Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Louisiana Oil Refining Corp.
Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Louisiana Oil Refining Corp.
Opinion of the Court
This is a suit on a reparation award on account of shipments of refined petroleum products moving from Shreveport, La., to points in Texas, from July 14, 1928, to De
Tried below on agreed facts stipulated with commendable brevity and simplicity, the result was to sustain the award. The carriers have appealed. The award was resisted below, it is resisted here, on the ground that it was made as to rates reasonable as matter of law, that is, lawful, because, as the carriers claim, they had been legislatively established by the commission. The shippers deny that this is so. They insist that the rates were carrier made.
If whether a rate is carrier or commission made were a simple question of fact, or a settled one in law, tile stipulation would easily and simply answer it, for it states the facts as to the • institution and maintenance of the rates briefly, directly, and clearly. That it is not so simple appellants’ 63-page brief, and appellees’ of 50 pages, the one maintaining that the stipulated facts show the rate to be commission made, the other that they show them carrier made, eloquently testify. The source of the difficulty is not far to seek. It is to be found in the fact that each claims to take its definition of commission prescribed or approved rates from the same source, the Arizona Grocery Co. Case.
Guided by the rule that that which is decided is only that which the facts of the case bring hefore the court for decision,
Applying the definition to these facts, it is seen that here is no commission-made rate, no “specific rate upon complaint and after hearing,” prescribed “for the future to take the place of the legal tariff rates theretofore in force by the voluntary actions of the carriers.” Here are carrier-made rates, made it is true, under general sanctions, the general sanction of the commission as the result of blanket revisions authorizing first, a general increase;
The District Judge thought the rates carrier made. He thought that the fact that the 1918 order fixing the basic 28-cent rate for petroleum products and providing that these rates should not exceed the contemporaneous fifth class rates, gave emphasis to this view. He thought, too, that the carriers having continued to maintain the commodity rates in force during the period for which reparation was awarded, though the commission had, upon complaint and hearing, reduced fifth class rates below them, could not complain of the reparation order as unjust, or as one declaring the commission’s earlier finding as to reasonableness erroneous, one, in short, declaring that the commission should have decided in 1922 that the rate they found unreasonable in 1928, was unreasonable then.
We agree with the District Judge that the carriers may not justly complain of the reparation award. While it is true that the proceedings which resulted in 1928 in reducing the fifth class rates did exclude petroleum and petroleum products, there were pending before the commission at the same time, and they had been pending since 1927 (171 I. C. C. 457) the complaints against these very petroleum rates, which finally resulted in 1931 in the reparation award.
We think the judgment was right. It is affirmed.
Arizona Grocery Co. v. Atchison Ry., 284 U. S. 370, 52 S. Ct. 183, 185, 76 L. Ed. 348.
“Where the Commission has upon complaint, and after hearing, declared what is the maximum reasonable rate to be charged by a carrier, it may not at a later time, and upon the same or additional evidence as to the fact situation existing when its previous order was promulgated, by declaring its own finding as to reasonableness erroneous, subject a carrier which conformed thereto to the payment of reparation measured by what the Commission now holds it should have decided in the earlier proceeding to be a reasonable rate.” 284 U. S. 380, 52 S. Ct. 186.
“If by act of Congress maximum rates were declared lawful for certain classes of service, neither carrier nor shipper could thereafter draw into question in the courts the conduct of the other if it conformed to the legislative mandate. By the amendatory legislation, Congress has delegated to the Commission as its administrative arm its undoubted power to declare, within constitutional limits, what are lawful rates for the service to be performed by the carriers. The action of the Commission in fixing such rates for - the future is subject to the same tests as to its validity as would be an act of Congress intended to accomplish the same purpose.” 284 U. S. 388, 52 S. Ct. 185.
“The ratio decidendi, the reason for the decision, the principle of the case, is not found in the reasons or the rule of law set forth in the opinion, nor by a consideration of all of the ascertainable facts of the case and the judge’s decision. But the principle of the case is found by taking account of the facts treated by the judge as material and his decision upon them, taking also into account those facts treated by him as immaterial.” Determining the Ratio Decidendi of a Case. Essays in Jurisprudence and the Common Law. Goodhart, University Press, 1930.
