Pennsylvania Co. v. United States
Pennsylvania Co. v. United States
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
The court now holds that this controversy involves merely a switching privilege and the duty of one railroad not to refuse such privilege to another, or at all events if it permits it to one, to allow it to other roads on terms' of equality. By a necessary inference, therefore, the decision.now made is concerned alone with that subject and does not in any degree whatever as a matter of law involve the right of one railroad company to compel another, to permit it to share in its terminal facilities. If I could bring'my mind, to understand the facts of the controversy .as they are now appreciated by the court, there would be no difficulty whatever on my part in accepting the legal principle which is applied to them. But the difficulty which I have is in the premise of fact upon which the case is decided. In other words, I have found it impossible to escape the conclusion that instead of being one concerning a mere switching privilege, the case is really one involving the using of terminal facilities. Differing only therefore as to an appreciation of the facts I am very reluctant to express a dissent, a reluctance which is greatly increased by the consideration that the view
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This case comes here by appeal from an order of the District Court of the United States for the Western Dis
The Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway Company, hereinafter called the Rochester Company, filed its petition before the Interstate Commerce Commission against the Pennsylvania Company, averring that in the City of -New Castle, Pennsylvania, there was a physical connection between the railroads jointly operated by the Rochester Company and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and the terminal facilities of the Pennsylvania Company, at which joint traffic could be properly exchanged, and is exchanged between the railroad operated by the Rochester Company and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, so that traffic on the lines owned and operated by the Rochester Company, and from manufactories and industries reached by the terminal lines of said company in the City of New Castle can be delivered to the Pennsylvania Company and thus transported to its destination; .that there are no joint routes or through rates in effect between the Rochester Company and the Pennsylvania Company by which traffic to and from industries upon the terminal line of the Pennsylvania Company in dr near the City of New Castle may be carried and although complainant had frequently requested the Pennsylvania Company to join in establishing the same, the Pennsylvania Company failed and neglected 'so to do; that the Rochester Company, upon interstate traffic carried by it to the point of physical connection with the road of the Pennsylvania Company, which traffic is destined to manufactories or industries upon the lines of the Pennsylvania Company in or near the city of New Castle, is ready and willing, and has offered to pay the Pennsylvania Company its lawful and proper charges for receiving, carrying and delivering such traffic, which charges it makes to other persons or companies for like services;
The Commission made no order establishing through routes and joint rates, but held that inasmuch as the Pennsylvania Company’s refusal to accept from and move to the Rochester Company carload lots of freight within the switching limits of New Castle, while performing the service in connection with the said other three carriers within- said switching limits was a discrimination, the same was undue, unreasonable, and in violation of the Act to Regulate Commerce. The Commission ordered that the Pennsylvania Company be-required on or before March 15, 1914, to cease and desist from' such undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage as against the Rochester Company, and required the Pennsylvania Company to establish and maintain rates, regulations and practices which would prevent and avoid the aforesaid undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage for á period of two years. Subsequently orders were made, making the order effective from a later date, to-wit, April 15, 1914.
From the facts found by the Commission it appears that New Castle is a manufacturing city of much importance, having a population of about forty thousand people, situated néar the center of the iron, steel and ore industries of the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys. The switching limits of New Castle in their greatest length are about four miles in extent, and included therein are about 100 industries. The Pennsylvania Railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, the Erie Railroad, and the Rochester Railroad all reach and
The Pennsylvania Company refuses all interchange of carload freight, whether incoming or outgoing, with the Rochester road within the switching limits of New Castle, but it does conduct such interchange with the Erie, the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, and the Baltimore & Ohio roads. As to these roads the Pennsylvania Company has published its tariffs, and offers to receive, transport and deliver to and from the Unes of these three carriers carload shipments to and from about 128 industries within the
The Commission found this practice to be an undue and unreasonable discrimination against the Rochester Company, and made an order requiring the Pennsylvania Company- to desist therefrom. Commissioner Harlan dissenting was disposed to agree to an order fixing reasonable joint through rates for the use of the terminals of the Pennsylvania Company and over the rails of the Rochester Company, but disagreed with the order on the grounds made. The Pennsylvania Company then filed the bill in this case in the District Court of the United States for the- Western District of Pennsylvania, and moved for a preliminary injunction, restraining the enforcement of the order. Answer was filed on behalf of the United States, and the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Rochester Company intervened, and, after hearing, the motion was denied, two judges concurring and one judge dissenting. Pennsylvania Company v. United States, 214 Fed. Rep. 445. From this action the Pennsylvania Company appeals, and the case is now before this court.
