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CASES

ARGUED AND DETERMINED

IN THE

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT.

OCTOBER TERM, 1901.

(183 U. S. 13)

KNOXVILLE IRON COMPANY, Plff. in | he was the bona fide holder by purchase in

Err.,

บ.

SAMUEL HARBISON.

Constitutionality of statute-redemption of store orders in money-interference with right of contract.

The provision for the redemption of store or ders, scrip, etc., in money, which is made by Tenn. act March 17, 1899, requiring all persons who issue such orders to employees in payment of wages to redeem them in money on any regular pay day or at any time within thirty days after they are issued, if presented and payment in money demanded by such employees or by bona fide holders, is not unconstitutional as an arbitrary Interference with the right of contract, but is a legitimate exercise of the general legislative power as well as of the police power.

[No. 22.]

due course of trade of certain specified accepted orders for coal that had been issued by the defendant company in payment of wages due to its employees; that he had made due demand for their redemption in cash according to law, which demand had been refused; and that he was entitled to a decree for the amount of said orders, with interest. The company filed an answer denying that the complainant was a bona fide holder of the orders in question, and alleging an agreement between the company and its employees that the latter would accept coal in payment of said orders, etc.

Proof was taken and the case heard by the chancellor, who rendered a decree in favor of the complainant for $1,702.66 as principal and interest of said orders, with costs. An appeal was taken by the defendant company to the court of chancery appeals of Tennessee, an intermediate court of reference in equity causes, where the decree

Argued and Submitted March 7, 1901. De- of the chancery court of Knox county was

cided October 21, 1901.

IN ERROR to the Supreme Court of the 'N ERROR to the Supreme Court of the affirming a decree of the Chancery Court of Appeals which affirmed a decree of the Chancery Court of Knox County in favor of complainant in a bill to enforce the redemption in money of certain orders for coal issued to employees in payment of wages. Affirmed.

"See same case below, 103 Tenn. 421, 53 8. W. 955.

Statement by Mr. Justice Shiras:

In the chancery court of Knox county, Tennessee, Samuel Harbison, a citizen of said state, on June 2, 1899, filed a bill of complaint against the Knoxville Iron Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Tennessee, alleging that 22 S. C.-1

affirmed.

The facts as found by the court of chancery appeals are as follows:

"The defendant is a corporation chartered under chapter 57, Acts of 1867-68. The following powers are given by 8 4: To purchase, hold, and dispose of such real es tate, not to exceed 70,000 acres, leases, minerals, iron, coal, oil, salt, and personal property as they may desire, or as they may deem necessary for the legitimate transaction of their business; to mine, bore, forge, smelt, work, and manufacture, transport, refine, and vend the same. The company to have and enjoy and exercise all the rights, privileges, and powers belonging to or incidental to corporations, which may be convenient to carry out any business they are in this act authorized to engage in."

"The defendant has its principal office at Knoxville, where it is engaged in the manu

facture of iron. As an incident to this busi- | 12 cents per bushel for the amount of coal ness it also mines and sells coal. Its mines called for by said orders. There is no proof are located in Anderson county. It works of an express agreement between the defendabout 200 employees. It has now and has ant and its employees that the orders had for many years a regular pay day, be- should be paid only in coal, unless the face ing that Saturday in every month which is of the order shall be construed as setting nearest the 20th day of the month. Upon forth such an agreement. The only proof this pay day each employee is paid in cash of any implied agreement to that effect is the amount then due him, excepting what to be found in such inferences as may be may be due him from the first of the month, drawn from the face of the orders and from up to said pay day; that is, the company the custom of the company to issue them and keeps in arrears with its employees all the the employees to receive them on other than time to the extent of their wages for about the regular cash pay days and the fact that twenty days' time, so far as concerns the no employee has ever presented one of such matter of cash payments, but they may col- orders for redemption in anything else than lect this sum and all sums that may be coal. There is no proof of any compulsion due them in coal orders, as stated below. on the part of the defendant upon its operaIt does not and will not pay cash to its tives, except in so far as compulsion may employees for wages at any other time than be implied from the fact that unless defendupon said regular pay days. Defendant, ant's operatives take their wages in coal however, nearly always has on hand in its orders they must always on each monthly Knoxville yard a large amount of coal which pay day suffer the defendant to be in arrears it sells to all persons who are willing to about twenty days; that is, that on the regpurchase, whether such persons are its la-ular pay day on that Saturday which is borers or the public generally. For some the nearest the 20th of the month, the detime prior to the filing of the bill and at the time the bill was filed the defendant was and had been accustomed to accept from its laborers, after work had been performed, orders for coal in the following form: "Let bearer have bushels of coal

