Barnett v. Atlantic & P. R. Co. 68 Mo. 56; Munn v. Ill. 94 U. S. 113 (24: 77).

What are proper subjects of the exercise of the police power are judicial questions.

1 Rorer, Railroads, 563; Chicago & A. R. Co. v. People, 67 Ill. 11; Sloan v. Pacific R. Co. 61 Mo. 24; Ladd v. Southern C. P. & Mfg. Co. 53

1. Section 1289 of the Code of Iowa, which provides that a railway corporation which neglects to pay for stock injured or killed for want of a fence on the side of its road shall be liable for double the value of the stock killed or of the damages, is not in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

2. Corporations are persons within the meaning of such Amendment and can invoke the benefits

of provisions of the Constitution, and laws which guarantee to persons the enjoyment of property, or afford to them the means for its protection, or prohibit legislation injuriously affecting it.

[No. 100.]

Argued Dec. 3, 1888. Decided Jan. 7, 1889.

IN

IN ERROR to the Circuit Court of Kossuth County, State of Iowa, to review a judgment of the Circuit Court of said county for double the value of animals killed by a railway company by reason of the neglect of said company to fence its road. Affirmed.

The facts are stated in the opinion. Mr. Eppa Hunton, for plaintiff in error: Section 1289, Code of 1873, of Iowa, is unconstitutional, because it conflicts with the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which provides that "No State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

584; Cooley, Const. Lim. 715 and note; Thorpe v. Rutland & B. R. Co. 27 Vt. 149: Pierce, Railroads, 465; 3 Wood, R. Law, 1703.

(Submitted by the defendant in error, in person, on the record.)

Mr. Justice Field delivered the opinion of [27] the court:

This case comes before us from the Circuit Court of Kossuth County, Iowa, the highest court of that State, in which the controversy between the parties could be determined. R. S. $ 709. It was an action for the value of three hogs, run over and killed by the engine and cars of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Company, a corporation existing under the laws of Minnesota and Iowa, and operating a railroad in the latter State. The killing was at a point where the defendant had the right to fence its road. The action was brought be fore a justice of the peace of Kossuth County. Proof having been made of the killing of the animals and of their value, and that notice of the fact, with affidavit of the injury, had been served upon an officer of the company in the county where the injury was committed, more than thirty days before the commencement of the action, the justice gave judgment for the plaintiff against the company for twenty-four dollars, double the proved value of the ani

Santa Clara Co. v. Southern Pac. R. Co. 118 U. S. 396 (30: 118); Bank of U. S. v. Deveaux, 9 U. S. 5 Cranch, 86 (3:38); Marshall v. Balt. & O. R. Co. 57 U. S. 16 How. 326 (14: 953); Richmond etc. R. Co. v. Richmond, 96 U. S. 529 (24:737); R. Tax Cases, 13 Fed. Rep. 733; Wally v. Kennedy, 2 Yerg. 554.

Under the police power, no State can impose the penalty of double damages.

ment was affirmed. To review this latter judgment the case is brought here on writ of

error.

The judgment rendered by the justice was authorized by section 1289 of the Code of Iowa, which is as follows:

"Any corporation operating a railway that fails to fence the same against live stock running at large, at all points where such right to fence exists, shall be liable to the owner of any