“The respondent carriers maintained a rate of $1.045 per hundred pounds for shipment of sugar from California points to Phoenix, Ariz. On complaint of petitioner and others, the Commission, after hearing on June 22, 1921, found that the rate attacked had been, then was, and for the future would be, unreasonable to the extent that it exceeded 96.5 cents [62 I.C.C. 412], and ordered the establishment of a rate not exceeding that figure. September 17, 1921, the carriers promulgated a rate of 96 cents, which they later voluntarily reduced to 86.5 cents. November 3, 1922, certain of the complainants in the earlier proceeding, other than petitioner, filed a new petition attacking th'e current rate. While this case was pending the carriers, on January 10, 1924, again made a voluntary reduction to 84 cents. February 25, 1925, the Commission filed a report prescribing for the future a maximum reasonable rate of 71 cents, to that extent modifying its earlier order. [95 I.C.C. 244] * * *' In a later proceeding, with which petitioner’s and other claims for reparation were consolidated, the Commission found that the rates to Phoenix from and after July 1, 1922, had been unreasonable to the extent they had exceeded 73 cents from Northern California and 71 cents from Southern California. [140 I.C.C. 171] * * * The date of the first shipment made by petitioner on which reparation was awarded was February 21, 1923, and of the last February 5, 1925, so that all were made between the effective dates of the first and second orders above mentioned.” 284 U. S. 381, 382, 52 S. Ct. 183.
“The report and order of 1921 involved in the present case declared in terms that 96.5 cents was, and for the future would be, a reasonable rate. There can be no question that, when the carriers, pursuant to that finding, published a rate of 96 cents, the legal rate thus established, to which they and the shipper were bound to conform, became by virtue of the Commission's order also a lawful — that is, a reasonable — rate.” Arizona Grocery Co. v. Atchison, Topeka & S. F. Ry., supra, 284 U. S. 387, 52 S. Ct. 183, 185.
Railroad Commission of Louisiana v. Arkansas Harbor Terminal R. Co., 48 I.C.C. 312.
58 I.C.C. 220.
68 I.C.C. 676.
171 I.C.C. 437.
123 I.C.C. 203; 139 I.C.C. 535.
(a) In time of war under General Orders of the Director General, approved by the equally General Orders of the Commission, (b) In 1920, under General Orders of the Commission, entered in “Increased Rates 1920,” 58 I.C.C. 220, in a time of recognized inflation and of great fluidity and change.' The commission, in making the order; said: “Most of the facts with which we are dealing are constantly changing. It is impossible to forecast with any degree of certainty what the volume of traffic will be. The general price level is changing from month to month and from day to day. The rates to be established on the basis hereinbefore approved, must necessarily be subject to such readjustments as the facts may warrant. It is conceded by the carriers that much readjustment will be necessary.” Commissioner Eastman, in a concurring opinion, said: “The present proceeding has nothing of finality about it, and in many respects is similar to a suspension case. A matter left by the act to the discretion of the Commission."
In 1922, in a time of great deflation, in “Reduced Rates 1922” Docket 13293, 68 I.C.C. 678, a general decrease amounting to around 10' per cent, was ordered. Tke commission stated the question thus: “The important questions for determination are whether present rates, fares and charges, in the aggregate, as a whole o.r in the several rate groups defined in Increased Rates, 1920, or upon specified commodities or descriptions of traffic, are or will be reasonable under section 1 or other provisions of the act; whether such rates, fares, and charges are those which will most nearly produce a fair return as provided in Sec. 15a, and what the fair return shall be on and after March 1, 1922.” In the course of the discussion of this case it was brought out and emphasized that conditions just the opposite of those which caused the grant of increased rates were now in operation.
“In 1920 we authorized a large increase in freight rates, designed to produce the necessary revenues under conditions then prevailing. There was then little doubt of the ability of industry to bear the charges. The situation has since changed.' The country has been passing through a period of abundant supply and slack demand in which prices at the source have fallen sharply. Shippers almost unanimously contend, and many representatives of the carriers agree, that “freight rates are too high and must come down.”
After considering all the facts of rec
Reference
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- TEXAS & P. RY. CO. v. LOUISIANA OIL REFINING CORPORATION
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