United States v. Southern Pac. Co.

290 F. 443, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1532
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedJune 18, 1923
DocketNo. 3375
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 290 F. 443 (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., 290 F. 443, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1532 (D. Utah 1923).

Opinion

SANBORN, LEWIS, and KENYON, Circuit Judges.

The above case having heretofore come on for hearing before this court, and having been determined in favor of defendants, and a final decree rendered on March 9, 1917, that the petition be dismissed for want of equity, and the said cause having been appealed by the United States, petitioner, to the Supreme Court of the United States, and that court having reversed the decree of this court, and a mandate from the Supreme Court in proper form having been filed herein on the 17th day of October, 1922, which mandate directs that such further proceedings be had in this cause, in conformity with the opinion and decree of the Supreme Court, as according to right and justice, and the laws of the United States, ought to be had:

[444]*444Now, therefore, this cause having come on for hearing at the present term before SANBORN, LEWIS, and KENYON, Circuit Judges, on the application of the United States for the entry of a final decree pursuant to said mandate, and upon the petition of the Southern Pacific Company, one of the defendants herein, that in entering any decree herein due recognition be accorded and due effect be given to certain rights acquired by it subsequent to the said decision of the Supreme Court in virtue of the exercise by the Interstate Commerce Commission in its behalf of certain powers conferred by the Transportation Act 1920 (41 Stat. 456), hereinafter more fully referred to, and having been argued by counsel, it was ordered, adjudged and decreed as follows, viz.: ■

Part I.

1. The petition in this cause was filed in this court on February 11, 1914. It charged that the then existing control of the Central Pacific Railway Company by the Southern Pacific Company, by lease and by stock ownership, was in violation of the Act of July 2, 1890, known and hereinafter referred to as the Sherman Law (Comp. St. § 8820 et seq.), and was also in violation of the provisions of the Act of Com gress of July 1, 1862 (12 Stat. 489), and its amendments or supplements, hereinafter referred to as the Pacific Railroad Acts. The prayer of the petition was that the lines of the Southern Pacific and those of the Central Pacific be decreed to constitute competitive systems, and that the ownership acquired by the Southern Pacific of all or a controlling interest in the capital stock of the Central Pacific, and its lease, control, and operation of the lines thereof be declared violative of the Sherman law, and that the Southern Pacific be required to dispose of such capital stock, and cancel and relinquish its lease, control, management, and operation thereof, and that the said control be decreed to be in violation also of the Pacific Railroad Acts. The lease referred to in the petition was a lease entered into February 17, 1885, with subsequent amendments. The ownership of stock complained of in the petition was acquired in 1899.

On March 9, 1917, this court rendered a final decree in favor of defendants, holding that the said control violated neither the Sherman Law nor the Pacific Railroad Acts, and the United States appealed. The case on appeal was argued and submitted in the Supreme Court in April, 1921, and was reargued and resubmitted in April, 1922. The decision of the Supreme Court was rendered May 29, 1922. That decision does not mention the Transportation Act, 1920. An application to the Supreme Court for a rehearing and a brief in support thereof were filed by defendants. In neither was there any reference to the Transportation Act, 1920. The Supreme Court, on October 9, 1922, denied a rehearing and in its denial made no reference to the Transportation Act, 1920. At the time of the decision of the Supreme Court and at the time of its denial of a rehearing the Southern Pacific had made no application to the Interstate Commerce Commission to acquire control of the Central Pacific under the Transportation Act, 1920, nor had the Commission adopted a final plan of consolidation under the terms of that act, nor had any action been taken by the Commission or [445]*445the parties to this cause to make said act effective upon the case before the Supreme Court.

By its decision the Supreme Court found the control complained of —i. e. by the lease of 1885 and its amendments and through the stock ownership acquired in 1899 — to be' a restraint of trade within the prohibition of the Sherman Raw. The charged violation of the Pacific Railroad Acts was not passed upon by the Supreme Court. Its decision did not affect the right of the Southern Pacific Company to apply to the Interstate Commerce Commission under paragraph (2) of section 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended by tne Transportation Act, 1920 (41 Stat. 481), to acquire control of the Central Pacific or the power and duty of the Commission to act upon any such application when made, nor did it decide the effect upon this case of favorable action by the Commission upon any such application.

2. On October 17, 1922, the Southern Pacific Company filed an application with the Interstate Commerce Commission under paragraph (2) of section 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended by the Transportation Act, 1920, for authority to acquire control of the Central Pacific Railway Company to the following extent and by the following means, namely: (a) By lease until December 31, 1984, subject to termination by order of the commission, if and when found by the commission to interfere with the consummation of its final plan of consolidation when promulgated under section 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended; and (b) by ownership of all the issued and outstanding capital stock of the Central Pacific Railway Company during the continuance of the lease. The application alleged that the control applied for would be in the public interest, and set forth the facts and conditions supporting this allegation, and invoked a finding and order from the Commission approving and authorizing the proposed lease and the stock ownership as in the public interest. The Commission set down the said application for hearing at a time and place named, and, in accordance with its rules and regulations governing such applications, notified the Governors and the Public Service Commissions of the states in which the lines of the Central Pacific Railway Company are located, namely California, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon, of the time and place fixed for the hearing. The said states appeared and intervened through authorized representatives and participated in the further proceedings under the application. The states of Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nebraska intervened and took part through their representatives in the further proceedings under the application. The shipping public in the above-named states and other states were further represented by numerous civic associations, commercial bodies and individuals, who intervened and took part in the hearing upon said application.

Among other interveners was the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which filed a motion to dismiss the application for want of jurisdiction. This motion was set down for hearing and, after argument by counsel, was denied by the Commission. After an extended hearing, at which testimony was taken and other evidence offered and filed by applicant tending to prove the allegations of its said application, and [446]*446by the notified states and by the interveners for and against the application, the matter was set down for argument for January 19, 1923, and then, after argument by counsel, was submitted and taken under advisement by the Commission.

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Bluebook (online)
290 F. 443, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1532, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-southern-pac-co-utd-1923.