and charge to my account.

666

"The defendant's employees are accustomed to sign orders, and in this form they are accepted by a stamp in these words: "Accepted 1899.

lar, that is, before the passage of chapter 11, act of 1899-but he instructed his agents to give 85 cents on the dollar, and the orders now in suit were purchased at that price. They amount in dollars and cents to $1,678. There is no evidence of bad faith on the part of the complainant in the purchase of said orders."

fendant will not pay wages except up to the last day of the preceding month, but will pay in coal orders the whole wages due at the end of each week, and that such is the course of business between the defendant and its employees. The complainant purchased 614 of said accepted orders from defendant's employees, and within thirty days from the issuance of each of said orders he presented each of them to the Knoxville Iron Company, defendant hereto, and demanded that it redeem them in cash, which ""Knoxville Iron Company.' was refused by defendant. Complainant is "Many of the defendant's employees have a licensed dealer in securities, and sent his never drawn an order on the defendant, and agents among the employees of the defendmany others have used them only in the ant to buy these coal orders. They had prepurchase of coal for themselves; but the de-viously been selling at 75 cents on the dol fendant in this way pays off about 75 per cent of the wages earned by its employees. Many of the employees who draw these orders get small wages, 90 cents to $1.20 per day, and sell these orders to get money to live on, but those who get the largest wages, $65 to $175 per month, draw more of such coal orders in proportion than do those who get small wages. Defendant has never insisted upon any of its laborers giving any such orders, but has been willing to accept such orders when any employee would draw From the decree of the chancery court of them and ask their acceptance. Defendant, appeals an appeal was taken by the comhowever, sets apart every Saturday after-pany to the supreme court of Tennessee, by noon, from 1 o'clock to 5 o'clock, for the which court the decrees of the courts beIt makes some case low were affirmed. The acceptance of such orders. profit in accepting said orders in that, in- brought to this court by a writ of error alstead of paying the wages of its employees lowed by the chief justice of the supreme in cash, it pays them in coal at 12 cents per bushel, and also, to some extent, its coal business is increased thereby. On the other hand, such orders are a convenience to the defendant's employees in the way of enabling them to realize on their wages before the reg ular monthly pay day and up to that pay day. When these orders are drawn by defendant's employees and accepted, defendant credits itself with said orders on its accounts with the persons so drawing them at the rate of

The orders sued on in this case were issued after the passage of the act of March 17, 1899.

court of Tennessee.

was

then

Lucky, and James A. Fowler for plaintiff
Messrs. E. T. Sanford, Cornelius E.

in error.

Mr. John W. Green submitted the case for defendant in error, and Mr. Samuel G. Shields was with him on the brief.

Mr. Justice Shiras delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a suit in equity brought to this

court by a writ of error to the supreme in question, sufficiently appear in the fol court of the state of Tennessee, involving lowing extracts from its opinion, a copy of the validity, under the Federal Constitution, which is found in the record: of an act of the legislature of Tennessee passed March 17, 1899, requiring the redemption in cash of store orders or other evidences of indebtedness issued by employers in payment of wages due to employees. The caption and material portions of this act are as follows:

"Confessedly, the enactment now called in question is in all respects a valid statute and free from objection as such, except that it is challenged as an arbitrary interference with the right of contract, on account of which it is said that it is unconstitutional, and not the law of the land' or 'due proc

