ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS-NOTICE AND HEARING

Authors

Abstract

The State Highway Commissioner proceeded against the defendant railroad under a Virginia statute empowering him to order the removal of any railroad grade crossing and the substitution of an elevated road when in his opinion public safety and convenience demanded it. No notice and hearing was given or required, and the only judicial recourse was an action in equity in the event of "arbitrary" action. Held, by a six-three decision, that although it is assumed that a state legislature might order the same action, it by no means follows that an administrative officer may be empowered to act with finality without notice and hearing upon his own opinion and ordain the taking of private property, and to do so, as here, amounts to a delegation of purely arbitrary and unconstitutional power as to which the indefinite right of resort to a court of equity affords no adequate protection. Southern Ry. v. Virginia, (U.S. 1933) 54 Sup. Ct. 148.

Recommended Citation

ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS-NOTICE AND HEARING, 32 Mich. L. Rev. 1157 (1934).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol32/iss8/11