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The Green Bag
bile “at a rate of speed greater than was
reasonable and proper, having regard to traffic and the use of the way and the safety of the public," in Commonwealth v. Cassidy, 209 Mass. 24, decided May 18. The Court said: "The section in question, after creat ing the offense, goes on to provide that
in certain localities therein described ‘a speed exceeding 20 miles per hour for the distance of a quarter of a mile’
shall be 'prima facie evidence of a rate of speed greater than is reasonable and proper,’ and it contains a similar provi sion as to a rate of speed ‘exceeding 15 miles per hour for the distance of one eighth of a mile’ in certain other locali ties. “Shortly stated, the statute forbids
to traflic and the use of the way and the safety of the public, they should convict the defendant; otherwise they
should acquit him." Statute
Requiring
Registnm'on and
License Fees Constitutional— Interstate
Commerce.
N. J.
An important decision bearing upon the right of a state to demand registration and license fees of non
resident motorists was recently handed down by the Court of Errors and Ap peals of New Jersey. The Frelinghuysen automobile law of 1906 was held con
stitutional. To test the law Frank J. Kane of New York brought a proceeding after he had been fined for attempting to
the running of an automobile at a rate
run his car from Jersey City to Pennsyl
of speed greater than is reasonable and proper, and declares what rates of speed shall be prima facie evidence of the rate
vania without payment of the estab lished fees. Kane held that the statute was invalid because it was not merely a revenue measure and that it violated
forbidden.
“The real question in all these cases now is whether the speed is greater than was reasonable and proper, having regard to traffic and the use of the way and the safety of the public, the burden being on the commonwealth to show that it was. If the speed was such as to make out a prima facie case for the
prosecution, still the burden does not change.
“The jury are to give due weight to the prima facie case taken in connection
with the other circumstances disclosed by the testimony, whether coming from
witnesses called by the government or by the defendant, and if they are satis fied that the speed is greater than was reasonable and proper, having regard
the federal
Constitution because,
as
applying to non-resident autoists, it was a regulation of interstate commerce.
The opinion, written by Chief Justice Gummere, held that the legislature, in regard to the first contention, was clearly within its power as reserved to it under the Constitution. As to the second point, he held that the automo bile fees, while affecting interstate com
merce, are a legitimate exercise of state powers. He decided that the use by swiftly moving automobiles of roads in New Jersey causes their rapid deterio ration and that the Frelinghuysen law simply imposes a charge for the raising of revenue to be applied to the upkeep of these roads.
