Edward Douglass White

“ Besides the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, the contract clause of the Constitution of the United States is relied upon in the assignments. In argument however that contention is based, not upon the impairment by the ordinance of any particular contract right, but upon the unwarranted burden which it is asserted would result from enforcing the ordinance as against the railroad company because of the general authority which it possessed under its franchises to operate its railroad in the streets. ”

“ At the threshold a motion to dismiss requires to be considered. It is based upon the ground that the court below had, under the state Constitution and laws, no power to review by certiorari the action of the superior court and therefore that court was the court of last resort competent to decide the cause. ”