L. A. Tucker Truck Lines, Inc. v. United States

215 F. Supp. 261, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10505, 1963 WL 110951
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedMarch 11, 1963
DocketNo. 62 C 281(2)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 215 F. Supp. 261 (L. A. Tucker Truck Lines, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
L. A. Tucker Truck Lines, Inc. v. United States, 215 F. Supp. 261, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10505, 1963 WL 110951 (E.D. Mo. 1963).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is an action to review, enjoin, set aside, and suspend a portion of an order of December 29, 1961, issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission, granting a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to Daniel Hamm Drayage Company, Inc., to operate in interstate or foreign commerce as a common carrier by motor vehicle over irregular routes for the purpose of hauling cement from the site of the plant of Universal Atlas Cement Division of United States Steel Corporation at St. Louis, Missouri, to statewide points in Illinois and Missouri. On May 24, 1962, the Interstate Commerce Commission denied the separate petitions of plaintiff L. A. Tucker Truck Lines, Inc., and plaintiff-inter-venor Public Service Commission, State of Missouri, for reconsideration. In accordance with the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. §§ 17(9), 305(g), 305(h), plaintiffs proceeded here. Jurisdiction of the subject matter and the parties is present under Title 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1336, 1398, 2284, 2321 through 2325, inclusive, and the Administrative Procedure Act, Title 5 U.S.C.A. § 1009.

On January 30, 1961, Hamm filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, hereinafter referred to as the ICC, an application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for authority to operate in interstate and foreign commerce as a common carrier of cement, in bulk, bags and packages, by motor vehicle over irregular routes from the plant site of Universal Atlas in St. Louis, Missouri, to Illinois and Missouri, ICC Docket No. MC-42963 (Sub No. 12). The application was referred to Joint Board No. 135, composed of representatives of the States of Illinois and Missouri. There was a hearing before the Joint Board on April 27, 1961, and on July 20 and 21, 1961. Universal Atlas appeared as the sole supporter of the application. Numerous carriers, including plaintiff Tucker, opposed the application.

“In view of the lack of receiver support, the pendency of previously filed applications by Commercial and Ee-Jay (protestant motor carriers not before the Court) and the presently available motor carrier and rail service”, the Joint Board found that public convenience and necessity did not require the operation for which authority was sought and recommended that the application be denied.

Exceptions to the Joint Board’s report and recommended order were filed by Hamm and Universal Atlas on December 29, 1961. The ICC, Division No. 1, adopted the Joint Board’s statement of facts, but not its recommendation. It found that subsequent to the Joint Board’s hearing, Commercial and Ee-Jay were granted authority to transport bulk cement from plant sites at St. Louis and Hannibal, other than that involved herein, to points in Illinois and Missouri. Although the application was not supported by consignees of cement, the ICC in its discretion determined that cement receivers could and would use the service authorized. The ICC also found a need for the complete and highly coordination transportation service which could not be rendered by any of the protestants. Only Slater of the motor carrier protestants held authority for both bulk and packaged cement. The remaining motor carriers, including plaintiff Tucker, hold authority to transport only packaged cement. In short, the ICC found that public convenience and necessity required the proposed operation and issued an order granting the Certificate.

On February 19, 1962, Tucker filed a petition for reconsideration and on February 23, 1962, the Public Service Commission of Missouri filed a petition for leave to intervene and asked the ICC to reconsider its order. Hamm and Universal Atlas filed separate replies to each petition. By an order dated May 24, 1962, the ICC permitted the plaintiff Public Service Commission, State of Missouri, to intervene and denied the petitions of both plaintiffs for reconsideration. On September 10, 1962, the ICC, Division No. 1, issued a certificate to Hamm covering the operation.

[263]*263The matter has been fully briefed by all parties and a hearing was held before a three-judge court on January 25, 1963.1

The evidence contained in the transcript develops the following facts: The Universal Atlas plant at St. Louis, Missouri, was not in operation but under construction at the time of the hearings. Upon completion it was anticipated that the plant would be solely a storage facility with a capacity of approximately 50,-000 barrels and with loading facilities for both rail and truck. The design of the plant requires coordination of loading bulk and bag cement and coordination of loading for truck and rail. It was anticipated that within three years after the plant began operation Universal Atlas would distribute annually from said plant approximately 500,000 barrels of cement, of which approximately half would be shipped to Illinois and half would be shipped to Missouri. Eighty percent of the shipments would be in bulk and twenty percent in bags and packages. The storage facilities at St. Louis would be supplied principally from the Universal plant at Hannibal, Missouri, which movements would come to St. Louis primarily by barge on the Mississippi River. There would be some shipments to the St. Louis plant by rail from Hannibal and from other Universal plants located in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kansas. Interstate movements within Missouri will involve out of state cement handled directly through the St. Louis plant but without storage. Statewide authority in Missouri was sought to meet emergency situations.

We are of the opinion that only one question is presented in the case. While the plaintiff Public Service Commission, State of Missouri, would have us consider whether the grant of authority to Hamm was for intrastate carriage and, therefore, unlawful, that question is disposed of by observing that the ICC order is limited to traffic in interstate or foreign commerce and by the disposition of the major issue before the Court: whether the ICC’s finding that the present and future public convenience and necessity require the operation by Hamm, in interstate or foreign commerce, as a common carrier by motor vehicle from the plant site of Universal Atlas in St. Louis, Missouri, to all points in Missouri is supported by substantial evidence. The ICC granted authority to Hamm to operate from the plant site to Missouri and Illinois. No objection was raised here to the Illinois portion of the order. Plaintiffs’ attack on the Missouri portion is two-pronged: First, plaintiffs assert that there is not substantial evidence of sufficient volume of traffic in interstate commerce from the plant site to points in Missouri.to warrant a finding that public necessity and convenience require the authority granted even as applied to the limited counties in Missouri where the supporting shipper would actively solicit sales. Second, plaintiffs assail with particularity that portion of the order granting Hamm statewide authority.

The evidence showed that the major primary initial movement into the St. Louis plant would be by barge from Hannibal, Missouri. While such traffic could be shipments in interstate commerce because Illinois would be traversed in the channel of the Mississippi River, still if private barges of the supporting shipper were used, the initial movement would not be the first leg of an interstate [264]*264shipment. Pennsylvania Railroad Co. v. Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, (1936) 298 U.S. 170, 175, 56 S.Ct. 687, 80 L.Ed. 1130.

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215 F. Supp. 261, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10505, 1963 WL 110951, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/l-a-tucker-truck-lines-inc-v-united-states-moed-1963.