Section 3 of the Act to Regulate Commerce, 24 Stat. 379, 380, provides:
“That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act to make or give any undue*361 or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, company, firm,- corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, m any respect whatsoever, or to subject any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of trafile, to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever.
“Every common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall, according to their respective powers, afford all reasonable, proper, and equal facilities for the interchange of traffic between their respective lines, and for the receiving, forwarding, and delivering of passengers and property to and from their several lines .and those connecting therewith, and shall not discriminate in their rates and charges between such connecting lines; but this shall not be construed as requiring any such common carrier to give the use of its tracks or terminal facilities to another carrier engaged in like business.”
This section forbids any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage in favor of any person, company, firm, corporation or locality; what is such undue or unreasonable preference or advantage is a question not of law, but of fact. Texas & Pacific Ry. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 162 U. S. 197, 219; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Alabama Midland Railway, 168 U. S. 144, 170. If the order made by the Commission does not contravene any constitutional limitation and is within the constitutional and statutory authority of that body, and not unsupported by testimony, it cannot be set aside by the courts, as it is only the exercise of an authority which the law vests in the Commission. Interstate Commerce Commission v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R., 220 U. S. 235, 251; Los Angeles Switching Case, 234 U. S. 294, 311; Houston & Texas Ry. v. United States, 234 U. S. 342, 359.
It is to be remembered that in the aspect which the case
In determining whether the Commission exceeded its authority under § 3 of the Act to Regulate Commerce, it is essential to consider the character of the service required in the present case. Section 3 was a part of the original Act, and remains unchanged, but there are certain amendments to the Act which are to be read in connection with § 3 as if they were originally incorporated within the Act. Blair v. Chicago, 201 U. S. 400, 475. The Act as amended June 29, 1906, c. 3591, 34 Stat. 584, defines what is meant by common -carriers — engaged in transportation by railroad — which are brought within the control of the Act, and a railroad is defined to include all switches, spurs, tracks and terminal facilities of every kind, used or necessary in the transportation of persons or property designated in the Act, and also all freight depots, yards and grounds used or necessary in the transportation or delivery of any of said property. Not only does the Act define railroads, .but it specifically defines what is meant by transportation, which is made to include “cars and other vehicles and all instrumentalities and facilities of shipment or carriage, irrespective of ownership or of any contract, express or implied, for the use thereof and all services in connection with the receipt, delivery, elevation, and transfer' in transit, ventilation, refrigeration or icing, storage, and handling of property transported.” It is made the duty of every carrier “subject to the provisions of this Act to provide and furnish such transportation upon, reasonable'request therefor, and to establish through routes and just and reasonable rates ap
It follows that the provisions of § 3 of the Act must be read in connection with the amendments and subsequent provisions, which show that transportation, as used in the Act covers the entire carriage and services in connection with the receipt and delivery of property transported. There can be no question that when the Pennsylvania Railroad used these terminal facilities in connection with the receipt' and delivery of carload freight transported in interstate traffic, it was subject to the provisions of the Act, and it was obliged as a common carrier in that capacity to afford all reasonable, proper and equal facilities for the interchange of traffic with connecting lines and for the receiving, forwarding and delivering of property to and from its own lines and such connecting lines, and was obliged not to discriminate in rates and charges between such connecting lines. By the amendments to the Act, the facilities for delivering freight of a terminal character are brought within the terms of the transportation to be regulated.
The cars transported over the Rochester road are brought to a physical connection with the Pennsylvania road at a point where it receives carloads of freight from other roads and transports them over its connecting terminals to points of destination, and at that point in like
If the cars of the Rochester Company reaching the point of connection are drawn by a Baltimore & Ohio locomotive they are received and delivered by the Pennsylvania Company over its terminals.
The Pennsylvania Company insists that these statutory provisions do not apply to it under the circumstances of this case, and that the Commission exceeded its authority in requiring it to desist from what the Commission found to be a discriminatory practice, for certain reasons which, as we understand them, may be reduced to three: (a) That upon the facts shown there is no discrimination in a real sense, and certainly none which warrants the making of the order in question; (b) That the order requires the railroad company to give up the use of its terminals to another company in violation of the last clause of § 3; and (c) that the order is a taking of the railroad company’s property in violation of the protection afforded to it under the Constitution of the United States, preventing the taking of property without due process of law, for the contention is that the effect of the order is to subject the Pennsylvania Railroad’s property to the use of the Rochester Company without compensation.
