Department of Public Works v. United States

55 F.2d 392, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 990
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedJanuary 11, 1932
DocketNo. 452
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 55 F.2d 392 (Department of Public Works v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Department of Public Works v. United States, 55 F.2d 392, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 990 (W.D. Wash. 1932).

Opinion

CUSHMAN, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above).

Objections have been made to the court considering the complaints made by petitioner as to the differential in rates established by the Commission’s order. The court is asked to deny such consideration upon a number of grounds, included among which are the following :

The rates involved herein went into effect pendente lite, and, being now in effect, this controversy has become moot.

The asserted unlawful encroachment upon state power by the establishment of the differential has been adjudicated already against this complainant by this court.

The things complained of in this suit were cognizable by the Commission and within its jurisdiction to determine and in fact were submitted by this complainant to the Commission for its decision thereon in docket .17000, part VII.

The complainant has an adequate remedy at law for its alleged grievances through appropriate proceedings before the Commission, which has full power to grant it all lawful relief.

The order under attack prescribed only interstate rates.

The order under attack did not prescribe the differential.

The approval of the differential was not a reviewable order.

While the foregoing objections have been considered, they do not merit discussion. None of them warrants a denial of consideration by the court of complainant’s complaint.

The further objection is made that “The Department of Public Works of Washington does not suffer any legal injury as a result of the Commission’s order and can not maintain this suit.”

The statutes of the state of Washington provide, at the direction of the Department of Public Works, for suits being brought by the Attorney General of the state in the superior court of Thurston county. Remington’s Compiled Statutes of Washington 1922, § 10442. See, also, Remington’s Compiled Statutes of Washington 1922, § 10447.

Doubtless the effect of the first of the above statutes is to require that all suits of the character described therein he brought in the superior court of Thurston county, but that coui't would have no jurisdiction of suits such as the present.

Sections 10450, 10389, 10783, and 10784, Remington’s Compiled Statutes of Washington 1922, provide:

“§ 10450. It shall be the duty of the commission to enforce the provisions, of this act and all other acts of this state affecting public service companies, the enforcement of which is not specifically vested in some other officer or tribunal.”

[394]*394“§ 10389. Whenever the commission shall find, after a hearing had upon its own motion or upon complaint, as herein provided, that the rates, fares or charges demanded, exacted, charged or collected by any common carrier for the transportation of persons or property within the state or in connection therewith, or that the regulations or practices of such common carrier affecting such rates are unjust, unreasonable, unjustly discriminatory, or unduly preferential, or in any wise in violation of the provisions of law, or that such rates, fares or charges are insufficient to yield a reasonable compensation for ■ the service rendered, the commission shall determine the just, reasonable or sufficient rates, fares or charges, regulations or practices to be thereafter observed and enforced and shall fix the same by order as hereinafter provided. * * * ”

“§ 10783. The director of public works shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, through and by means of the division of transportation:

“(1) To exercise all the powers and perform all the duties relating to common carriers. of freight or passengers, and the transportation of property or persons, now vested in, and required to be performed by, the public service commission.”

“§ 10784. The director of public works shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, through and by means of the division of public utilities: * * *

“(2) To exercise such other powers and perform such other duties as may be provided by law.”

Under the foregoing statutes the Department of Publie Works, in suits to carry out the provisions of the act for which provision is not made in sections 10442 and 10447, may proceed in such courts as would otherwise have jurisdiction.

The Interstate Commerce Commission having, by its order in' No. 17000, part VII, prescribed an intrastate rate which would, in other than exceptional eases, be subject to the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Works (section 10389, supra), and the laws of the United States having made provision •for suits to set aside unauthorized orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission, it would be unreasonable to deny to the petitioner the right to bring a suit such as the present in order that it may, in a proper case, remove obstacles to the exéreise of its statutory powers. As long as the order of the Interstate Commerce Commission remains in effect, it is an obstacle hindering, if not preventing, the exercise by the department of its powers under section 10389, supra. North Dakota v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co., 257 U. S. 485, at page 491, 42 S. Ct. 170, 66 L. Ed. 329.

Petitioner complains:

That the conclusions of the Interstate Commerce Commission are not justified by its findings.

That an application of the order, findings, and conclusions violates section 3 of the act to regulate commerce, as amended (41 Stat. 479, § 405 [title 49, USCA § 3]), and the Joint Resolution of January 30, 1925 (43 Stat. 801 [title 49, USCA § 55]).

That the findings of the Commission are incomplete under the evidence.

That the findings and conclusions are contrary to the findings and conclusions proposed by the Commissioner and Examiners of the Commission who heard the witnesses.

That the effect of the findings is to deprive the carriers of the right to exercise managerial discretion.

That the result thereof is to deprive the authorities of the state of Washington of the right to fix reasonable rates in intrastate commerce within the state of Washington, and injuriously discriminates against intrastate traffic without regard to a proper exercise of the federal power to regulate the movement of commodities in commerce.

That the findings and conclusions result in depriving the Northern Pacific Railway of revenues, in violation of section 15a of the Interstate Commerce Act, as added by the Transportation Act, § 422 (41 Stat. 488 [title 49, USCA § 15a]). •

. That the rate fixed to Longview, Wash., is a discrimination against the markets on Puget Sound.

That the property of Washington citizens has been taken and damaged without due compensation, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

That the difference in distance between such counties and the markets in question is not sufficient to warrant the maintenance of the difference in rates.

That the cost of transportation therefrom to the markets of Tacoma and Seattle will not exceed that to Portland justifying the difference in rates.

That the difference in rates has destroyed intermarket competition as between Puget Sound markets and Portland, and, as a re-[395]

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55 F.2d 392, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 990, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-public-works-v-united-states-wawd-1932.