Santa Fe Trail Transp. Co. v. Dep't of Motor Vehicles

Petitioner, the Santa Fe Trail Transportation Company, a Kansas corporation authorized to do business in California, is a common carrier engaged in the transportation of freight by truck. Its stock is wholly owned *843 by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company (hereafter “Railroad”), also a Kansas corporation. In the month of October 1964, petitioner was required to pay to the State of California certain registration fees for the use of California highways in its trucking operation. By writ of mandate, petitioner sought a refund of the fees paid, allegedly because they were not properly collectible by California. The trial court denied the petition. This is an appeal from the judgment.

The subject matter of this suit involves the proper construction to be given to an interstate compact entered into between a number of Western and Midwestern states, including California, known as the Uniform Vehicle Registration Proration and Reciprocity Agreement (hereafter, “Agreement” or “Compact”). Generally speaking, as it deals with commercial vehicles, the Compact (which went into effect in 1956) permits the operator of what it defines as a “fleet” of vehicles, to prorate…