"An Act Requiring All Persons, Firms, Cor-ess of law.' porations, and Companies Using Cou- "The act does, undoubtedly, abridge or pons, Scrip, Punchouts, Store Orders or qualify the right of contract, in that it reOther Evidences of Indebtedness to Pay quires that certain obligations payable in Laborers and Employees for Labor, or the first instance in merchandise shall in Otherwise to Redeem the Same in Good certain contingencies be paid in money; yet and Lawful Money of the United States it is as certainly general in its terms, emin the Hands of Their Employees, La- bracing equally every employer and employee borers, or a Bona Fide Holder, and to who is or may be in like situation and cirProvide a Legal Remedy for Collection cumstances, and it is enforceable in the usuof Same in Favor of Said Laborers, Em- al modes established in the administration ployees, and Such Bona Fide Holder. of government with respect to kindred mat"Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the general as-ters. The exact and precise requirement is sembly of the state of Tennessee, That all that all employers, whether natural or artipersons, firms, corporations, and companies ficial persons, paying their employees in using coupons, scrip, punchouts, store or- 'coupons, scrip, punchouts, store orders, or ders, or other evidences of indebtedness to other evidences of indebtedness,' shall repay their or its laborers and employees, for deem the same at face value in money, if labor or otherwise, shall, if demanded, re- demanded by the employee or a bona fide deem the same in the hands of such laborer, holder on a regular pay day or at any time employee, or bona fide holder, in lawful not less than thirty days from issuance (§ money of the United States: Provided, The 1), and that, if payment be not so made same is presented and redemption demanded upon such demand, the owner may maintain of such person, firm, company, or corpora- a suit on such evidence of indebtedness, and tion using same as aforesaid, at a regular have a money recovery for the face value pay day of such person, firm, company, or thereof, in any court of competent jurisdiccorporation to laborers or employees, or if tion (§ 2). presented and redemption demanded as aforesaid by such laborers, employees, or bona fide holders at any time not less than thirty days from the issuance or delivery of such coupon, scrip, punchout, store order, or other evidence of indebtedness to such employees, laborers, or bona fide holder. Such redemption to be at the face value of said scrip, punchout, coupon, store order, or other evidence of indebtedness: Provided, further, Said face value shall be in cash the same as its purchasing power in goods, wares, and merchandise at the commissary, company store, or other repository of such company, firm, person, or corporation afore said.

"Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That any employee, laborer, or bona fide holder referred to in § 1 of this act, upon presentation and demand for redemption of such scrip, coupon, punchout, store order, or other evidence of indebtedness aforesaid, and upon refusal of such person, firm, corporation, or company to redeem the same in good and lawful money of the United States, may maintain in his, her, or their own name an action before any court of competent jurisdiction against such person, firm, corporation, or company, using same as aforesaid, for the recovery of the value of such coupon, scrip, punchout, store order, or other evidence of indebtedness, as defined in § 1 of this act."

The views of the supreme court of Tennessee, sustaining the validity of the enactment

"There is no prohibition against the is suance of any of the obligations referred to, nor against payment in merchandise or otherwise according to their terms, but only a provision that they shall be paid in money at the election and upon a prescribed demand of the owner. In other words, the effect of the act is to convert into cash obligations such unpaid merchandise orders, etc., as may be presented for money payment on a regular pay day or as much as thirty days after issuance.

"Under the act the present defendant may issue weekly orders for coal, as formerly, and may pay them in that commodity when desired by the holder, but instead of being able, as formerly, to compel the holder to accept payment of such orders in coal, the holder may, under the act, compel defendant to pay them in money. In this way and to this extent the defendant's right of contract is affected.

