Benjamin N. Cardozo

“ It has said that a forbidden perpetuity is created when there is granted to an individual or corporation a perpetual privilege or franchise. It has gone farther; it has said that a privilege or franchise is perpetual if indefinite in duration, though it be subject to revocation at the pleasure of the Legislature. ”

“ There must be reluctance even greater when the rights are strictly local; jurisdiction having no other basis than the accidents of residence. The need is clamant in such circumstances for cautious hesitation. If there were to be a concession arguendo that the meaning of 'perpetuities' is still an unsettled question after the decisions in Oklahoma, there is surely no room for a contention that a meaning in opposition to those decisions is reasonably free from doubt. ”

“ The statutes of Oklahoma are explicit that tolls may never be collected unless permitted by a franchise (Wagon Road Act, Compiled Oklahoma Statutes, § 5627; Toll Bridge Corporations Act, Compiled Oklahoma Statutes, § 5367) . In controversies so purely local, little gain is to be derived from drawing nice distinctions between dicta and decisions. ”

“ Indeed, the radiating potencies of a decision may go beyond the actual holding. A wise comity has decreed that deference shall at times be owing, though there may be lacking, in the circumstances, a strict duty of obedience. ”

“ Only a case of manifest oppression will justify a federal court in laying such a check upon administrative officers acting colore officii in a conscientious endeavor to fulfill their duty to the state. A prudent self-restraint is called for at such times if state and national functions are to be maintained in stable equilibrium. ”

“ To define a 'perpetuity' for a young and developing community, there must be recourse to something more than the pages of a dictionary. The word to be defined, in common with words generally, will have a color and a content that will vary with the setting. ”

“ Disagreement with either, even though permissible, is at best a last resort, to be embraced with caution and reluctance. The stranger from afar, unacquainted with the local ways, permits himself to be guided by the best evidence available, the directions or the counsel of those who dwell upon the spot. ”

“ On May 16, 1911, the county commissioners of Cleveland county on the other side of the Canadian river adopted a like resolution for the grant of a like franchise to the same grantees. On May 18, 1911, Carter, one of the grantees, together with Walling and Hamill, the present respondents, caused a corporation, known as the Purcell-Lexington Toll Bridge Company, to be organized under the laws of Oklahoma, with a corporate life of twenty years. ”

“ No controversy is here as to the impairment of the obligation of a contract in violation of the restraints of the Federal Constitution. We are not to confuse the standards of independent judgment appropriate in such conditions (Coombes v. Getz, 285 U.S. 434, 441, 52 S.Ct. 435, 76 L.Ed. 866; Shriver v. Woodbine Bank, 285 U.S. 467, 475, 52 S.Ct. 430, 76 L.Ed. 884) with those appropriate where the only basis of jurisdiction is diversity of citizenship. ”

“ Much can be said in support of the respondents' position that the perpetuities denounced are those arising from the creation of future estates or from restraints upon alienation without reasonable limit. ”