That there is no discrimination in fact is rested upon the argument that with the other three roads the Pennsylvania Railroad has certain reciprocal arrangements in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys, by which these three roads interchange cars with the Pennsylvania Railroad. It is contended that this, more than the $2.00 per car, is the real inducement for the treatment of those railroads. But, as the Commission found, the amount of traffic exchanged between these three railroads is of a varying and differing quantity, and to ascertain the value of such service to the Pennsylvania Railroad would be a futile under
The objection that the railroad is required to give up the use of its terminals to another company, is perhaps
As we have heretofore shown, the Act, as it now is, provides that transportation which must be furnished to all upon equal terms includes the delivery of freight as part of its transportation. While § 3 remains part of the Act in its original form, it must be given a reasonable construction with a view to carrying out all the provisions of the Act and to make every part, of it effective, in accordance with the intention of Congress.
The majority of the District Court thought the present case was controlled by the case of Grand Trunk Ry. v. Michigan Railroad Commission, 231 U. S. 457, and certainly that case is closely analogous to the present one. In that case the Michigan statute, which was enforced by the State Commission, as to intrastate commerce, required railroads in that State to afford reasonable and proper facilities, by the establishment of switching connections between the roads and the establishment of depots and freight yards for the interchange of traffic, for the receiving, forwarding and delivering of passengers ■ and property to arid from other lines and those connecting therewith, and to transport and deliver without undue delay and discrimination freight and cars destined to any point on its own lines or connecting lines, and not to discriminate in rates and charges between connecting lines. That act, like the Federal act, contained a provision that nqthing therein should be construed as requiring any railroad to give the use of its tracks and terminal facilities to another railroad engaged in like business. This court sustained an order of the Commission requiring the Grand Trunk Railway to accept freight for other roads at con
“Whether, under the statutes of the State of Michigan, appellants can be compelled to use the tracks it owns and operates in the city of Detroit for the interchange of intrastate traffic; or, stating the question more specifically, whether the companies shall receive cars from another carrier at a junction point or physical connection with such carrier within the corporate limits of Detroit for transportation to the team tracks of the companies; and whether the companies shall allow the use of their team tracks for cars to be hauled from their team tracks to a junction point or physical connection with another carrier within such limits and be required to haul such cars in either of the above-named movements or between industrial sidings.”
In answering the contention that the service required was not transportation, but amounted to an appropriation of the terminal facilities of the Grand Trunk Railway, this court said (p. 467):
“The proposition of appellants is, as said by the District Court, that such service and team track service ‘are not in a proper sense transportation, but are essentially distinguishable therefrom’; or, to put it another way — and one which expresses more specially the contention of appellants — they are mere conveniences at the destination or initial point of the transportation and hence are terminal facilities merely and their use is not required to be given to other railroads. The District Court did not regard them in the latter character. After stating the conditions which exist in Detroit and its extent, the court-said of them: ‘ Such tracks are necessary to prevent the congestion which would result from requiring all carload freight, both in and out, to be delivered at the freight depots of fhe respective roads, and in a very proper sense are shipping stations.’ The court concluded that the services were*368 transportation and that the statute of the State validly empowered the Commission 'to require local transportation by a railroad between its own shipping stations within a city, whether such plurality of shipping stations has been voluntarily established by the railroad, as here, or has been required by the Commission under its lawful powers, and provided such transportation is for such substantial distance and of such a character as reasonably to require a railroad haul, as distinguished from other means of carriage.’ The court further said: 'It is clear that a statute validly may, and the statutes we are considering do, authorize the employment of such depots, sidetracks, and team tracks of a railroad for transporting carload freight to and from the junction of such road with another road as a substantial part of a continuous transportation routing, where such junction is outside the city limits.’ And it was remarked that the fact that the freight movement begins and ends within the limits of a city does not take from it its character 'of an actual transportation between two termini,’ the other conditions obtaining. We concur in the conclusion of the court.”
After describing the extent of the city of Detroit to be about 22 miles, and its population about 500,000, the court held that it was competent for the state commission to require transportation between points in that city, as the beginning and destination of traffic, and that to call the service necessary to such movement a taking of terminals was misleading, and that the statute involved was a proper regulation of the business of appellants, and not an appropriation of their terminal facilities for the use and benefit of another road.
