Goncz v. Interstate Commerce Commission

48 F. Supp. 286, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2054
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedDecember 22, 1942
DocketCivil Action No. 2110
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 48 F. Supp. 286 (Goncz v. Interstate Commerce Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goncz v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 48 F. Supp. 286, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2054 (D. Mass. 1942).

Opinion

MAGRUDER, Circuit Judge.

Jurisdiction of this court is invoked under 28 U.S.C.A. § 41(28) and §§ 43-48 in an action to enjoin the enforcement of and set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission issued January 22, 1942.

The plaintiff is a common carrier by motor vehicle of household goods in interstate commerce. By Common Carrier Application No. M.C. 78344, filed February 12, 1936, plaintiff sought a certificate of public convenience and necessity under § 206(a) of the Motor Carrier Act, now Part II of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 306(a) — the so-called “grandfather clause.” In the application, plaintiff asked for authority to conduct irregular route non-radial operations as such common carrier between points in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. At a hearing before a Commission examiner, at which certain protestants appeared, the plaintiff [288]*288and his wife testified, and various documentary exhibits were offered in evidence. On January 22, 1942, Division 5 of the Commission issued its report, overruling plaintiff’s exceptions to the examiner’s report; finding that applicant was on June 1, 1935, and continuously since has been, in bona fide operation as an interstate common carrier of household goods by motor vehicle, between points in Essex, Middle-sex, Plymouth, Norfolk and Suffolk counties, Massachusetts, on the one hand, and points in the above-named states, and the District of Columbia, on the other, over irregular routes; finding that applicant is entitled to a certificate authorizing continuance of such operations; and further finding that in all other respects the application should be denied. On the same day, the Division issued the order now under review, reciting that plaintiff’s application, except to the extent granted in the said report, is denied, effective March 13, 1942. The effective date was later postponed to August 15, 1942. The full Commission on July 6, 1942, denied plaintiff’s petition for rehearing and reconsideration.

The plaintiff is thus restricted by the Commission’s order to so-called radial operations on irregular routes.1 He may transport household goods from any point in his Massachusetts base area to any point in the described territory, and from any point in the described territory back to the Massachusetts base area. Thus, for example, he could carry a shipment from Boston to Jacksonville, Florida. On the way back he could pick up a load anywhere he might find one in the territory described — Jacksonville, if he were lucky, or Charleston, South Carolina, or St. Louis, Missouri — provided such load were destined for a point in the Massachusetts base area. But if on arrival at Jacksonville he learned of a load at St. Louis to be carried to Boston, he could not, in proceeding to St. Louis to pick it up, carry a shipment from Jacksonville to be delivered in St Louis. Nor could he, proceeding on a direct route back from Jacksonville to Boston, pick up a shipment for delivery at a way point, say, Washington or Philadelphia.

At the hearing before us on October 22, 1942, the plaintiff withdrew his application for an interlocutory injunction, and the case was submitted for final determination on the testimony and exhibits which constituted the evidence before the Commission and upon which its report and order of January 22, 1942, were based. Subsequently the parties submitted briefs.

On June 1, 1935, plaintiff operated with a total of two trucks. Most of his interstate shipments originated in and around Boston. At ‘that time he maintained an office in Boston, but had no office or terminal at any other place. At the date of the hearing before the Commission he had exchange arrangements in half a dozen cities with local truckers, who obtained business for him. The exhibits disclose a large number of radial operations and comparatively few non-radial operations prior to June 1, 1935. There are listed 248 representative shipments, more or less, handled during the seventeen months prior to that date. Out of these 248 shipments only 19 were non-radial movements. All of these 19 shipments had either their point of origin or destination somewhere in one of the New England states, New York or New Jersey. All but 5 had both their points of origin and destination in this group of states. During the remaining seven months of 1935, the lists show that 9 out of 88 shipments were non-radial operations. Lists of shipments during 1939 indicate that the proportion of non-radial operations has been maintained or slightly increased.

“As the Motor Carrier Act is remedial, and the grandfather clause confers a special privilege, the proviso defining exemptions is to be held to extend only to carriers plainly within its terms.” Gregg Cartage & Storage Co. v. United States, 1942, 316 U.S. 74, 83, 62 S.Ct. 932, 936, 86 L.Ed. 1283.

Section 206(a), 49 U.S.C.A. § 306 (a), provides that “if any such carrier or predecessor in interest was in bona fide operation as a common carrier by motor vehicle on June 1, 1935, over the route or routes or within the territory for which application is made and has so operated since that time, * * * the Commission shall issue such certificate without requiring further proof that public convenience and necessity will be served by such operation, * * The test of “bona fide operation” carries the connotation of “substantial, as distinguished from [289]*289incidental, sporadic, or infrequent, service.” United States v. Carolina Freight Carriers Corp., 1942, 315 U.S. 475, 480, 481, 62 S.Ct. 722, 726, 86 L.Ed. 971. The Commission’s responsibility to bring greater order and stability to our national transportation system is an additional reason for “insistence upon a showing of substantial service in that territory which is sought to be covered by a certificate under the ‘grandfather clause.’ ” United States v. Carolina Freight Carriers Corp., supra, 315 U.S. at page 481, 62 S.Ct. at page 726, 86 L.Ed. 971. As the Commission points out in its brief, if the plaintiff is entitled to non-radial authority based upon its showing here of sporadic non-radial shipments, it is likely that there would be numerous other small movers entitled to the same authority to move hither and yon over this vast territory, making it difficult for legitimate non-radial operators to serve that territory adequately.

It was primarily a matter for the expert judgment of the Commission, taking into account the characteristics of the highly specialized transportation service here involved, to determine whether the volume of cross-haul shipments was substantial enough to warrant a finding of bona fide operation in non-radial or cross-haul service prior to June 1, 1935. On the evidence we cannot say that the Commission’s order was arbitrary or capricious or patently erroneous.

As was pointed out in Alton R. R. v. United States, 1942, 315 U.S. 15, 22, 62 S.Ct. 432, 86 L.Ed. 586, and again in United States v. Carolina Freight Carriers Corp., supra, 315 U.S. at page 481, 62 S.Ct. at page 726, 86 L.Ed.

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Bluebook (online)
48 F. Supp. 286, 1942 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2054, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goncz-v-interstate-commerce-commission-mad-1942.