Citations
- 121 Ill. 304
Full opinion text
Mr. Justice Soholfield
delivered the opinion of the Court:
This is an action of debt for unjust discrimination, under the 3d section of the act to prevent extortion and unjust discrimination, approved May 2, 1873. (2 Starr & Curtis, 1962.) So much of the section as is pertinent to the question before us, reads as follows: “If any * * * railroad corporation shall charge, collect or receive, for the transportation of any passenger or freight, of any description, upon its railroad,, any distance within this State, the same or a greater amount of toll or compensation than is at the same, time charged, collected or received for the transportation, in the same direction, of any passenger or like quantity of freight of the same class, over a greater distance of the same railroad, * * * all such discriminating rates, charges, collections or receipts * * * shall be deemed and taken against such railroad corporation as prima facie evidence of the unjust discriminations prohibited by the provisions of this act; and it shall not be deemed a sufficient excuse or justification of such discriminations on the part of such railroad corporation, that the railway station or point at which it shall charge, collect or receive the same or less rates of toll or compensation, * * * for the greater distance than for the shorter distance, is a railway station or point at which there exists competition with any other railroad or means of transportation. ”
The alleged unjust discrimination is, that appellant, on the 5th day of February, 1884, carried over its railroad, from Chicago to Mattoon, a distance of one hundred and seventy-two miles, two sacks of green coffee for Patrick Hennessey, and charged and collected for such carriage, the sum of twenty-seven cents,—being at the rate of ten cents per one hundred pounds; and that, at the same time, appellant carried in the same direction, and over that part of its same railroad, from Chicago to Kankakee, a distance of fifty-six miles, two other sacks of green -coffee, of like weight, of the same ■class and quality of freight, for C. C. Harrington, and charged .and collected from him, for such carriage, the sum of forty-five cents,—being at the rate of sixteen cents per one hundred pounds for such carriage. Appellant gave evidence proving that there was no competition between Mattoon and Kankakee in the retail grocery trade, and that Harrington knew nothing, at the time, of the rate charged Hennessey, and that he was not personally injured by it.
The first question, then, to be considered is, was it incumbent upon appellee to prove a personal discrimination and a personal injury, as between individuals of a class, or was it sufficient merely to prove a discrimination as between localities, omitting specific evidence of its effect upon different individuals ?
The clause quoted, it will be observed, does not mention persons. It is, in effect, directed against discriminations between localities, through unequal charges for the same transportation, in the same direction, over equal parts of its road, and, obviously, it is as certainly violated when all are compelled to pay for transportation for the shorter distance a rate equal to or greater than that charged for the same transportation, in the same direction, for the longer distance, as where one or a few individuals are compelled to do so. Another clause of the same section is directed against discriminations between individuals, and for the present argument it may be conceded that to recover under that clause it is ■essential to show a personal injury.
Counsel refer to section 6 of the act, as sustaining their •contention that it was essential to a recovery, here, that it ■should have been proved that some person was injured by the discrimination of which complaint is made. But that section simply gives a right of action against the railroad company to any person or corporation which has paid to a railroad company extortionate charges, or charges for receiving