Pennsylvania Railroad v. United States

125 F. Supp. 233, 129 Ct. Cl. 781, 1954 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 114
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedNovember 2, 1954
DocketNo. 446-52
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 125 F. Supp. 233 (Pennsylvania Railroad v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pennsylvania Railroad v. United States, 125 F. Supp. 233, 129 Ct. Cl. 781, 1954 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 114 (cc 1954).

Opinion

MaddeN, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff was the ultimate carrier of a number of shipments of plywood from Tacoma, Washington, to New York and Baltimore. The plywood was obtained by the Government from a supplier, Pacific Forest Industries, which manufactured it at various places in the State of Washington. The Government’s contracts with the supplier called for the delivery of the plywood f. o. b. cars, Tacoma. The arrangements of the parties contemplated that the plywood should be shipped into Tacoma and stored there temporarily and then loaded on cars for carriage to the Atlantic ports.

In the circumstances recited above, railroad rate tariffs provide for what is known as “transit”, that is, the right of the shipper to pay, not the local rate into the transit point plus the local rate out from the transit point to the destination, but the through rate from the point of origin to the destination, as if the carriage had been uninterrupted. If the shipper claims the transit privilege, he must, in addition [783]*783to the through rate, pay a small charge for the trouble caused to the railroad by the interruption of the carriage. Even after paying this charge, the transit privilege saves the shipper a considerable amount.

The mechanics of the application of transit are shown in finding 13. The shipper pays the local rate into the transit station. When the goods are shipped out from the transit station, he then pays the amount of the through rate from the point of origin to the destination, less the local rate which he has already paid when he shipped the goods into the transit station, or he pays the full amount of the through rate and receives a refund of the local rate which he paid when he shipped the goods into the transit station. When the same person pays the freight for both parts of the carriage, there is no real difference between the two methods of handling the transit question. When, however, the goods change ownership at the transit point, the use of one or the other of the two methods will determine who, at least initially, gets the money saved by the application of transit.

The plaintiff contends that the shipments here in question were not entitled to the benefit of transit. We do not agree. The transit tariff, summarized in finding 13, is directly applicable. The plaintiff does not contend, and could not, that the mere fact that the ownership of the goods changes at the transit point makes transit inapplicable. The transit tariff had a section entitled “Change of Ownership” which showed that it contemplated that occurrence. The plaintiff argues that, somehow, the shipments out of Tacoma were “separate and independent movements” not entitled to the transit privilege. We are not told wherein they were different from the usual situation to which transit is applicable. The fact that the shipments out of Tacoma were on Government bills of lading, while the shipments in were not, denotes nothing but a change of ownership at the transit point which, as we have said, does not make transit inapplicable. The plaintiff cites two decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Cudahy Packing Co. v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., 263 I. C. C. 503, and Great Lakes Steel Corporation v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., 264 I. C. C. 779.

[784]*784In each of the cited cases, as in the instant case, the goods were shipped into the transit point by a supplier, and were shipped out to the 'Government as consignee on Government bills of lading. In both cases it appeared that the Government did not desire that transit should be applicable. In the Oudahy case, this was because the Government desired to interrupt the carriage at a second point, and claim transit for that interruption. In the Great Lakes case it is not apparent why the Government desired to regard the shipment out of the transit point as separate.

The cases cited by the plaintiff show only that when different persons own the goods and pay the freight on the inbound and outbound shipments, both, or at least the second shipper, must elect to claim transit, in order to give the inbound shipper the advantage of it. In the instant case there is no question as to the intent of both shippers to claim transit.

The plaintiff says that transit, if otherwise allowable, was lost by failure to comply with Item No. 1512 of the tariff, quoted in finding 13, which requires, apparently, that the inbound shipper make a statement as to why someone else is making the outbound shipment. In the instant case the inbound shipper, Pacific Forest Industries, was the consignor in the outbound shipment, hence the continuity of interest was shown between the inbound and outbound shipments, and Item No. 1512 was not applicable.

The plaintiff urges that, if transit was applicable, still the Government was not entitled to the benefits of it because the Government’s contracts with the supplier provided that the supplier should get the benefits of transit. The contract under which practically all of the plywood in question was purchased contained the following language:

The following prices are per thousand square feet either FAS vessel, Port of Tacoma Pier, or FOB cars Tacoma. The prices are predicated on the Pacific Forest Industries receiving the In Transit privilege from the railroads on plywood received from the producing mills on commercial bills of lading and shipped out on Government bills of lading. If for any reason the railroads refuse to grant transit refunds on this movement, the prices are subject to adjustment to the extent that such transit refunds affect the prices quoted.

[785]*785The Government would have us interpret this language as applicable only to the delivery of plywood to ships, in which case the Government would have no part in the railroad transportation and no interest in transit. That is a possible interpretation. Since the through rate from the mill points to the Atlantic port destinations was the same as the rate from Tacoma to those destinations, the transit saving was equal to all the freight which the supplier paid into Tacoma on the shipments which went out of Tacoma by rail, whereas, if they had gone out by ship, the supplier would have borne the freight charges, less the transit saving. But the quoted language of the contracts seems to us to say that the supplier was to have the saving resulting from the application of transit. As to most of the shipments, refunds representing the transit reductions were made to the supplier. We think that money went into the right hands. Late in the course of dealing of the parties the railroads took the position, which we think was erroneous, that transit was not applicable. They stopped making refunds, and brought suits in courts of the State of Washington to recover the refunds which they had made. We are told that those suits are still pending.

The Government, though it claims that transit was applicable, gives the plaintiff no credit for the refunds made to the supplier, saying that it, and it alone, was entitled to the benefit of transit. It says that the shipper who ships out of the transit station and pays for the outbound shipment is alone entitled to the saving. We do not understand why this should be so. If the parties have agreed as to who should get the saving, that would seem to settle the question, at least as between themselves. If they have not agreed, it would seem that the saving should be apportioned between them on some fair basis.

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125 F. Supp. 233, 129 Ct. Cl. 781, 1954 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pennsylvania-railroad-v-united-states-cc-1954.