Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. United States

285 F. Supp. 318, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10083, 1968 WL 168498
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMay 6, 1968
DocketNo. 67 C 1647
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 285 F. Supp. 318 (Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. United States, 285 F. Supp. 318, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10083, 1968 WL 168498 (N.D. Ill. 1968).

Opinion

AUSTIN, District Judge:

Plaintiff, Greyhound Lines, Inc., seeks judicial review of an Order of the Interstate Commerce Commission entered August 30, 1967 which granted to intervenor, Gray Line Scenic Tours, Inc., a certificate of public convenience and necessity as a common carrier over irregular routes in special and charter operations of passengers and their baggage to the sites of six named gambling casinos in Nevada from points in California. 103 M.C.C. 807. Greyhound provides common carrier service over regular routes to passengers and their baggage over substantially the same routes and since the early 1950’s has, through special operations, performed the same passenger service using the same type of equipment as proposed by Gray Lines between certain California points and gambling casinos in Nevada.

The record submitted to this court contains the history of the proceedings from its inception on September 4, 1962 when intervenor Gray Line filed an application alternatively for contract carrier authority or common carrier authority.

On April 5, 1965 Joint Board No. 78 recommended in its report that contract carrier authority be granted and common carrier authority denied. That report was rejected on January 3, 1966 by Operating Rights Review Board No. 2. It [320]*320agreed with the Joint Board that the service offered was that of contract carriage, but held the evidence failed to satisfy all the statutory factors for such carriage. 100 M.C.C. 294, 304-305. By decision and order of April 14, 1967, the Interstate Commerce Commission reversed the decision of the Operating Rights Review Board, disagreed with the conclusion of the Joint Board that the service was that of contract carriage, and determined that public convenience and necessity required operation by Gray Line as a common carrier by motor vehicle, that Gray Line was fit, willing and able to properly perform the service, that the protesting carriers, including Greyhound, had not provided reasonably adequate service, and that a certificate of common carriage be granted to Gray Line. 103 M.C.C. 807, 814, 816, 819. Petition for rehearing was denied and the instant complaint was filed September 26, 1967.

Greyhound alleges the Commission order is invalid because (a) the operating authority granted Gray Line in terms of scope of operation is broader than that sought or supported by the evidence; (b) the grant permits Gray Line to conduct passenger transportation in direct competition with regular route passenger service of Greyhound without any evidence that such is required by public convenience and necessity; (c) the reports and orders of the Commission lack findings and conclusions which sustain an award of common carrier authority; (d) none of the orders make a finding of the effect of the proposed service on Greyhound as is required by law; (e) the orders arbitrarily and capriciously refuse to consider and dispose of material issues of fact and law presented by Greyhound; and (f) the orders are arbitrarily and capriciously inconsistent with prior Commission action taken under similar circumstances.

Our scope of review of the Commission order is limited to determining only whether the findings made by the Commission are supported by substantial evidence on the entire record and whether its conclusion as to public convenience and necessity has a rational basis in the facts found. Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C.A. § 1009.

The main thrust of Greyhound’s argument is directed to a claimed fatal and egregious absence of rider testimony in the Commission record which it urges nullifies the grant of common carrier authority. It contends that no grant of such authority for a new competitive service can be premised solely on the testimony of casino proprietors who are’not “riders” or direct “users” of the service and the effect of the instant order is to subvert public convenience and necessity to special interests of business enterprises thereby introducing a new and erroneous standard of law. Further, it claims that this absence of direct user testimony, the lack of any probative value in the testimony of the casino operators, and the insufficiency of that testimony to establish service deficiencies by Greyhound permeates the entire record making the Commission’s finding of inadequacy incorrect and unsupported by competent evidence.

Greyhound cites Commission disapproval of the type of testimony presented in this case. Greyhound Corp., Extension, 99 M.C.C. 299, 301 (1965) and 96 M.C.C. 630, 639 (1964); Shores and Brown, Common Carrier Application, 26 M.C.C. 343 (1940); Greenville Bus Co., 79 M.C.C. 387 (1959); and distinguishes cases cited by defendants and intervenor Gray Line, Capitol Bus Co., Extension, 69 M.C.C. 447 (1959); Grand Island Transit Corp., Extension, 78 M.C.C. 786 (1959); Resort Bus Lines, Inc. v. I. C. C., 264 F.Supp. 742 (D.C.N.Y.1967), on the ground that none involved applications for new services, and that Hudson Bus Lines, Extension, 66 M.C.C. 473 (1956) and Campus Travel, Inc. v. United States, 224 F.Supp. 146 (D.C.N.Y. 1963) did contain record testimony of actual riders; that in the instant case, unlike those cases involving carriage of merchandise where practical difficulties [321]*321prevent direct user testimony, potential rider witnesses were available since passengers using Greyhound service could have been solicited as witnesses; that the testimony heard was hearsay testimony and no showing was made “that such witnesses have attempted to use the existing service available or have found such service to be inadequate in some material respect”. Peerless Stages, Inc., Extension, 86 M.C.C. 109, aff’d 371 U.S. 22, 83 S.Ct. 119, 9 L.Ed.2d 95 (1962).

A reading of these cases, and others, indicates the Commission has at times received the testimony of institutional witnesses and accorded it evidentiary weight whereas in others it has either refused it or has accorded it no weight at all. However, the court is not concerned with the consistency or inconsistency of the Commission’s decision because Commission judgment is to be exercised in the light of the facts of each individual case. Virginian R. Co. v. United States, 272 U.S. 658, 663, 47 S.Ct. 222, 71 L.Ed. 463 (1926); Western Paper Maker’s Chem. Co. v. United States, 271 U.S. 268, 46 S.Ct. 500, 70 L.Ed. 941 (1926). Questions of admissibility of evidence, probative weight, and credibility of evidence are not within the purview of our statutory review function. The Commission is not required to adhere to strict rules of evidence and the admission of evidence which would be deemed incompetent by the courts does not invalidate its orders as long as the findings made are sustained by competent substantial evidence in the entire record. Western Paper Maker’s Chem. Co. v. United States, supra, p. 271, 46 S.Ct. 500. We conclude that the absence of rider testimony does not render the order erroneous as a matter of law.

The criteria by which the Commission chose to make determinations of public convenience and necessity are also not subject to court review. No delineation of factors to support such a determination has been expressed in the statute. 49 U.S.C.A. § 307. Congress has entrusted the Commission with a “wide range of discretional authority” to draw that conclusion from “the infinite variety of circumstances which may occur in specific instances.” United States v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

National Freight, Inc. v. United States
359 F. Supp. 1153 (D. New Jersey, 1973)
Salem Transportation Co. v. United States
285 F. Supp. 322 (S.D. New York, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
285 F. Supp. 318, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10083, 1968 WL 168498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greyhound-lines-inc-v-united-states-ilnd-1968.