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 Latest Important Cases legal votersIof the"voting district where the school is to be maintained. The Jefferson Circuit Court. Chancery Division. held this law void in a decision, May 21, by Judge Shackelford Miller. The Court declared, citing the authority of the Berea College case (29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 33. 21 Green Bag 31) and other important decisions:— "Instead of being a police regulation, it is really class legislation of the most pronounced character. Under the practical operation of this act, it is doubtful if this school could be conducted in any desirable location in the state." The Court also held that the act was un constitutional as delegating the police power to the voters of the precinct. and as violative of section 60 of the constitution of Kentucky. Public Policy.

419

man has the right to insert in a business message the warning that it is important and that failure to deliver it promptly and correctly will result in ﬁnancial loss. and that the company must send the message as in structed. The decision was made in the suit of William Ill. Vermilye v. Postal Telegraph Cable Co., 91 N. E. Rep. 904. The Court, in allowing the plaintiﬁ damages of $50, declared that the company had no right to refuse to receive for transmission a proper message, payment for which was tendered to it, and the notice affixed did not make the plaintiﬁ’s message improper. It also decided that as the company's refusal to transmit was intentional it was willful within Revised Laws, chapter 122, sections 9 and 10, giving a suit for forfeitures against such companies.

See Employer's Liability. See Railway Rates.

Public Service Oorpontlonl.

Penal Statute

Prohibiting overcrowding of Street Cars Provision Unenforceable for Uncertainty. D. C. The Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, in

U. S. v. Capitol Traction Co.,

decided April 5 (Washington Law Rep. May 20), held the act of Congress of May 23, 1908 (35 Stat. 246), requiring street railroads to operate a sufficient number of cars so as to give expeditious passage to all persons desiring to use the same without crowding said cars, to be so general, indeﬁnite and uncertain in deﬁning the oﬁense of running crowded street cars as to be incapable of enforcement. Mr. Justice Van Orsdel said :— "A criminal statute cannot rest upon an uncertain foundation. The crime, and the elements constituting it, must be so clearly expressed that the ordinary person can intelligently choose, in advance. what course it is lawful for him to pursue. . . . If the Congress has power to declare it a crime for the street railway companies in the District of Columbia to operate cars in a crowded condition, it must, in order to impart validity to the law, declare, with certainty, what constitutes, under the statute, a crowded car. This it has totally failed to do.” Liability for Refusal to send Telegram to which Notice that it .Wust be Rushed was Aﬁixed. Mass. The Massachusetts Supreme Court handed down a decision May 19 to the eﬂect that a

Race Distinctions. "jim Crow Kentucky Constitutional.

Law of U. S.

In Chiles v. Chesapeake & Ohio R. R. Co., decided May 31. the United States Supreme Court sustained the constitutionality of the statute of Kentucky requiring separate accommodations for white and colored passen gers. The decision of the Circuit Court, declaring that a railroad company may, independently of a state law, adopt and enforce rules requiring colored persons, although they are

interstate

passengers,

to

occupy

separate coaches. was afﬁrmed. See Public Education.

ii Hallway Bates. “Missouri River Rate" Cases—"Zones of Trade"—Powers of Inter state Commerce Commission. U. S. By a decision of 4 to 3, the Supreme Court of the United States decided May 31, just before adjournment, that the Interstate Commerce Commission had not exceeded

its power in ordering the reduction of freight rates in the so-called Missouri River Rate cases and the Denver Rate cases. These orders were held to be valid. The decision of Judges Grosscup and Kohlsaat, of the United States Circuit Court, rendered at Chicago August 24, 1909 (see 21 Green Bag 533) was reversed, Mr. Justice McKenna holding that the Commission had not exceeded its powers in the Missouri River Rate case, in ﬁxing zones of trade. The decision in the Denver Rate cases was reversed on similar grounds.