Munitions Carriers Conference, Inc. v. American Farm Lines

303 F. Supp. 1078, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10878
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 24, 1969
DocketCiv. No. 68-148
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 303 F. Supp. 1078 (Munitions Carriers Conference, Inc. v. American Farm Lines) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Munitions Carriers Conference, Inc. v. American Farm Lines, 303 F. Supp. 1078, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10878 (W.D. Okla. 1969).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

EUBANKS, District Judge.

FINDINGS OF FACT

The plaintiffs herein filed on April 9, 1969, a Petition for an order to show cause why disobedient parties should not be punished for civil contempt with respect to the permanent injunction entered in this cause on May 28, 1968. An order to show cause was entered hereon on April 9, 1969, and duly served upon each of the defendants.

Hearing was held before the Court on May 26 through May 29, 1969, at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with the plaintiffs appearing by their attorneys, Ben Franklin and Grey W. Satterfield, defendants by their attorneys, James M. Robinson, William L. Peterson, Jr., and Raymond E. Tompkins, and the intervenor by its attorney, Harry F. Horak. The Court, in reaching its conclusions, has considered the pleadings, evidence, stipulations, and arguments of counsel.

The pertinent ordering portion of the permanent injunction of May 28, 1968, reads as follows:

It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment should be, and the same is hereby sustained and that defendants, American Farm Lines, Howard McCormack, and E. E. Strohfield, and defendants’ other officers, agents, employees and representatives should be, and the same are hereby permanently enjoined from the for-hire transportation in interstate or foreign commerce of any products other than those products mentioned in Section 1141j of Title 12 U.S. Code, [1080]*1080except under one of the following circumstances :
(a) When proceeding to pick up and transport a shipment of products contemplated by Section 1141j of Title 12, U.S. Code when necessary to prevent proceeding with an empty vehicle movement.
(b) When returning from the delivery of a shipment of products contemplated by Section 1141j of Title 12, U.S. Code when necessary to prevent an empty vehicle movement.
Said injunction shall remain in full force and effect until such time, if at all, as there is in force with respect to said defendants, appropriate authority from the Interstate Commerce Commission authorizing them to engage in such operations.

A companion cause with the same parties was determined by this Court in No. 67- 487 Civil, and the record therein was incorporated in the instant action in No. 68- 148 Civil.

Oral and documentary evidence was adduced. Six different types of motor transportation by defendant American Farm Lines in interstate commerce were outlined and described by the plaintiffs in their evidence as being in contravention of the above-quoted injunction. Contra evidence and exhibits were proffered by the defendants to show compliance therewith. Each type of operation will be discussed in this opinion.

The first deals with operations termed by the plaintiffs as “long layover” counts and are represented by Exhibits 28 through 48. Génerally, these involve a westbound shipment of explosives moving on a Government bill of lading and an eastbound shipment of canned goods for a member of American Farm Lines. For example, in Exhibit 33, a Government shipment of explosives was transported from Crane, Indiana, to Bangor, Washington, arriving at the latter point at midnight on November 19, 1968. The vehicles, Tractor 627 and Trailer Y773, and driver laid over at Bangor for unloading for 157% hours until November 26. The same vehicles and driver then deadheaded empty for 885 miles to Modesto, California, where they again laid over, awaiting a member load, for 174% hours until December 4 before proceeding eastward to Omaha, Nebraska. Another example is Exhibit 29 wherein a Government explosive load was transported from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Concord, California, where it laid over 79 hours, then deadheaded empty for 80 miles to Stockton, California, where another layover of 64 hours occurred and then a member shipment was transported to Oklahoma City. This round trip was made in the period from November 17 to 27, 1968. It is plaintiffs’ contention that these layovers evidence a violation of the injunction because defendant American Farm Lines could not have been proceeding westbound with the Government shipment with the intention to pick up and transport a specific member shipment on the west coast. Defendants’ evidence and exhibits indicate that most of these layovers occurred about and during the Thanksgiving weekend when its members’ plants were closed. It appears, however, from the testimony of Don Landrum, dispatcher for American at Oklahoma City, that the westbound Government loads are not dispatched for the puz’pose of picking up specific member loads on the west coast. His testimony was that the vehicle transporting the westbound Government load is not available for further dispatch until the Government shipment is unloaded. The Court concludes that the westbound shipments on Government bills of lading are unlawful and in contravention of the injunction of this Court because the vehicles were not proceeding to pick up and transport a shipment of products contemplated by the injunction and Section 1141j of Title 12, U.S. Code. In addition, the Court is of the opinion that the Government shipments to Bangor, Washington, as described in Exhibit 33, are unlawful and in violation of the injunction for the further reason, as defendants well knew, that it was never [1081]*1081contemplated by this Court that the defendants could carry Government freight ostensibly on a trip to pick up a member load when the member load was 800 miles away from the destination of the Government freight. Other instances of similar Government shipments to Bangor and eastbound member shipments from the California Bay area are reflected in Exhibits 7, 28, 33, 34, 36, 37, 40, 41, 42, 45, 47, D1-21-A, D1-25-A, D1-26-A, D1-27 — A, D3-4-B, D3-12-B, D3-15-B, D3-16-A, D3-17-D, D3-18-A, and D3-18-C.

Two additional round trips involving Government shipments to Bangor and member moves on return from California were testified to by Allen M. Crosby and David Loftin in their respective depositions.

The second type of transportation by defendant American Farm Lines are called “sandwich” moves by the plaintiffs. These are documented in Exhibits 2, 5, 7, 11, 12, and 49 through 55. Typical is Exhibit 2 wherein American transported Government traffic from Joliet, Illinois, to Hill Airforce Base, Utah, thence moved a load of grain from Ne-phi, Utah, to Brawley, California, for member Farmers Grain Cooperative, and thence a Government shipment from Norton Airforce Base, California, to Lake City, Missouri. Plaintiffs contend that this round trip constitutes, in fact, back-to-back movements of Government traffic within the purview of the injunction and that the sandwiched movement of grain is a subterfuge to defeat the prohibitions of the injunction. Defendants contend that it is a bona fide member movement with Farmers Grain Cooperative having become a member of American Farm Lines in July, 1968, and that it avoids the otherwise deadhead miles from Utah to California if it did not have this haul.

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303 F. Supp. 1078, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/munitions-carriers-conference-inc-v-american-farm-lines-okwd-1969.