Greyhound Corp. v. United States

111 F. Supp. 259, 124 Ct. Cl. 758, 1953 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 107
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedApril 7, 1953
DocketNo. 49555
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 111 F. Supp. 259 (Greyhound Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greyhound Corp. v. United States, 111 F. Supp. 259, 124 Ct. Cl. 758, 1953 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 107 (cc 1953).

Opinion

Littleton, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff seeks to recover $19,411.59 representing the difference between the amount claimed by it for certain transportation services furnished the defendant by the plaintiff’s predecessor in interest, the Great Lakes Greyhound Lines, Inc.,1 and the amount paid by the defendant for those services.

Between March 1,1943, and October 31,1946, the plaintiff transported, in chartered buses, selectees of the U. S. Armed Services within the State of Michigan, between the offices of the local draft boards and the induction or examining centers. Prior to and at the time the round trip charter services in question were furnished, the plaintiff was a party to a general agreement, known as Selectee Passenger Agreement No. 1, hereinafter referred to as Selectee Passenger Agreement, executed by the National Bus Traffic Association, Inc., agent for the plaintiff, and the Director of Selective Service. The purpose of this agreement was to aid in establishing and maintaining a close cooperation between the passenger motor carriers and the Selective Service System in order to provide a workable arrangement in meeting the transportation needs of the local draft boards throughout the Nation. This agreement became effective on September 15,1941, and remained in force throughout the entire period covered by this suit. Section IY of this agreement provided the method for establishing the transportation charges in question and read as follows:

[761]*761TENDERS, PARES, RATES AND CHARGES AND CONDITIONS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH.
For traffic covered by this Agreement and subject to conditions herein stipulated the carriers parties hereto through the National Bus Traffic Association, Inc. tender to the Selective Service System the following basis for rates, fares, and charges: * * *
(2) For intrastate rates, fares, or charges between points within States where the State Commissions do not have jurisdiction over passenger motor carriers’ rates, fares, or charges, ninety-five percent (95%) of the rates, fares, or charges, including charter rates, made available to commercial traffic.

The above quoted provisions are applicable here since the services rendered were wholly intrastate in character, and the Michigan Public Service Commission did not have jurisdiction over the regulation of rates for charter service. Thus, the Commission did not require that tariffs covering intrastate charter rates be filed with it.

Each instance of service performed under the Selectee Passenger Agreement was covered by a separate written agreement. In the instant case the parties have presented for our consideration the facts concerning only two of such separate agreements covering two items of service. The issues involved in these two instances are common to all services performed under the Selectee Passenger Agreement during the period in question. The parties have agreed that a decision here will be binding with respect to the additional agreements for services which were furnished during the period covered by this suit. In the first of these, the plaintiff on June 2,1944, operated a chartered coach service for Selective Service of Michigan between Port Huron and Detroit, Michigan, which involved the use of two buses. The charges were at the rate of 120 live miles 2 at 35 cents per bus mile and 120 deadhead miles3 at the rate of 30 cents per bus mile, making a total charge of $120. The deadhead mileage was applied to only one of the buses. After applying the five [762]*762percent discount allowed by the Selectee Passenger Agreement, the total net charge for the transportation service was $114. In the second, the plaintiff on June 6, 1944, operated a chartered coach service for Selective Service of Michigan between Bay City and Detroit, Michigan. It covered the use of five buses, and the charges therefor consisted of 210 live miles at the rate of 35 cents per bus mile and 210 deadhead miles at the rate of 30 cents per bus mile, making a total charge of $619.50. Here the deadhead mileage was applied to four of the five buses used. Upon application of the five percent discount provided for by the Selectee Passenger Agreement, the total net charge was $588.52.

The plaintiff arrived at its charges of 35 cents per bus mile for the live miles and 30 cents per bus mile for the deadhead miles by subtracting 5 cents per bus mile on each from the rates which it had made available to commercial intrastate traffic, as of June 1, 1942. It was necessary to resort to commercial rates as of that date in order to apply Section IV (2) of the Selectee Passenger Agreement because on that date an order of the Office of Defense Transportation (see finding 3) became effective which prohibited the furnishing of charter service by bus to the general public, and restricted its use to specified types of military transportation needs which included the transporting of draftees.

The rates in all the individual contracts for services, which are here in suit, were calculated by the plaintiff for each separate charter service on the same basis as were the ones set out above. These rates were agreed to by the Selective Service officials in Michigan, and the plaintiff was paid in accordance therewith.

The General Accounting Office, in post-audit, ruled that for the service rendered by the plaintiff the charges were to be determined under the Northeastern Charter Coach Tariff No. 285, hereinafter referred to as Tariff 285, to which the plaintiff was a party. Tariff 285 which had become effective June 15, 1942, had been duly filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission. On its title page, the tariff read that it was to govern rules, regulations, and charges for charter service “between points on lines of issuing carriers.” Plaintiff, as a party to the tariff, was listed as an “issuing [763]*763carrier,” and Bay City, Port Huron, and Detroit, Michigan are points on the lines of “issuing carriers.” The decision of the General Accounting Office that Tariff 285 was appliable to the services in suit resulted in a total overcharge of $19,411.59, which was subsequently recovered by the defendant from amounts otherwise due the plaintiff. It is this amount which the plaintiff seeks to recover.

As applied to our two test situations, the application of Tariff 285 would show an overcharge of $11.40 on the first, and $189.52 on the second. While the plaintiff was allowed 10 cents more per live bus mile on the first and 5 cents more per live bus mile on the second, the tariff, if applicable, disallowed entirely any charge for the deadhead mileage. This came about because of the provisions of Rule 4 (a) and 4 (d) of Tariff 285. Rule 4(a) read as follows:

Where the movement of passengers terminate at the point of origin (round trip movements) the deadhead mileage is the distance traversed by the coach, unoccupied by the passengers, from the nearest point at which equipment is held out to be available as shown under 4 (d) herein, to the origin point of the passenger movement and charges will be computed as follows: * * *

Rule 4 (d) listed the plaintiff as holding out equipment to be available at Bay City, Port Huron, and Detroit, Michigan. Selective Service of Michigan was not at any time charged for any deadhead mileage whenever the plaintiff actually had equipment available at the point of origin of a selectee-inductee charter movement.

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Bluebook (online)
111 F. Supp. 259, 124 Ct. Cl. 758, 1953 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greyhound-corp-v-united-states-cc-1953.