Pennsylvania v. Interstate Commerce Commission

535 F.2d 91, 175 U.S. App. D.C. 263
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMarch 31, 1976
DocketNos. 75-1529, 75-1762
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 535 F.2d 91 (Pennsylvania v. Interstate Commerce Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pennsylvania v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 535 F.2d 91, 175 U.S. App. D.C. 263 (D.C. Cir. 1976).

Opinion

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge LEVENTHAL.

LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge:

This case presents petitions to review an order of the Rail Services Planning Office (RSPO) of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) which promulgated legislative regulations1 pursuant to § 205(d) of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, as amended, 45 U.S.C. § 715(d) (Act). The order set forth standards for determining rail service continuation subsidies, to govern rail properties not transferred to the [265]*265Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) under the Final System Plan developed pursuant to the Act.

This case was argued on March 4, 1976. It was put on an expedited briefing and argument schedule, in view of the imminence and significance of the April 1, 1976, date set by the Act, as amended in 1976, for transfer of rail properties, and the clear intent of Congress to facilitate continued rail operation and service to the public with respect to both the properties designated for transfer to Conrail and those subject to the rail service continuation subsidy processes of the Act.2 These same concerns prompt us to render this decision in an expedited fashion, stating only the highlights of our reasoning.

1. The court is of the view that it does not have jurisdiction to decide the claim of R. D. Timpany, trustee in reorganization of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, that the Act authorizes RSPO “to establish standards for determining a reasonable rate of return on value” in violation of its constitutional right to “a judicial determination of just compensation for its property taken by eminent domain. ” 3 No jurisdictional issue has been raised, and apparently this court did have jurisdiction of the case, under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2321, 2342, as amended Pub.L. 93-584, 88 Stat. 1917, §§ 4-5 (Jan. 2, 1975), when the briefs were filed during October-December 1975. But as we read § 602(b) of the 1976 amendments, Pub.L. 94-210, 90 Stat. 31, 86 (Feb. 5, 1976), the Special Court, established pursuant to the Act, has been given original and exclusive jurisdiction over civil actions “challenging the constitutionality of this Act or any provision thereof. . . .”

2. The court does have jurisdiction to consider the various contentions in the petitions to review, allegations filed by Timpany and by the States of Pennsylvania and New York, that the regulations of the RSPO are invalid under the governing statute. These regulations pertain to the situation of lines or segments of lines not desired by Conrail as part of its permanent system, but which are so situated that “a financially responsible person” — for the most part states or state agencies — desires continuation of service, at least during a transitional period, and is willing to offer a rail service continuation subsidy sufficient to cover the difference between the “avoidable costs of providing service” on such properties and the “revenues attributable” to the properties plus a “reasonable return on the value” of the properties. Section 304(c) of the Act, 45 U.S.C. § 744(c), prohibits the discontinuance of rail service and abandonment of rail properties where such a subsidy is offered in conformance with the statutory formula, the operative terms of which are determined by RSPO standards issued pursuant to § 205(d)(3) of the Act, id. § 715(d)(3). The challenges in the instant petitions are to RSPO’s definition of the terms “avoidable costs” and “reasonable return on value.” Section 304(b)-(c) of the Act and the pertinent provisions of the regulations are set forth in an Appendix to this opinion.

3. Pennsylvania and New York attack as contrary to the Act RSPO’s definition of “avoidable costs” to include off-branch [266]*266costs. We decline to hold the RSPO regulations invalid on their face. We recognize the force of the contentions in the petition filed by the States. But there are important countervailing considerations.

The States’ principal contention is that Congress in 1973 adopted by reference the usage of the ICC in its regulations implementing the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, 45 U.S.C. §§ 501 ff. The 1970 statute required the ICC to develop regulations for the determination of “avoidable losses” which would apply in the event of impasse between the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) and a railroad as to the final settlement price to be paid to Amtrak by the railroad, which was shifting over its loss-incurring passenger service responsibility. The railroad’s “avoidable loss” for 1969, defined by the statute to mean “the avoidable costs of providing passenger service, less revenues attributable thereto,” as those terms would be further elaborated by the ICC, provided one of the two bases for the final settlement price.4 The ICC definitions, apparently keying “avoidable loss” to the “avoidable costs” of providing

the specific passenger service to be abandoned, are set out in the margin.5

There is implicit recognition in the RSPO regulations that its definition of “avoidable costs” was a novel one, and this presents something of an anomaly since the same words — “avoidable costs” — are used by Congress in both statutes. But a word “is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged,” for it takes on the hue of its surroundings, so that the same word may mean different things in different sections of the same statute, and certainly in different, though related, statutes. Towne v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 418, 425, 38 S.Ct. 158, 159, 62 L.Ed. 372, 376 (1918); Lamar v. United States, 240 U.S. 60, 65, 36 S.Ct. 255, 256, 60 L.Ed. 526, 528 (1916). RSPO justified its formulation by noting that the difference in approach was responsive to a difference in context — a shift from payment by carriers enabled to discontinue service, to a subsidy payment to carriers for continued operation. In the interest of time we quote the RSPO’s somewhat technical analysis in a footnote, without our restatement.6 While we do not have the familiarity with the [267]*267subject matter that permits expert understanding of the matter, we do have the perception that under the 1970 measure the carrier was paying a one-shot settlement price for terminating the particular service, so that there was room for rigidity in saying that the amount it saved thereby (to be paid to the quasi-public corporation, Amtrak) would be determined completely without regard to the separated service that was being continued by the carrier, and that there is a distinctly different situation when the two services are being continued and integrated by the same operator (Conrail). There is also a difference in legislative purpose. Under the 1970 Act, the emphasis was to take reasonable steps to prevent the departing carrier from obtaining what might be termed an unjust enrichment in giving up its legal burden to provide intercity passenger service.

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Bluebook (online)
535 F.2d 91, 175 U.S. App. D.C. 263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pennsylvania-v-interstate-commerce-commission-cadc-1976.