Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. United States

18 F. Supp. 624, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1943
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedFebruary 24, 1937
DocketNos. 314, 315, 317, 331; Nos. 690-693, 718
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 18 F. Supp. 624 (Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. United States, 18 F. Supp. 624, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1943 (E.D. La. 1937).

Opinion

KENNERLY, District Judge.

These are suits in equity in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans and Baton Rouge Divisions) and for the Southern District of Texas (Houston Division) under the Act of Congress of October 22, 1913 (38 Stat. 219, sections 41 (27, 28), 45, 46, and 47 of title 28, U.S.C.A.), by the plaintiffs (hereinafter named) against the defendants (hereinafter named), to enjoin, restrain, and set aside orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission requiring that the railroad companies named as defendants cease, desist from, and discontinue the payment to plaintiffs of allowances for performing certain terminal services hereinafter more fully set out and generally referred to as “spotting.”

The original report of the commission, on which orders complained of are based, [625]*625is reported as: Practices of Carriers Affecting Operating Revenues or Expenses, 209 I.C.C. 11.

Supplemental reports, on which orders complained of are also based, will be found in the printed reports of the commission, as follows: 1Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana, Inc., Terminal Allowance, 209 I.C.C. 394; Celotex Company Terminal Allowance, 209 I.C.C. 764; Great Southern Lumber Company-Bogalusa Paper Company Terminal Allowance, 209 I.C.C. 793; Standard Oil Company of Louisiana Terminal Allowance, 209 I.C.C. 68; Humble Oil & Refining Company Terminal Allowance, 209 I.C.C. 727; Magnolia Petroleum Company Terminal Allowance, 209 I.C.C. 93; Texas Company Terminal Allowance at Houston, Tex., 209 I.C.C. 767; Gulf Refining Company Terminal Allowance, 209 I.C.C. 756; Texas Company Terminal Allowance at Port Arthur, Texas, 44th Supplemental Report.

There were applications for interlocutory injunctions which were heard by a Three Judge Court organized under section 47, title 28 U.S.C.A., and granted, and the cases have now been heard together, on one record, on the merits by the same court, and may be disposed of in one opinion.

(a) No. 314 is a suit by the Pan American Petroleum Corporation, plaintiff, against the United States of America, the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company (for brevity called Y. & M. V. Ry. Company), and the Illinois Central Railroad Company, with the Interstate Commerce Commission intervening. Plaintiff is the successor of the Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana, Inc. (for brevity called Mexican Corporation), and owns and operates as did Mexican Corporation, at Destrehan, La., on the line of the Y. & M. V. Ry. Company a large oil refinery plant. The plant is situated south of and adjacent to .the tracks of the Y. & M. V. Ry. Company. There are within the plant inclosure tracks which connect with the tracks of railway company, and are used for the transportation of cars moving in interstate commerce between the places where they are loaded and unloaded within the inclosure of the plant and the railway company’s tracks, the service of such transportation being performed, formerly by Mexican Corporation and now by plaintiff under a tariff promulgated by the railway company, reading as follows:

“Terminal Allowances to the Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana at Destrehan, La.
“On traffic to and from points on or reached via The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company or connections.
“On all carload shipments (including trap cars containing 10,000 pounds or more of less-carload freight) destined to or coming from the plant of the Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana at Destrehan, La., the terminal switching service is performed by the Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana for account of The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company. Such terminal switching service, for which this allowance is made, consists of the handling of the cars between the point of interchange of such cars with this Company and the point at which such cars are unloaded, or the point at which such cars are loaded in said plant.
“For such terminal service performed for The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company by the Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana, at Destrehan, La., the Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana will be allowed 90 cents per loaded car, which will include the handling of the empty cars in the reverse direction.
“This allowance is not in excess of the average actual cost of the service as disclosed in a joint study of the operations of the plant facility made during period June 4, 1929 to June 8, 1929, .inclusive, also June 10, 1929, and filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission.”

The cease and desist order of the commission of which plaintiff complains as requiring defendant railroads to cease and desist making such allowance, under such tariff, is dated June 25, 1935, and is as follows : [626]*626der date of May 14, 19.34, made and filed a report Propriety of Operating Practices —Terminal Services, 209 I.C.C. 11, containing its legal conclusions with respect to the general situation presented, and the division having on the date hereof made and filed a supplemental report containing its findings of fact and conclusions with respect to the allowance paid to the Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana, Incorporated, which reports are hereby referred to and made a part hereof, and the division having found in said supplemental report that by 'the payment of said allowance The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company violates the Iflterstate Commerce Act as set forth in the above-mentioned reports:

[625]*625“Upon further consideration of the record in this proceeding concerning the lawfulness and propriety of the allowance paid by The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company to the Mexican Petroleum Corporation of Louisiana, Incorporated, for performance by the latter of spotting service within its plant at Destrehan, La., and the Commission having un-
[626]*626“It Is Ordered, That The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company be, and it is hereby, notified and required to cease and desist on or before August 22, 1935, and thereafter to abstain from such unlawful practice.
“By the Commission, Division 6.”

(b) No. 315 is a suit by Colin C. Bell and Wm. Tracy Alden, trustees of the Celotex Company, plaintiffs 2 (for brevity called Celotex Corporation), against the United States of America, Texas & New Orleans Railroad Company (for brevity called T. & N. O.), the Texas & Pacific Railway Company (for brevity called T. & P.), the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company (L. W. Baldwin and Guy A. Thompson, trustees) (for brevity called M. P.), and the Texas Pacific-Missouri Pacific Terminal Railroad of New Orleans (for brevity called Terminal Company), with the Interstate Commerce Commission intervening.

Celotex Corporation (as did its predecessors) owns and operates a plant for the manufacture of celotex board, manufactured principally from bagasse, the dried refuse of sugar cane. The plant is located at Marrero, La. The plant is served by the three defendant railroads (T. & N. O., T. & P., and M. P.), the Terminal Company performing the switching' for the T. & P. and the M. P.

The plant is in two sections which are separated by the tracks of the T. & N. O. and the Terminal Company.. As in case No.

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Related

Bell v. United States
49 F. Supp. 505 (E.D. Louisiana, 1943)
United States v. Pan American Petroleum Corp.
304 U.S. 156 (Supreme Court, 1938)
Louisiana Development Co. v. United States
18 F. Supp. 629 (E.D. Louisiana, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
18 F. Supp. 624, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1943, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pan-american-petroleum-corp-v-united-states-laed-1937.