1 LAWS RELATING TO THE Railroad and Warehouse Commission OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA. ACT CREATING SAID COMMISSION AS AMENDED BY SUCCESSIVE LEGISLATURES, TO THE CLOSE OF THE THIRTIETH SESSION IN THE YEAR 1 The Railroad and Warehouse Commission of the State of Minnesota, as now constituted and organized, was created by an Act of the Legislature, approved March 5th, 1885, (General Laws of Minnesota, 1885, Chapter 188.) This Act has been changed and amended by successive legislatures. The object of this publication is to furnish a complete copy of the Act as it now stands on the statute book, embracing all the amendments which have been adopted to the close of the thirtieth session of the legislature, in the year 1897. GENERAL RAILROAD LAW OF MINNESOTA, · AS AMENDED IN 1889, 1891, 1893, 1895 CHAPTER 10, GENERAL LAWS 1887. An Act to regulate common carriers, and creating the railroad and warehouse commission of the State of Minnesota, and defining the duties of such commission in relation to common carriers. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota: of Act. Section 1. (a.) That the provisions of this act shall Application apply to any common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water, when both are used under a common control, manage. ment or arrangement, for a carriage or shipment from one place or station to another, both being within the State of Minnesota. [Provided, That nothing in this act shall apply to the carriage, storage or handling by any common carrier of property, free or at reduced rates, for the United States or the State of Minnesota, or for any municipal government or corporation within the state, or for any charitable purpose, or to or from fairs or expositions for exhibition thereat (or stock for breeding purposes), or to the issuance of mileage, excursion or commutation passenger tickets, at rates made equal to all, or to transportation to stock shippers with cars; and nothing in the provisions of this act shall be construed to prohibit any common carriers from giving reduced rates to ministers of religion, sisters of charity, or to missionaries, or to students of any college or universi. Term railroad defined. Charges shall be just and reasonable. No preference to be given. Transfer facilities at track crossings. ty, or other institutions of learning in this state, or to children attending the Minnesota institute for defectives at Faribault, or the school for indigent children at Owatonna, or from issuing passes for the free transportation of passengers subject to the provisions of this act.] Amendment in brackets, chapter 124, Laws of 1889. (b.) The term "railroad," as used in this act, shall include all bridges or ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement or lease; and the term "transportation" shall include all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage. Sec. 2. (a.) That all charges made by any common carrier, subject to the provisions of this act, for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property, as aforesaid, or in connection therewith, or for the receiving, delivering, storage or handling of such property, shall be equal and reasonable; and every unequal and unreasonable charge for such service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful. Provided, That one car load of freight of any kind or class shall be transported at as low a rate per ton, and per ton per mile, as any greater number of car loads of the same kind and class from and to the same points of origination or destination. (b.) It shall be unlawful for any common carrier, subject to the provisions of this act, to make or give any unequal or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever, or to subject any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, to any unequal or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. [Sec. 3. (a.) That all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act shall provide at all points of connection, crossing or intersection at grade, where it is practicable and necessary for the interest of traffic, ample facilities by track connections for transferring any cars used in the regular business of their respective lines of road from their lines or tracks to those of any other common carrier whose lines or track may connect with, cross or intersect their own, and shall provide equal and reasonable facilities for the interchange of cars and traffic between their respective Expense of connecting tracks, how determined and paid. lines, and for the receiving, forwarding and delivering of passengers, property and cars to and from their several lines and those of other common carriers connecting therewith, and shall not discriminate in their rates or charges between such connecting lines or on freight coming over such lines; but this shall not be construed as requiring any common carrier to furnish for another common carrier its tracks equipment or terminal facilities without reasonable compensation; that each of said connecting lines shall pay its proportionate share for the building and maintenance of such tracks and switches as may be necessary to furnish the transfer facilities required by this act and in case they cannot agree on the amount which each line shall pay, then said amount shall, upon application by either party, be determined and adjusted by the railroad and warehouse commission, and either party shall have the right to appeal from the order of said commission, fixing the amount so to be paid, to the district court of the county where said transfer facilities are furnished by serving a notice in writing on the adverse party within ten (10) days after the making and filing of such order by said commission, and upon the service of such notice there shall be pending in said district court a civil action for the adjustment and determination of the amount to be paid by each carrier for the expense of the building and maintenance of said transfer facilities. Pleading shall Pleadings. be made and filed in said action in conformity to those required by law and rules of practice in said court, and said cause shall be tried in the manner provided for the trial of civil actions in the district courts of this state.] beestablished. [ (b.) All railway companies doing business in this Joint rates to state shall, upon the demand of any person or persons interested, or upon demand of the railroad and warehouse commission, establish reasonable joint through rates for the transportation of freight between points on their respective lines within this state.] [Carload lots shall be transferred without unloading from the cars in which such shipments were first måde, unless such unloading into other cars shall be done without charge therefor to the shipper or receiver of such car load lots and such transfer shall be made without unreasonable delay under such contract arrangements as such connecting companies may make, or under such rules as the railroad and warehouse commission may prescribe as hereafter provided in this act.] Transferring load lots. freight in car |