"Under the act, as formerly, every employee of the defendant may receive the whole or a part of his wages in coal orders, and may collect the orders in coal, or transfer them to someone else for other merchandise or for money. His condition is bettered by the act, in that it naturally enables him to get a better price for his coal orders than formerly, and thereby gives him more for his labor; and yet, although the defendant may not in that transaction realize the expected profit on the amount of coal called for in the orders, it in no event pays more

in dollars and cents for the labor than the | derground mines, and fixing the period of contract price.

employment at eight hours per day, was in "The scope and purpose of the act are question. There, as here, it was contended thus indicated. The legislature evidently that the legislation deprived the employers deemed the laborer at some disadvantage un- and employees of the right to make conder existing laws and customs, and by this tracts in a lawful way and for lawful puract undertook to ameliorate his condition poses; that it was class legislation, and not in some measure by enabling him or his equal or uniform in its provisions; that it bona fide transferee, at his election and at deprived the parties of the equal protection a proper time, to demand and receive his of the laws, abridged the privileges and imunpaid wages in money rather than in some-munities of the defendant as a citizen of thing less valuable. Its tendency, though the United States, and deprived him of his slight it may be, is to place the employer property and liberty without due process and employee upon equal ground in the mat- of law. But it was held, after full review ter of wages, and, so far as calculated to of the previous cases, that the act in quesaccomplish that end, it deserves commenda- tion was a valid exercise of the police power tion. Being general in its operation and en- of the state, and the judgment of the suforceable by ordinary suit, and being unimpreme court of Utah, sustaining the legispeached and unimpeachable upon other con- lation was affirmed.

stitutional grounds, the act is entitled to Where a contract of insurance provided full recognition as the 'law of the land' and that the insurance company should not be due process of law' as to the matters em-liable beyond the actual cash value of the braced, without reference to the state's po-property at the time of its loss, and where lice power, as was held of an act imposing a statute of the state of Missouri provided far greater restrictions upon the right of that, in all suits brought upon policies of contract, in the case of Dugger v. Mechan- insurance against loss or damage by fire, the ics & T. Ins. Co. 95 Tenn. 245, 28 L. R. A. insurance company should not be permitted 796, 32 S. W. 5, and as had been previously to deny that the property insured was worth decided in respect of other limiting statutes at the time of issuing the policy the full therein mentioned. 95 Tenn. 253, 254, 28 mount of the insurance, this court held L. R. A. 799, 32 S. W. 6, 7. that it was competent for the legislature of Missouri to pass such a law, even though it places a limitation upon the right of contract. Orient Ins. Co. v. Daggs, 172 U. S. 557, 43 L. ed. 552, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 281.

"Furthermore, the passage of this act was a legitimate exercise of police power, and upon that ground also the legislation is well sustained. The first right of a state, as of a man, is self-protection, and with the state that right involves the universally acIn St. Louis, I. M. & S. R. Co. v. Paul, 173 knowledged power and duty to enact and en-U. S. 404, 43 L. ed. 746, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. force all such laws not in plain conflict with 419, a judgment of the supreme court of some provision of the state or Federal Con- Arkansas sustaining the validity of an act stitution as may rightly be deemed necessary or expedient for the safety, health, morals, comfort, and welfare of its people.

"The act before us is, perhaps, less stringent than any one considered in any of the cases mentioned. It is neither prohibitory nor penal; not special, but general; tending towards equality between employer and employee in the matter of wages; intended and well calculated to promote peace and good order, and to prevent strife, violence, and bloodshed. Such being the character. purpose, and tendency of the act, we have no hesitation in holding that it is valid, both as general legislation, without reference to the state's reserved police power, and also as a wholesome regulation adopted in the proper exercise of that power."

The supreme court of Tennessee justified its conclusions by so full and satisfactory a reference to the decisions of this court as to render it unnecessary for us to travel over the same ground. It will be sufficient to briefly notice two or three of the latest

cases.

of the legislature of that state, which provided that whenever any corporation or person engaged in operating a railroad should discharge, with or without cause, any employee or servant, the unpaid wages of any such servant then earned should become due and payable on the date of such discharge without abatement or deduction, was affirmed. It is true that stress was laid in the opinion in that case on the fact that, in the Constitution of the state, the power to amend corporation charters was reserved to the state, and it is asserted that no such power exists in the present case. But it is also true that, inasmuch as the right to contract is not absolute in respect to every matter, but may be subjected to the restraints demanded by the safety and welfare of the state and its inhabitants, the police power of the state may, within defined limitations, extend over corporations outside of and regardless of the power to amend charters. Atchison, T. & 8. F. R. Co. v. Matthews, 174 U. S. 96, 43 L. ed. 909, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 609.

