Scroggins v. Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. (In re Brown Transport Truckload, Inc.)

169 B.R. 781, 1994 Bankr. LEXIS 942
CourtDistrict Court, D. Georgia
DecidedJune 24, 1994
DocketBankruptcy Nos. A89-12515-WHD, A89-12517-WHD and A89-12521-WHD; Adv. No. 92-6171A
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 169 B.R. 781 (Scroggins v. Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. (In re Brown Transport Truckload, Inc.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scroggins v. Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. (In re Brown Transport Truckload, Inc.), 169 B.R. 781, 1994 Bankr. LEXIS 942 (gad 1994).

Opinion

ORDER

W. HOMER DRAKE, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge.

Before the Court are motions by Frank W. Scroggins (“Plaintiff’), as Successor Trustee for Brown Transport Truckload, Inc., et al. (collectively referred to as “Debtor”) and by Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. (“Defendant”). Defendant has presented this Court with a Motion To Dismiss or, in the Alternative, for Summary Judgment. Conversely, Plaintiff has offered his own Motion to Set Aside the Interstate Commerce Commission’s (ICC’s) decision in Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. — Petition for Declaratory Order — Certain Rates and Practices of Robert E. Brizendine, Trustee of Brown Transport Truckload, Inc., Brown Transport Corp., and Thurston Motor Lines, Inc., No. 40948 (decision served October 1, 1993). These matters constitute core proceedings [783]*783over which this Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(E) and (0). This Court’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law are as follows:

Findings of Fact

The Debtor, an interstate trucking company, filed a Chapter 11 petition with this Court on October 31,1989. The Debtor then converted its case to a Chapter 7 liquidation on January 8,1990, and the Plaintiff’s predecessor, Robert E. Brizendine, was appointed as its Trustee. Prior to its original filing, Debtor had executed and performed two “Corporate Transportation Contracts” with the Defendant, and those agreements later became the focus of Trustee Brizendine’s attention in Bankruptcy. Specifically, the Trustee filed a Complaint for Turnover of Property for Money Judgment (“Complaint”) on February 7, 1992, seeking to recover alleged underpayments by the Defendant shipper in the performance of those agreements.

The Trustee and his successor, Mr. Scrog-gins, acknowledge that the Defendant paid the rate which it and the Debtor agreed upon well before bankruptcy. Nonetheless they argue that, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. §§ 10761(a) and 10762, the Defendant remains liable for the difference between that agreed rate and the “tariff’ rate which the Debtor had on file with the ICC at the time. In this application of the “filed rate doctrine” the Plaintiff seeks to collect $634,049.72 in alleged undercharges from the Defendant. Additionally, Plaintiff requests pre-judgment interest on that amount from the date of the oldest bill, as permitted by 28 U.S.C. § 1961.

The Defendant has answered the Plaintiffs Complaint by denying the material allegations of fact and raising several affirmative defenses. First, Defendant asserts that the Debtor carried the involved shipments under its authority as a contract carrier and, therefore, that the filed rate doctrine does not apply. If the shipments are found to have passed under common carrier rather than contract carrier authority, the Defendant alternatively argues that the rates in question are unreasonable and not applicable to the shipments in question.

In an earlier stage of this proceeding, Defendant posited that its defenses called into question several issues within the primary jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Accordingly, Defendant submitted a Motion for Referral of those matters to the ICC. In an Order dated November 17, 1992 (“the Referral Order”), this Court granted Defendant’s Motion to Refer1 to the ICC the following issues: (1) whether these shipments passed under the Debtor’s contract carrier authority or its common carrier authority; (2) whether the rates which the Plaintiff now attempts to apply to the Defendant are unreasonable per se; and (3) whether the tariff rates which the Plaintiff seeks are applicable to the shipments in question.

After hearing the parties’ arguments on these issues, the ICC delivered its decision on September 21,1993. Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. — Petition for Declaratory Order — Certain Rates and Practices of Robert E. Brizendine, Trustee of Brown Transport Truckload, Inc., Brown Transport Corp., and Thurston Motor Lines, Inc., No. 40948. In that decision, the ICC concluded that the Debtor did indeed transport the Defendant’s shipments under contract carrier authority. Having reached that decision, the ICC did not consider Defendant’s alternative arguments of rate unreasonableness and nonapplicability.

The parties now have returned to this Court, where the Defendant has moved for Summary Judgment in light of the ICC’s findings. Conversely, the Plaintiff has asked this Court to set aside the ICC decision. In essence, Plaintiff argues that the ICC decision violates the Supreme Court’s rulings in Maislin Indus. v. Primary Steel, 497 U.S. 116, 110 S.Ct. 2759, 111 L.Ed.2d 94 (1989) and Reiter v. Cooper, — U.S. -, 113 [784]*784S.Ct. 1213,122 L.Ed.2d 604 (1993), because it interprets other sections of the Interstate Commerce Act (ICA) in a manner which undermines the filed rate doctrine. Additionally, Plaintiff challenges the propriety of certain factors considered by the ICC in the course of the involved proceedings.

Conclusions of Law

As previously noted, this suit involves an application of the filed rate doctrine. Forming the heart of the Interstate Commerce Act, the codified form of this doctrine provides:

Except as provided in this subtitle, a carrier providing transportation or service subject to the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission ... shall provide that transportation or service only if the rate for the transportation or service is contained in a tariff that is in effect under this subchapter. That carrier may not charge or receive a different compensation for that transportation or service than the rate specified in the tariff whether by returning part of that rate to a person, giving a person a privilege, allowing the use of a facility that affects the value of that transportation or service, or another device.

49 U.S.C. § 10761(a)(1) (1982 ed.). The ICA also provides carriers with a cause of action to recover deviations from the filed rate which occurred within the previous three years. 49 U.S.C. § 11706(a) (1982 ed.). Moreover, where the doctrine applies, courts will enforce it strictly, without regard for the degree of hardship befalling the shipper. Maislin, 497 U.S. at 128.

As the introductory phrase to § 10762(a)(1) suggests, however, there are exceptions to the filed rate doctrine’s normally pervasive reign. For instance, as noted by the ICC, Ex Parte No. MC-165, Exemption of Motor Contract Carriers from Tariff Filing Requirements, 133 M.C.C. 150, aff'd, sub nom., Central & S. Motor Freight Tariff Ass’n v. United States, 757 F.2d 301 (D.C.Cir.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1019, 106 S.Ct. 568, 88 L.Ed.2d 553 (1985), the filed rate doctrine does not apply to shipments made under a carrier’s contract authority.

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169 B.R. 781, 1994 Bankr. LEXIS 942, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scroggins-v-thomson-consumer-electronics-inc-in-re-brown-transport-gad-1994.