United States v. Southern Pac. Co.

239 F. 998, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1461
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedMarch 9, 1917
DocketNo. 3575 (420)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 239 F. 998 (United States v. Southern Pac. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Southern Pac. Co., 239 F. 998, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1461 (D. Utah 1917).

Opinions

HOOK, Circuit Judge.

This is a suit by the United States h> enjoin and dissolve an alleged monopoly and combination in restraint of trade and commerce, formed by a lease to the Southern Pacific Company until January 1, 1984, of the railroads of the Central Pacific Railway Company, and by the acquisition by the former company of all the stock of the latter, in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of July 2, 1890. It is also charged that the control so obtained by the Southern Pacific Company is contrary to the Pacific Railroad Acts of July 1, 1862 (12 Stat. 489, c. 120), July 2, 1864 (13 Stat. 356, c. 216), and June 20, 1874 (18 Stat. 111, c. 331).

The needs of the case do not require a history in detail of the origin and growth of the various railroads which the government regards a's composing two independent systems that should be kept separate and competitive. It will be sufficient to refer generally to the two companies and their respective constituents and predecessors, inclusively, as the Southern Pacific and the Central Pacific, and to speak moré precisely only when necessary. We may say in the beginning that the location and physical interdependence of the lines of these companies in California and Oregon give the distinct appearance of a single system of railroads. So clearly is this so of the lines in California and [1000]*1000Oregon north of Sacramento that when an attempt was made in 1913, in the matter of the dissolution of the combination of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, also to divorce the Central Pacific from the Southern Pacific, it was generally agreed they should be left with the latter company. It is equally clear as regards the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific lines in California south from Sacramento and San Francisco. Those of the Central Pacific appeár on the map as natural links and parts of the Southern Pacific system. Practically all of the spurs, branches, and tributary feeders of the Central Pacific lines are the property of the Southern Pacific.

It is only when we consider the Central Pacific line from San Francisco to Ogden, Utah, on the one hand, and the Southern Pacific main line from San Francisco, through Yuma and El Paso, to New Orleans, on the other, that the propriety of their common control seems in any degree debatable. This aspect of the railroad map is confirmed in great measure by the history of the construction of the various roads. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, the ancestor of the present Central Pacific, was incorporated in 1861. Up to 1870 it had constructed or acquired and put in operation the lines from San Francisco to Ogden, from Niles to San Jose, in California, and from Roseville to Chico, in the same state. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company was-incorporated in 1865, and in 1870 the construction of the Southern Pacific lines was actively commenced. There was not much of importance of the Southern Pacific before that year. In 1870 and prior thereto the Central Pacific was dominated and controlled by Fe-land Stanford, Charles Crocker, C. P. Huntington, and Mark Hopkins, and in that year, if not earlier, the same group of men were in control of the Southern Pacific. For at least 15 years thereafter, and during the most important constructive period of the Southern Pacific, a common control and dominance over both companies was exercised by them or the representatives of their estates. Parts of the lines of both companies were built by the same construction companies owned by Mr. Stanford and his associates, under the same superintendence, and with the same equipment. The primary financing of the enterprises was done by them. The Central Pacific was employed' as the principal or parent company and the Southern Pacific as its subsidiary, or rather as the corporate instrumentality for the expansion of its system. Except as to corporate title and bookkeeping, there were generally the aspects of a single enterprise. In this respect the conditions were not unlike those which have characterized the growth of many of the important railroad systems of the country in which, for necessity or convenience of financing and in some instances because of local laws, separate corporate organizations were utilized. Between 1870 and 1883, as fast as the Southern Pacific lines were 'built from Goshen, Cal., the terminus of tire Central Pacific, south to Los Angeles, thence eastward to Yuma, and across Arizona and New Mexico, and into Texas, they were turned over by completed sections to the Central Pacific for operation. Up to 1885 all the Southern Pacific railroads,- including the main line to New Orleans (with an unimportant exception), were officially announced, advertised, and operated [1001]*1001by the Central Pacific as part of its system. The legal relation between the two companies was expressed in executed leases, and the system was known as “Central Pacific Railroad and Teased Tines.”

■.[1] In February, 1885, the Southern Pacific having become the major factor, the relation was reversed, and the Central Pacific leased all its railroads to the Southern Pacific (Company of Kentucky) for 99 years from April 1, 1885. The old leases of the Southern Pacific lines to the Central Pacific were 'surrendered by the same instrument. This was five years before the passage of the Anti-Trust Act. In December, 1893, another lease from the Central Pacific to the Southern Pacific was executed, modifying the terms of the lease of 1885 in matters not important here, and though the older instrument was ’canceled in terms, in legal effect the relation of lessor and lessee continued unbroken. The term of this last lease is until January 1, 1984. Whatever immunity or exemption from the operation of the Anti-Trust Act attended the proprietary relations existing prior-to its passage was not destroyed by the change in the position of the parties effected by the lease of 1885. Nor did the amendment of that lease in immaterial respects in 1893 create a new starting point. It is not material that the amendment was by a revision substituted for the old instrument instead of by a separate supplement. The applicability of the AntiTrust Act cannot be made to rest on such considerations.

[2, 3] It is also argued that the leases mentioned were not authorized by the statutes of California. We need not consider that. We do not think the Anti-Trust Act picks up the laws of the states for original enforcement. It deals with actual conditions affecting interstate commerce, whether they are authorized by those laws or not. In tire case before us there was from 1870 an existing, continuous, common control of the railroads of both companies created by leases executed and observed by the parties and unquestioned by the state. This was the situation when the Central Pacific debt to the United States was settled in 1899 pursuant to the act of July 7, 1898 (30 Stat. 659, c. 571), and when the Southern Pacific acquired all the stock of the present Central Pacific which was then organized to succeed the old company. In United States v. Union Pacific, 226 U. S. 61, 85, 33 Sup. Ct. 53, 57 (57 L. Ed. 124), the court said:

“We take it, therefore, that it may be regarded as settled, applying the statute as construed in the decisions of this court, that a combination which places railroads engaged in interstate commerce in such relation as to create a single dominating control in one corporation, whereby natural and existing competition in interstate commerce is unduly restricted or suppressed, is within the condemnation of the act.”

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Bluebook (online)
239 F. 998, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-southern-pac-co-utd-1917.