Fisher vs. Yangco Steamship Company
Fisher vs. Yangco Steamship Company
Fisher vs. Yangco Steamship Company
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12. ID.; ID.; ID.; ID.—The mere fact that violent and
destructive explosions can be obtained by the use of
dynamite under certain conditions is not sufficient in itself
to justify the refusal of a vessel, duly licensed as a
common carrier of merchandise, to accept it for carriage, if
it can be proven that in the condition in which it is offered
for carriage there is no real danger to the carrier nor
reasonable ground to fear that his vessel or those on board
his vessel will be exposed to unnecessary or unreasonable
risks in transporting it, having in mind the nature of his
business as a common carrier engaged in the coast
CARSON, J.:
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clear that whatever may have been the rule at the common
law, common carriers in this jurisdiction cannot lawfully
decline to accept a particular class of goods for carriage, to
the prejudice of the traffic in those goods, unless it appears
that for some sufficient reason the discrimination against
the traffic in .such goods is reasonable and necessary. Mere
whim or prejudice will not suffice. The grounds for the
discrimination must be substantial ones, such as will
justify the courts in holding the discrimination to have
been reasonable and necessary under all the circumstances
of the case.
The prayer of the petition in the case at bar cannot be
granted unless we hold that the refusal of the defendant
steamship company to accept for carriage on any of its
vessels "dynamite, gunpowder or other explosives" would in
no instance involve a violation of the provisions of this
statute. There can be little doubt, however, that cases may
and will arise wherein the refusal of a vessel "engaged in
the coastwise trade of the Philippine Islands as a common
carrier" to accept such explosives for carriage would subject
some person, company,- firm or corporation, or locality,
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dealing with the city in the manner it has done. That city
con-
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CARSON, J.:
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ing the time and attention of the court from its important
appellate functions to the settlement of controversies of no
especial interest to the public at large, in the course of
which it might become necessary to take testimony and to
make findings touching complicated and hotly contested
issues of fact.
We are of opinion and so hold that unless special
reasons appear therefor, this court should decline to permit
its original jurisdiction to be invoked in prohibition
proceedings, and this especially when the adjudication of
the issues raised involves the taking of evidence and the
making of findings touching controverted facts, which, as a
rule, can be done so much better in the first instance by a
trial court than an appellate court organized as is ours.
Spelling on Injunctions and Other Extraordinary
Remedies (vol. 2, p. 1493), in discussing the cases in which
the appellate courts in the United States permit their
original jurisdiction to be invoked where that jurisdiction is
concurrent with that of some inferior court, says:
"Of the plan of concurrent jurisdiction West Virginia
may be taken as an illustration. The Supreme Court of
Appeals of that State has concurrent original jurisdiction
with the circuit courts in cases of prohibition, but by a rule
adopted by the former court it will not take such original
jurisdiction unless special reasons appear therefor."
We deemed it proper to assume jurisdiction to
adjudicate and decide the issues raised by the rulings on
the original complaint, involving as they did a question as
to the validity of a public statute of vital interest to
shippers and ship owners generally as also to the public at
large, and presenting for determination no difficult or
complicated questions of fact: but we are satisfied that we
should decline to take jurisdiction of the matters relied
upon in the amended complaint in support of plaintiff's
prayer for the writ.
The question of the construction and validity of the
statute having been disposed of in our ruling on the
demurrer to the original complaint, it must be apparent
that if the allegations of the amended complaint are
sufficient to main-
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