Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Co. v. Jackson Vinegar Co‪.‬

This was an action to recover damages from a railway company for the partial loss of a shipment of vinegar carried over the companys line from one point to another in the State of Mississippi. The case originated in a justices court and was taken on appeal to the Circuit Court of Hinds County, where the plaintiff recovered a judgment for actual damages and $25.00 as a statutory penalty. That being the highest court in the State to which the case could be carried, it was then brought here. The position of the railway company, unsuccessfully taken in the state court and now renewed, is that the Mississippi statute providing for the penalty is repugnant to the due process of law and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The statute reads: