Lindsay & Phelps Co. v. Mullen

Background

A Minnesota boom company operated a log-collection boom on a Mississippi channel and hired the state surveyor to inspect and scale logs passing through. A logging company whose logs were taken into the boom refused to pay the inspector’s fees. The logger sued, challenging the boom’s charter status, the surveyor’s right to a lien (a legal claim) on logs, and whether Minnesota could impose such rules on logs coming from Wisconsin.

Reasoning

The Court held that the boom qualified as "chartered by law," including corporations formed under general state law. The statute required compulsory inspection and scaling, and certified scale bills were proper evidence. The Court reasoned the legislature could treat the boom as a quasi-owner of logs in its custody, let the boom charge tolls, and let the surveyor rely on certified scale bills to establish a legal claim for unpaid fees. The majority also concluded that state improvements to waterways and reasonable charges for using them do not unduly burden interstate commerce so long as Congress has not acted.

Real world impact

The decision lets state-authorized boom operators and inspectors collect fees and enforce claims against logs held in booms, including logs originating from another State, so long as the state law authorizes the improvement and charges. The ruling stands unless Congress acts or federal law otherwise intervenes. Loggers who use a boom face an obligation to pay inspection and scaling costs when the statute so provides.

Dissents or concurrances

A dissent argued that allowing one owner’s logs to be taken to pay another’s debt is an unfair taking of property and may burden interstate commerce; three Justices joined that view.