Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States

238 F. Supp. 528, 58 P.U.R.3d 508, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10076
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedJanuary 25, 1965
DocketNo. 63-745-EC
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 238 F. Supp. 528 (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States, 238 F. Supp. 528, 58 P.U.R.3d 508, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10076 (S.D. Cal. 1965).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is an action to enjoin and set aside orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission (hereafter referred to as Commission) of March 21, 1963, as amended by order of June 20, 1963, and supplemental order dated December 31, 1963, which orders prescribed new divisions of joint rail rates on transcontinental freight traffic. The Commission’s order of March 21, 1963, provided for new divisions of joint rates on Eastern and Mountain-Pacific transcontinental freight traffic substantially more favorable to the Eastern lines than the present divisions. New divisions were also established on transcontinental traffic originating and terminating in Midwest territory and for Midwestern lines participation as intermediate carriers of traffic to and from Eastern (official) and Mountain-Pacific territory. These divisions benefited the great majority of Midwestern lines.

In April, 1954, most of the Eastern lines filed a complaint before the Commission seeking to increase their divisions of transcontinental freight revenue on traffic moving between stations of the Eastern lines in Eastern territory and stations in the eleven western states of Mountain-Pacific territory. The other Eastern lines now before the court filed similar complaints shortly thereafter.

A group of Midwestern lines filed a separate complaint .before the Commission against Mountain-Pacific lines and Eastern lines which brought into issue the lawfulness of (1) their divisions of joint rates between Midwest territory and stations in the western part of Mountain-Pacific territory; and (2) Midwestern lines subdivisions of the primary western divisions of joint rates between Eastern territory and said stations in Mountain-Pacific territory as to which the Midwestern lines performed intermediate service.

The Mountain-Pacific lines filed answers and cross-complaints to the complaints of the Eastern and Midwestern lines. Hearings, which terminated in the [531]*531Commission’s said 1963 orders, began April, 1955. All groups offered evidence based on their studies and claims re costs.

The present action was filed by plaintiffs, seven principal western roads and four smaller roads serving Mountain-Pacific territory, on June 23, 1963. A complaint in intervention was filed by forty-five additional roads serving Mountain-Pacific territory. All are referred to here as Mountain-Pacific lines. Also intervening were the People of the State of California and regulatory agencies of ten western states and the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway and Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, Midwestern lines whose revenues were reduced by the Commission’s order.

The present divisions of joint rates on transcontinental traffic were established by agreement which has not been approved by the Commission. These revenues account for about 50% of the total freight revenues of Mountain-Pacific lines, 15% of that of Midwestern lines and about 6% of that of Eastern lines.

On June 27, 1963, the court issued a Temporary Restraining Order pending hearing on application for Interlocutory Injunction, and this three-judge court, on August 3, 1963, after hearing, entered an Interlocutory Injunction restraining enforcement of the new divisions order until after hearing by the Commission of petitions for reconsideration.

The Commission filed a “Supplemental Report” and order on December 31, 1963, denying all petitions for reconsideration which had been filed by plaintiffs and intervening plaintiffs (hereafter referred to as plaintiff). The new order made some minimal changes in the order of March 21, 1963. On March 23, 1964, this court entered its Judgment for Interlocutory Injunction, on Supplemental and Amended Complaints previously filed, enjoining the enforcement of the Commission’s order of December 31, 1963.

The statutes primarily involved are Section 15(6) of the Interstate Commerce Act [49 U.S.C. § 15(6)] and Sections 7(c), 8(b) and 10(e) of the Administrative Procedure Act, enacted in 1946, [5 U.S.C. §§ 1006(c), 1007(b) and 1009 (e) ]. Section 15(6) provides that in prescribing divisions the Commission is obligated to give due consideration, “among other things,” to the following factors:

(1) “(T)o the efficiency with which the carriers concerned are operated,”

(2) “the amount of revenue required to pay their respective operating expenses, taxes, and a fair return on their railway property held for and used in the service of transportation,”

(3) “the importance to the public of the transportation services of such carriers,”

(4) “and also whether any particular participating carrier is an originating, intermediate, or delivering line, and”

(5) “any other fact of circumstance which would ordinarily, without regard to the mileage haul, entitle one carrier to a greater or less proportion than another carrier of the joint rate, fare or charge.”

The numbering of the items to be considered is ours.

As to paragraph (1) of 15(6) above, the Commission concluded that none of the contending groups of carriers had been operated either more or less efficiently than another, and as to paragraph (3) of 15(6) above, that there are no differences in importance to the public of the services of the three groups of carriers.

Section 8 (b) of the Administrative Act [5 U.S.C. § 1007(b)] provides in part:

“* if * iphg record shall show the ruling upon each such finding, conclusion, or exception presented. All decisions * * * shall become part of the record and include a statement of (1) findings and conclusions, as well as the reasons or [532]*532basis therefor, upon all the material issues of fact, law, or discretion presented on the record; and (2) the appropriate rule, order, sanction, relief, or denial thereof.”

Section 7(c) of the Act [5 U.S.C. § 1006(c)] provides in part:

“Except as statutes otherwise provide, the proponent of a rule or order shall have the burden of proof.”

.Section 10(e) of the Act [5 U.S.C. § 1009 ■(e)] provides in part:

“(e) So far as necessary to decision and where presented the reviewing court shall decide all relevant questions of law, * * * and determine the meaning or applicability •of the terms of any agency action.

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Bluebook (online)
238 F. Supp. 528, 58 P.U.R.3d 508, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10076, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atchison-topeka-santa-fe-railway-co-v-united-states-casd-1965.