Home/Washington Supreme Court/Coeur d'Alene & Spokane Railway Co. v. Union Pacific Railroad

Coeur d'Alene & Spokane Railway Co. v. Union Pacific Railroad

95 P. 71, 49 Wash. 244, 1908 Wash. LEXIS 559
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedApril 10, 1908
DocketNo. 6945
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 95 P. 71 (Coeur d'Alene & Spokane Railway Co. v. Union Pacific Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coeur d'Alene & Spokane Railway Co. v. Union Pacific Railroad, 95 P. 71, 49 Wash. 244, 1908 Wash. LEXIS 559 (Wash. 1908).

Opinion

Root, J.

In the early spring of 1904, the American Car & Foundry Company, at its plant in St. Louis, was building twenty box cars for the respondent. The respondent desired to have these cars when completed shipped to Spokane. They were, after negotiations between the respondent and the appellants, finally carried from Kansas City to the city of Spokane, over the lines of the appellants. The respondent claims that the appellants agreed to carry these cars free of charge to the respondent, in consideration of the use of the same for the carriage of freight for account of the appellants, and the appellants claim that they were prevented, under the interstate commerce law and a schedule of joint rates of charges established and filed with the interstate commerce commission in accordance with said act, from carrying said cars at any rate less than ninety dollars per car. Upon the arrival of these cars at Spokane, the appellant The Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company refused to deliver the same to the respondent except upon the payment of the rate of $90 per car, or $1,800 in the aggregate. This sum of $1,800 was finally paid under protest by the respondent, who, in November, 1904, commenced action against the appellants to recover the sum so paid.

The appellants in their answer, after a denial of a portion of the respondent’s complaint, set up that the'Union Pacific Railroad Company owned a line of railroad from Kansas City to Granger, the Oregon Short Line Railroad, a line of railroad from Granger to Huntington; and the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, a line from Huntington to Spokane; that these lines formed a continuous line from Kansas City to Spokane, but that each of said roads was separate and distinct, and that neither of appellants had any interest in the earnings or operation of either of the other roads; that ap[246]*246pellants had established a joint tariff of rates of charges governing the transportation of railroad cars over said continuous line from Kansas City to Spokane, and had filed the same, in accordance with the act of Congress, known as the interstate commerce act; that the schedule of joint rates established a rate of $150.80 per car from Kansas City to Spokane, when carried empty, and a rate of $90 per car between said points when used by appellants for the carriage of freight for their own account; that this schedule of tariffs was in force and governed the carriage of the cars in question; that ■by the interstate commerce law the defendants were prevented from charging or participating in any rate between these points less than that provided in said schedule; that on the 4th of March, 1904, the twenty cars were delivered to the Missouri Pacific Railway at St. Louis for carriage over its line to Kansas City, and to be there delivered to the Union Pacific Railroad Company for further carriage over the line of the Union Pacific and that of the other appellants to Spokane; that, prior to the delivery of the cars to the Missouri Pacific at St. Louis, the American Car & Foundry Company, the agent of the respondent, applied to the agent of the appellants at St. Louis for the quotation of a rate for the transportation of the cars over appellants’ lines, and that, contrary to the tariff in force, the agent of appellants quoted to the American Car & Foundry Company a free rate from Kansas City to Spokane; that prior to the time the cars had left St. Louis, the appellants discovered the erroneous quotation of a free rate and notified the said American Car & Foundry Company, the respondent’s agent., that appellants could not transport said cars for less than $90 per car and the use of the cars en route; that neither the American Car & Foundry Company nor the respondent withdrew the shipment; that upon the arrival of the cars at Spokane The Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company refused to deliver the same except upon the payment of $90 per car, or $1,800 in the aggregate, and that the same was so paid by the respondent.

The reply put in issue the material allegations in the an[247]*247swer. The parties hereto, prior to the trial in the lower court, entered into aostipulation of facts. This stipulation, which is attached to the statement of facts as an exhibit, was the only evidence offered by the plaintiff on the trial. The defendants offered some additional evidence, from which the following facts are established:

That the appellants are the owners of, and operating, lines of railroad between the points, as alleged in their answer, which form a continuous line from Kansas City to Spokane, but neither of said roads owns, or is interested in the line of the Missouri Pacific, or any road east of Kansas City; that the Missouri Pacific owns a line from St. Louis to Kansas City, which, at said last-named place, has a physical connection with the line of the Union Pacific; that the said route from Kansas City to Spokane is on the most direct and regular route of any lines of railroad owned by defendants, or any of them, for shipments originating at Missouri river points and St. Louis and destined to Spokane; that the plaintiff at all times knew that neither of the appellants had any line,' nor was interested in any line, running to St. Louis, or to any point east of Kansas City; that the appellants, together with other- roads operating to the Pacific coast, and the Missouri Pacific and other roads operating between the Mississippi river and Missouri river, and with other roads further east forming a continuous line or route from the Mississippi river points and other points further east to the Pacific coast points, had established joint rates or charges passing over continuous lines or routes from all Mississippi river points to Pacific coast points, on practically every line of commodity or freight. These schedules of rates had been duly filed with the interstate commerce commission, as provided by the said interstate commerce act, and the rates, as shown in said schedules, were in force during all of the times covered by the transactions in controversy in this case. Page 21 of this schedule, it is stipulated, is the only part thereof which provides a rate for the transportation of cars. It should be noted that the rate of $90 on loaded cars on their own wheels applies only to [248]*248shipments from Missouri river terminals and Port Arthur, Ont. Said page 21 is as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 P. 71, 49 Wash. 244, 1908 Wash. LEXIS 559, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coeur-dalene-spokane-railway-co-v-union-pacific-railroad-wash-1908.