Murphy v. New York Central Railroad

170 A.D. 788, 156 N.Y.S. 49, 1915 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5982
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 3, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 170 A.D. 788 (Murphy v. New York Central Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murphy v. New York Central Railroad, 170 A.D. 788, 156 N.Y.S. 49, 1915 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5982 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinions

Scott, J.:

This is an action brought to recover certain amounts paid by plaintiffs to defendant as “track storage” charges on cars transported by defendant from points within the State of Yew York to Melrose Junction in Yew York city.

The facts are undisputed and the only question of law in the case is as to the binding effect, as an adjudication, of a certain order or resolution of the Public Service Commission, Second District.

The facts as shown by the pleadings and the stipulation are that during the times mentioned in the complaint the plaintiffs were engaged in business as receivers and shippers of hay, straw, grain and feed at 788 Morris-avenue, Yew York city, and the defendant was and now is a common carrier engaged in intrastate commerce, subject to the provisions of the Public Service Commissions Law, and had filed with the said Public Service Commission schedules showing its rates, fares and charges for the transportation of property and terminal charges, and rules and regulations affecting said rates; that the said schedules provided among other things that a consignee of freight shall have forty-eight hours from the first seven A. M. after notice of arrival and placement of a car at destination “free time” in which to unload said car; that if the car is detained beyond the said free time a charge of one dollar per day or fraction thereof called a “demurrage” charge is made to encourage a reasonably prompt release of the car, and another charge called “track storage” is made at certain places where track space is comparatively limited to facilitate the clearance of the delivery or switch tracks and for use of the space occupied by the car.

The charge made for demurrage is one dollar per car per [790]*790day. The track storage charge prior to August 15, 1908, was one dollar per car for the first day, two dollars for the second, three dollars for the third and four dollars for each succeeding day. Since August 15, 1908, the track storage charge has been one dollar per day for the first two days after the free time expired, and two dollars per day for each succeeding day.

The demurrage schedules further provided that the defendant would refund to the consignee of property the demur-rage ” charges collected by it when shipments were held in the cars because of the impracticability of unloading under the following conditions if they occurred within the free time specified:

When the condition of the weather during the prescribed free time is such as to make it impossible to employ men or teams in unloading cars without serious injury to freight. When shipments are frozen so as to prevent unloading during the prescribed free time, or when, because of high water or snow drifts, it is impossible to get to cars for unloading during the prescribed free time.

There was no similar provision in the “ track storage ” ' schedules and no provision in said schedules providing for the remission of track storage charges when weather conditions were such as to interfere with the loading or unloading of the property by the consignee.

Between November 1, 1907, and May 20, 1910, plaintiffs received at defendant’s Melrose Junction station, New York city, a number of consignments of freight which originated and terminated within the State of New York and paid thereon track storage charges amounting to $178, which are claimed to have been unlawful and excessive, for the reason that said charges accrued on days when the weather conditions were such as to interfere with the unloading of the property. The demurrage charges which were paid by the plaintiffs to the defendant and which plaintiffs claimed were excessive by reason of weather conditions were refunded by the defendant to the plaintiffs, but defendant refused to refund the track storage charges which accrued under these conditions.

In May, 1911, the plaintiffs filed a complaint with the Public Service Commission, Second District, claiming that said track [791]*791storage charges were unjust and unreasonable, and proceedings were thereafter had before said Public Service Commission which resulted in a resolution of the Commission to the effect that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover the amount of said charges from the defendant.

On or about August 1, 1911, the defendant modified its track storage schedules, and since that time those schedules have contained a provision similar to the one in the demurrage schedules providing for the refund of demurrage charges which accrue when weather conditions prevent unloading.

The Public Service Commission, Second District, concluded that the “ track storage ” charges exacted by defendant and included in its filed schedule of tariffs and charges, in so far as the same applied to days upon which, owing to weather conditions, it was impossible or impracticable to unload, were unreasonable. To this finding the defendant makes no objection and has amended its schedule of rates, tariffs and charges to conform thereto. In addition to this finding the Commission adopted a resolution, which for the purposes of this appeal is assumed to be equivalent to an order, in the following terms:

Resolved : That complainants, Murphy Brothers, are entitled to recover from respondent, The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, the aggregate sum of $178.00 with varying amounts of interest computed at the rate of 6 per cent per annum as hereinafter stated, for and on account of exaction by respondent of unjust and unreasonable track storage charges applied to carloads of freight delivered to complainants at Melrose Junction.”

The amounts thus held to be repayable to plaintiffs covered “track storage” charges from January 11, 1907, to June 14, 1911, all of which had been exacted before the determination by said Public Service Commission that said “track storage charges ” were unreasonable.

Judgment was rendered against defendants upon the specific ground that the resolution or order of the Public Service Commission “is in effect a finding of an unjust discrimination against the plaintiffs, and until reversed or annulled it is binding upon the defendant in this action.”

[792]*792The theory upon which the judgment proceeded is, as indicated by the learned justice who rendered it, that inasmuch as the Interstate Commerce Commission had held “track storage charges ” exacted under like circumstances upon cars engaged in interstate commerce to be unreasonable and unlawful, the exaction of such charges upon cars used in intrastate commerce would constitute unjust discrimination against shippers by the latter class of cars.

We are unable to follow this reasoning. The charges sought to he recovered, and for which judgment has been rendered, cover the period from January, 1907, to June, 1911. There is absolutely nothing in the case to show that defendant did not, during the period mentioned, exact precisely the same “ track storage charges ” from cars employed in interstate commerce. From the statement of facts in New York Central & Hudson River R. R. Co. v. Murphy (224 Fed. Rep.

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Bluebook (online)
170 A.D. 788, 156 N.Y.S. 49, 1915 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5982, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murphy-v-new-york-central-railroad-nyappdiv-1915.