The judgment of the Supreme Court of Tennessee is affirmed.

In Holden v. Hardy, 169 U. S. 366, 42 L. ed. 780, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 383, the validity of an act of the state of Utah, regulating the employment of workingmen in un-Peckham dissent.

Mr. Justice Brewer and Mr. Justice

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Mr. Justice Shiras delivered the opinion of the court:

The only question presented for our consideration in this record is the validity, under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, of the act of the legislature of the state of Tennessee prescribing that corporations and other persons is

Argued March 7, 1901. Decided October 21, suing store orders in payment for labor

1901.

IN to of the
IN ERROR to the Supreme Court of the
affirming a judgment against a corporation
in a suit to recover money on store orders
issued to employees for labor. Affirmed.
See same case below, 103 Tenn. 604, 53
S. W. 070.

Statement by Mr. Justice Shiras:

This was an action tried in the circuit court of Rhea county, Tennessee, wherein T. A. Barton, a citizen of Tennessee, sought to recover from the Dayton Coal & Iron Company (Limited), a corporation organized under the laws of Great Britain, and doing business as a manufacturer of pig iron and coke in said county. The company owns a store, where it sells goods to its employees and other persons. The company also has a monthly pay day, and settles in cash with its employees on said pay day. In the meantime, and to such of its employees as see fit to request the same, it issues orders on its storekeeper for goods.

shall redeem them in cash, and providing a legal remedy for bona fide holders of such orders.

In the case of Knoxville Iron Co. v. Har

bison, in error to the supreme court of Tennessee, decided at the present term, 183 U. S. 13, ante, 1, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1, we affirmed the judgment of that court sustain. ing the constitutional validity of the state legislation in question, and the cause now before us is sufficiently disposed of by a reference to that case.

The only difference in the cases is that in the former the plaintiff in error was a domestic corporation of the state of Tennessee, while in the present the plaintiff in error is a foreign corporation. If that fact can be considered as a ground for a different conclusion, it would not help the present plaintiff in error, whose right, as a foreign corporation, to carry on business in the state of Tennessee, might be deemed subject to the condition of obeying the regula tions prescribed in the legislation of the state. As was said in Orient Ins. Co. v. Daggs, 172 U. S. 557, 43 L. ed. 552, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 281, that "which a state may do with corporations of its own creation it may do with foreign corporations admitted into the state. The power of a state to

On March 17, 1899, the legislature of Tennessee passed an act requiring "all persons, firms, corporations, and companies using coupons, scrip, punchouts, store or ders, or other evidences of indebtedness to impose conditions upon foreign corporations pay laborers and employees for labor or is certainly as extensive as the power over otherwise, to redeem the same in good and domestic corporations, and is fully exlawful money of the United States in the plained in Hooper v. California, 155 U. S. hands of their employees, laborers, or a bona 648, 39 L. ed. 297, 5 Inters. Com. Rep. 610, fide holder, and to provide a legal remedy 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 207." for collection of same in favor of said la

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This was a suit brought by said Barton to recover as a bona fide holder of certain store orders that had been issued by the defendant company to some of its laborers in payment for labor. The defendant company denied the validity of the legislation, as well under the laws and Constitution of Tennessee as the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The plaintiff recovered a judgment against the company in the circuit court of Rhea county, and this judgment was affirmed by the supreme court of Tennessee, whereupon a

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We do not care, however, to put our present decision upon the fact that the plaintiff in error is a foreign corporation, nor to be understood to intimate that state legisla tion, invalid as contrary to the Constitution of the United States, can be imposed as a condition upon the right of such a corporation to do business within the state. Home Ins. Co. v. Morse, 20 Wall. 445, 22 L. ed. 365; Blake v. McClung, 172 U. S. 239, 254, 43 L. ed. 432, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 165.

The judgment of the Supreme Court of Tennessee is affirmed.

Mr. Justice Brewer and Mr. Justice Peckham dissent.

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