State v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.
Wisconsin Supreme Court
[Appeals from judgments of the circuit court for Dane county: E. Rat StbveNS, Circuit Judge. The purpose as to each of the four causes is to recover $10,000 as penalty under sec. 1214, Stats. 1898, for noncompliance with the law relating to payment to the state of the percentage of defendant’s gross earnings, due the state for 1903 under sec. 1213, Stats. 1898. The complaint by appropriate allegations stated a cause of action under such section.
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[Appeals from judgments of the circuit court for Dane county: E. Rat StbveNS, Circuit Judge. The purpose as to each of the four causes is to recover $10,000 as penalty under sec. 1214, Stats. 1898, for noncompliance with the law relating to payment to the state of the percentage of defendant’s gross earnings, due the state for 1903 under sec. 1213, Stats. 1898. The complaint by appropriate allegations stated a cause of action under such section. Issues were joined in due form and the truth of the matter as to the questions thus raised was found by the court in accordance with written…
1Concurrence 1
*517The following opinion was filed June 25, 1906:
2Concurrence · DodgeDodge, J.
I concur in the judgment of this court on the one ground, stated in the opinion, that a construction of sec. 1214, Stats. 1898, to impose the penalty •by it denounced upon an entirely innocent mistake of fact or law in a bona fide effort to comply with secs. 1211 and 1212, Stats. 1898, would be so absurd that we cannot attribute such an intention to any legislature whose acts must be presumed to be dictated by reason. The section in question is so highly penal and so drastic as to be, in effect, a criminal statute. The legislature, if exercising…
3Cases cited7 opinions
- Litchfield v. County of WebsterSupreme Court of the United States · 1880
- State ex rel. Abbot v. McFetridgeWisconsin Supreme Court · 1885
- Schumacher v. FalterWisconsin Supreme Court · 1902
- Savannah, Florida & Western Railway v. MortonSupreme Court of Georgia · 1884
- Johnson v. HuberWisconsin Supreme Court · 1903
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