. R. 349.

An express company is a common carrier.- Belger v. Dinsmore, 51 N. Y. 166, revg. s. c. 51 Barb. (N. Y.) 69, 34 How. Pr. (N. Y.) 421; Sherman v. Wells, 28 Barb. (N. Y.) 403; Haslam v. Adams Exp. Co., 6 Bosw. (N. Y.) 235; Buckland v. Adams Exp. Co., 97 Mass. 124; Christenson v. Am. Exp. Co., 15 Minn. 270; U. S. Exp. Co. v. Backman, 28 Oh. St. 144.

An act making express companies common carriers and regulating them as such, is valid.- Adams Exp. Co. v. State, 161 Ind. 328, 67 N. E. 1033.

A sleeping car company is not a common carrier.- Calhoun v. Pullman Palace Car Co., 149 Fed. 546; Lemon v. Pullman Car Co., 52 Fed. 262; Blum v. So. Pullman Car Co., Fed Cas. No. 1574.

Sleeping car companies are neither innkeepers nor common carriers, and the rules of the common law as to carriers have not been extended to them.- Adams v. N. J. S. Co., 151 N. Y. 163, 45 N. E. 369, 34 L. R. A. 682, affg. s. c. 9 Misc. (N. Y.) 25, 29 N. Y. Supp. 56; Carpenter v. N. Y. N. H. & H. R. Co., 124 N. Y. 53, 26 N. E. 277, 11 L. R. A. 759; Ulrich v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co., 108 N. Y. 80, 15 N. E. 60; Williams v. Webb, 27 Misc. (N. Y.) 508, 58 N. Y. Supp. 300, modfg. s. c. 22 Misc. (N. Y.) 513, 49 N. Y. Supp. 1111; Pullman Pal. C. Co., v. Smith, 73 Ill 360; Woodruff S. & P. Co. v. Diehl, 84 Ind. 474; Lewis v. N. Y. S. C. Co., 143 Mass. 267, 9 N. E. 615.

The Interstate Commerce Act applies not only to the steam railways by which interstate traffic is mainly conducted, but also to the electric street surface roads for suburban and interurban travel.— Willson v. Rock Creek R. Co., 7 Inters. Com. R. 83.

A street railway company is a common carrier.- State v. Spokane St. R. Co., 19 Wash. 518, 53 Pac. 719, 41 L. R. A. 410.

[6]

Corporations maintaining railway tracks for special

purposes.

A provision in the Constitution of Louisiana that all railroads are public highways, and all railroad corporations are common carriers, does not make a business corporation, organized to do a lumber and logging business and to "maintain and operate a railroad, tramways, and other devices necessary for the purpose of said business," a common carrier, charged with the duties imposed by law on such carriers, with respect to a logging railroad built by it on its grounds and operated by it in connection with the mill.— Wade v. Lutcher Lumber Co., 74 Fed. 517, 33 L. R. A. 255.

A bridge company, owning and operating a bridge, and owning tracks across such bridge and extending to terminals in the cities of Louisville and New Albany, over which a railroad company runs its trains, but not owning or operating freight cars of its own, and which collects bridge toll and switching charges from those using its facilities, is not a common carrier of freight within the meaning of Interst. Com. Act, § 1.— Kentucky & I. Bridge Co. v. L. & N. R. Co., 37 Fed. 567, 2 L. R. A. 289.

A stock-yards company had, under its charter, the option of becoming a common carrier, and did become such as to dead freight, but not as to live-stock. It imposed a trackage charge on railroads which used its tracks for transporting live-stock, and such transporting was done entirely by the railroads.- Held, that it was not a common carrier engaged in the transportation of live-stock, within Interst. Com. Act, § 1, and was not subject to regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission in that capacity.- Cattle Raisers' Assn. v. Fort Worth & D. C. R. Co., 7 Interst. Com. R. 513.

A railroad which takes cars from a connecting road, and by means of a switch-engine transports such cars a short distance over a portion of its own track to a spur of its own, is a common carrier.Missouri Pac. R. Co. v. Grocery Co., 55 Kan. 525, 40 Pac. 899.

[7]

The receiver of a railway corporation.

Effect of receivership on regulative power of state,- see post, note [15]. The receiver of a railroad in the custody of a court is a common carrier.- Beers v. Wabash, St. L. & P. R. Co., 34 Fed. 244.

Receivers of railroads are common carriers subject to the prohibitions and requirements of, and to regulation under, the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act.- Evans v. U. Pac. R. Co., 6 Inters. Com. R. 520.

[8] What constitutes a railroad or street railroad.

A manufacturing company maintaining in its yards a number of tracks and a switch engine is not "a railroad corporation operating a railroad or a part of a railroad," within the meaning of 93 Ohio Laws, p. 342, requiring such railroad corporations to block their frogs.Taggart v. Republic I. & S. Co., 141 Fed. 910.

There is a clear distinction between "railroad" and a "line." Two carriers may use the same 66 road," but each has its separate "line.”— Interst. Com. Commission v. C. N. O. & T. P. R. Co., 56 Fed. 925.

Pneumatic tubes for the transmission of parcels, etc., below ground, by atmospheric pressure, are in no sense railways.-Astor v. Arcade R. Co., 113 N. Y. 93, 20 N. E. 594, 2 L. R. A. 789n, affg. s. c. 48 Hun (N. Y.), 562, 1 N. Y. Supp. 174.

A proposed road along Niagara Falls and the Whirlpool Rapids is not a railroad, within the meaning of the law authorizing railroads to acquire lands by condemnation.- Matter of Niag. Falls & Whirlpool R. Co., 108 N. Y. 375, 15 N. E. 429, affg. s. c. 46 Hun (N. Y.), 94.

66

A subway operated beneath the surface of streets is a street railway.' "- Matter of N. Y. District R. Co., 107 N. Y. 42, 14 N. E. 187, affg. s. c. 42 Hun (N. Y.), 621.

Kinetic stored steam power is not 66 a locomotive steam power."People ex rel. Babylon R. Co. v. Board of R. R. Comrs., 32 App. Div. (N. Y.) 179, 52 N. Y. Supp. 908; affd., 158 N. Y. 711, 53 N. E. 1129.

A spur running half a mile from a company's main line to a race-track, and used only when races were being held, is not a railroad, within the meaning of the three-cent maximum fare statute.- Palm v. N. Y. N. H. & H. R. Co., 17 N. Y. Supp. 471.

It cannot be said as a matter of law that merely because a commercial steam railroad will be only about three miles in length, it will be no railroad at all.- Bridwell v. Gate City Terminal Co., 127 Ga. 520, 56 S. E. 624.

A company incorporated for the purpose of building and operating a railroad three miles in length for the carrying of goods and passengers cannot be said to be no railroad company at all merely because it selects the name of "Terminal Company."— Bridwell v. Gate City Terminal Co., 127 Ga. 520, 56 S. E. 624.

The fundamental purpose of a street railway is to accommodate street travel and not travel to or from points beyond the city's lines.— City of Aurora v. Elgin Trac. Co., 227 Ill. 485, 81 N. E. 544.

It is the mode of construction and chartered use, and not the motive power, which determines the character of a railroad.- McCleary v. Babcock, Ind. 82 N. E. 453.

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