In the present case we think there is no requirement in the order of the Commission amounting to a compulsory taking of the use of the terminals of the Pennsylvania Company by another road, within the inhibition of this clause of § 3. The order gives the Rochester road no right
The third and last objection is that the effect of the order of the Commission is to appropriate the property of the Pennsylvania Company without compensation to the use of the Rochester Company, in violation of the Constitution of the United States. Certainly the railroad cannot maintain, in view of the provisions of the statute to which we have referred, that' these terminal facilities are exempt from public regulation and under all circumstances subject to its own control, to be dealt with in such manner as it may see fit. This court recognized, in the case of United States v. Terminal R. R. Ass’n, 224. U. S. 383, that terminal facilities might be so used as to create monopolies, which it was within the power of Congress to control, a power which it might exercise within the prohibitions and limitations of the Sherman Act. So in the present case, all that the order requires the Pennsylvania Company to do is to receive and transport over its terminals by its own motive power, for the Rochester Company, as it does for other companies, similarly situated, carload freight in the course of interstate transportation.
To support the constitutional argument in this connection, reliance is had upon the decision of this court in Louisville &c. R. R. v. Stock Yards, 212 U. S. 132. That case was also relied upon to support a like argument in the Grand Trunk Case, supra, and in the opinion of the
*371 “If the principle is sound, every road into- Louisville, by making a physical connection with the Louisville & Nashville, can get the use of its costly terminals and make it do the switching necessary to that end, upon simply paying for the service of carriage. The duty of,a carrier to accept goods tendered at its station does not extend to the acceptance of cars offered to it at an arbitrary point near its terminus by a competing road, for the purpose of reaching and using its terminal station. To require such an acceptance from a railroad is to take its property .in a very effective sense, and cannot be justified, unless- the railroad holds that property subject to greater liabilities than those incident to its calling alone.”
As this court said in the Grand Trunk Case, the case turnéd upon the point that the roads were competitive and the point of delivery an arbitrary one and that thereby the terminal station of one company was required to be shared with the other. In that connection it used language applicable to the present situation (231 U. S., p. 472):
“In the case at bar a shipper is contesting for the right, as a part of transportation. The order of the Commission was a recognition of the right and legally so. Considering the theater of the movements, the facilities for them are no-more terminal , or switching facilities than the depots, side tracks and main lines are terminal facilities in a less densely populated district.. A precise distinction between facilities can neither be expressed nor enforced. Transportation is the business of railroads, and when that-business may be regulated and to what extent regulated may depend upon circumstances.”
So here there is no attempt to appropriate the terminals of the Pennsylvania Company to the use of the Rochester Company. What is here accomplished is only that the same transportation facilities which are afforded to the shipments brought to the point of connection over tracks Used in common by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and
It follows that the order denying the application for temporary injunction was properly made, and the judgment must be
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Pennsylvania Company v. United States
- Cited By
- 73 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Section 3 of the Act to Regulate Commerce forbids any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage in favor of any person, company, firm, corporation or locality, and what is such undue or .unreasonable preference or advantage is not a question of law but of fact. The courts cannot set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission in regard to interchange of freight by carriers which does not contravene any constitutional limitation and is within the eon- ' stitutional and statutory authority of that body and is not unsupported by testimony; such an order is only the exercise of the authority vested by the law in the Commission. Although § 3 of the Act to Regulate Commerce remains in its original form, it must now be read in connection with amendments to, and subsequent provisions of, that Act by which the term transportation covers the entire carriage and services in connection with the receipt and delivery of property transported, including facilities of a terminal character for delivery. As so read, § 3 must be construed with a view to carrying out all the provisions of the Act as it now is and to make every part of it effective in' accordance with the intention of Congress. The Interstate Commission has jurisdiction to require an interstate carrier to receive and transport over its terminals carload interstate freight from one carrier having a physical connection with its lines on the same terms on which it performs such service for other connecting carriers similarly situated. Such an order is not an appropriation of the terminal property of the ■ carrier in violation of the due process provision of the Fifth Amendment but a regulation of its terminal facilities within the power properly delegated by Congress. Grand Trunk By. v. Michigan Railway Commission, 231 U. S. 457, followed; Louis. & N.ash. B. B. v. Stock Yards Co., 212 U. S. 132, distinguished. Congress may so control the terminal facilities of a carrier, and the Interstate Commerce Commission may make' such orders, as will prevent creation of monopolies within the prohibitions and limita^ tions of the Anti-trust Act. United States v. St. Louis Terminal, 224 U. S. 383.