Northwestern Union Packet Co. v. St. Paul
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Minnesota
The plaintiff is a corporation duly organized under the laws of the state of Iowa, and was engaged during the years 1870 and 1871 in running its boats and barges on the Mississippi river for the transportation of freight and passengers. This action is brought to recover money illegally demanded and paid under protest, for the privilege of stopping in the port of St. Paul.
Read the full summary
The plaintiff is a corporation duly organized under the laws of the state of Iowa, and was engaged during the years 1870 and 1871 in running its boats and barges on the Mississippi river for the transportation of freight and passengers. This action is brought to recover money illegally demanded and paid under protest, for the privilege of stopping in the port of St. Paul. The defendant urges that being a municipal corporation, authorized by its charter to build, control, and manage wharves and levees within the city limits, it collected money claimed by the plaintiff by virtue of the…
1Opinion of the Court
NELSON, District Judge.
The question involved here, aside from that of voluntary payment. is: Does this ordinance of the city of St. Paul conflict with that , clause of the constitution of the United States which forbids a state to levy any duty of tonnage without tire consent of congress? In the case of Cannon v. City of New Orleans, 20 Wall. [87 U. S.] 577, the United States supreme court laid down a rule of decision which covers this case. The New Orleans ordinance charged a rate per ton “on all steamboats which shall moor or land in any part of the port.” The ordinance of the defendant…
2Cited by3 opinions
- Packet Co. v. KeokukSupreme Court of the United States · 1877
- City of St. Louis v. Eagle Packet Co.Supreme Court of Missouri · 1908
- Memphis & Little Rock R. v. NolanUnited States Circuit Court · 1882