Dinsmore v. Southern Express Co.

Background

A group of New York citizens who owned shares in the Southern Express Company sued in federal court to stop a Georgia Railroad Commission order. The Commission had directed the express company, not shippers, to supply one-cent revenue stamps required by a 1898 law for bills of lading and receipts. The shareholders asked the court to block state enforcement and prevent the company from having to pay or collect the tax.

Reasoning

Lower courts split: the trial court enjoined the Commission’s enforcement, but the appeals court reversed and directed dismissal. Before this Court decided, Congress amended the 1898 law in 1901 to say that express companies are excluded from the stamp requirement. Because the statutory change removed express companies from the law’s reach, the dispute over who must supply stamps disappeared. The Court therefore affirmed the dismissal, explaining that the new law left no live controversy and made the plaintiffs’ requested relief unnecessary.

Real world impact

The decision leaves the 1901 change in the law controlling what happens to express companies: they no longer face the duty under the earlier statute to attach or provide the one-cent stamps. The Court’s action simply confirms that when Congress changes a law in a way that settles the parties’ dispute, the courts will dismiss the case as moot. No further relief was ordered, and the judgment was affirmed without costs.