Buckingham Transportation Co. of Colorado v. Black Hills Transportation Co.

281 N.W. 94, 66 S.D. 230
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 13, 1938
DocketFile No. 8181
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 281 N.W. 94 (Buckingham Transportation Co. of Colorado v. Black Hills Transportation Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Buckingham Transportation Co. of Colorado v. Black Hills Transportation Co., 281 N.W. 94, 66 S.D. 230 (S.D. 1938).

Opinion

SMITH, J.

The question presented is whether the transportation of merchandise to its ultimate destination within the state by motor carrier following immediately upon its carriage into the state by rail in a pool car is interstate or intrastate in character.

As the result of the sale of merchandise by manufacturers, wholesalers, and jobbers, located at Omaha, Nebraska, and beyond, to purchasers located at various points in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, there is a constant flow of such merchandise between Nebraska and South Dakota. Much of this flow of merchandise is made up of less than car load lots. The Gordon Storage Warehouse Company, Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska, hereinafter referred to as “Gordon” and the Wilson Forwarding Company with offices at Omaha, Nebraska, undertake to provide transportation for these lots of merchandise from the place of business of the vendors to the door of the purchaser in South D:akota. As compensation for this service, and to reimburse themselves for their disbursements in procuring such transportation, they make a single charge to their principals. • Both companies are mentioned because of' a practice which has grown up between them of combining [232]*232their shipments, although the controversy here deals only with that portion of the merchandise handled by Gordon. As the goods are prepared for shipment, the owners thereof stencil the name of the purchaser-consignee upon each separate parcel. They then make out a shipping order and deliver the parcels to Gordon. That company thereupon makes out a separate expense bill for each lot of merchandise, showing the consignor, consignee, destinaton, weght, charge, etc., and makes out and forwards a general manifest showing similar information with reference to all of the lots of merchandise to ibe shipped together. The goods are their placed in a pool car which is moved ¡by railroad from Omaha, Nebraska, to Rapid City, South Dakota, under a single bill of lading and freight bill in which Gordon is named as consignor and either the appellant herein, the Buckingham Transportation 'Company of Colorado, Inc., hereinafter referred tO’ as “Buckingham,” or the Wilson Forwarding Company, is named as consignee. At Rapid City that portion of the merchandise collected by Gordon is delivered to Buckingham and is by that company straightway delivered by trucks to the several purchasers at such other South Dakota points located in the Black Hills area as are included within its interstate routing.

Buckingham holds a certificate from the Interstate Commerce Commission, authorizing it to operate as a common carrier by motor vehicle in the course of interstate commerce over certain South Dakota highways. It does not hold a certificate from the South Dakota Railroad Commission permitting it to operate as such a carrier of intrastate commerce.

Upon complaint filed by the Black Hills Transportation Company, a duly authorized motor carrier of intrastate commerce, the South Dakota Railroad Commission ordered Buckingham to ■cease and desist from transporting to other South Dakota destinations goods so transported to Rapid City in a pooh car. Upon appeal to^ the Circuit Court the order of the Railroad Commission was affirmed. The proceeding is now before us under an appeal from the judgment of the Circuit Court.

The issue arises because of opposing vie'ws as to the character of the transportation. It is not claimed that the South Dakota Railroad Commission has power to exclude appellant from interstate traffic. Cf. Allen et al. v. Galveston Truck Line Corp[233]*233oration, 289 U. S. 708, 53 S. Ct. 694, 77 L. Ed. 1463; Buck v. Kuykendall, 267 U. S. 307, 45 S. Ct. 324, 69 L. Ed. 623, 38 A.L.R. 286; Bush & Sons Company v. Maloy et al., 267 U. S. 317, 45 S. Ct. 326, 69 L. Ed. 627. It is asserted by appellant that the transportation from Rapid City to other South Dakota points by motor carrier is interstate in character and that the order of the South Dakota Railroad Commission constitutes a burden upon interstate commerce -and that it is without power to act in the premises.

The essential character of transportation classifies it either as interstate or intrastate. It is the intention formed prior to shipment, pursuant to which property is carried to a selected destination by a continuous or unified movement, which fixes its essential character. When the intention which produces the movement is known, the incidents of the transportation become insignificant and need not considered in determining whether the transportation is of the one order or the other. U. S. v. Erie Railroad Co., 280 U. S. 98, 50 S. Ct. 51, 74 L. Ed. 187; Hughes Bros. Timber Co. v. Minnesota, 272 U. S. 469, 47 S. Ct. 170, 71 L. Ed. 359; Baltimore & O. S. W. Railroad Co. v. Settle, 260 U. S. 166, 43 S. Ct. 28, 67 L. Ed. 189; Western Oil Refining Co. v. Lipscomb, 244 U. S. 346, 37 S. Ct. 623, 61 L. Ed. 1181; Texas & N. O. Railroad Company v. Sabine Tram Co., 227 U. S. 111, 33 S. Ct. 229, 57 L. Ed. 442; Cott v. Erie Railway Co. et al., 231 N. Y. 67, 131 N. E. 737; Cf. Annotation, 74 L. Ed. 187.

These principles are recognized by respondents, but we are told that they do not apply to the case at bar. It is admitted that the owners of the goods intend to move them from Omaha across state lines to' the purchasers located at various points in South Dakota beyond Rapid City. It must be admitted that this intention is common to the owners and their agent, Gordon. The engagements of both the owners and Gordon require that the goods be forthwith delivered to their ultimate destinations. ever, it is stoutly maintained that the ensuing transportation is not intended to be continuous and is not in fact continuous, but is necessarily accomplished by separate and independent movements. This view is largely predicated upon claimed lack of identity between the pool car as a shipment on the one hand and the individual shipments out bound from Rapid City on the other. It is said: “The fundamental nature of the movement of the pool car, be[234]*234cause of the legal requirements of its of shipment (one consignor, one consignee, one bill of lading, and one freight bill), and because of its identity as a ‘car shipment,’ must cease at the break-bulk point, and completely lose its identity, both practically and legally, before the subsequent distribution can take place. Because of the foregoing essential character of the railroad pool car shipment, there can be no ‘essential continuity of shipment’ comprising the pool car shipment with delivery taken at a break-bulk point plus distribution by individual shipments of the merchandise.” We are convinced that the contention is untenable.

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281 N.W. 94, 66 S.D. 230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buckingham-transportation-co-of-colorado-v-black-hills-transportation-co-sd-1938.