Wabash R. v. United States

51 F. Supp. 141, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2351
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedJune 10, 1943
DocketCiv. A. No. 243
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 51 F. Supp. 141 (Wabash R. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wabash R. v. United States, 51 F. Supp. 141, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2351 (S.D. Ill. 1943).

Opinion

BRIGGLE, District Judge.

This is a proceeding to set aside the order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, entered May 6, 1941, entitled Ex Parte No. 104, Practices of Carrier Affecting Operating Revenues or Expenses; Part II, Terminal Services (Report on Further Hearing of Issues Included in the 55th Supplemental Report), 245 I.C.C. 383, which report and order may be said to be supplementary to 209 I.C.C. 11. The plain[142]*142tiffs are common carriers whose lines of, railroad traverse and serve the city of Decatur and the surrounding area in the Southern District of Illinois. The intervener, A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company, is engaged in the processing of grain including corn and soy beans and the manufacture of various products therefrom at Decatur, Illinois. It receives annually by rail at its plant large quantities of grain, soy beans, and raw materials of all kinds and ships by rail from its plant large quantities of manufactured products.

The history of the proceeding is long. Briefly stated, it arose in 1931, when the Commission upon its own motion instituted a proceeding entitled “Ex Parte 104” which was an investigation of practices of Class 1 Rail Carriers in respect to terminal switching charges and allowances paid by carriers where industries performed their intraplant switching or spotting services. Hearings were held throughout the country in which many industries and carriers participated and a large volume of evidence was taken. On May 14, 1935, the commission made its report, 209 I.C.C. 11, in which it stated its general conclusions as to the obligations of line haul carriers to render spotting service and the principles governing such obligations. Subsequent thereto the Commission made' numerous supplemental reports, undertaking to apply the principles there enunciated to specific plants and industries, some of which have been before and have been approved by the Supreme Court, notably United States v. American Sheet & Tin Plate Co., 301 U.S. 402, 57 S.Ct. 804, 81 L.Ed. 1186; Goodman Lumber Co. v. United States, 301 U.S. 669, 57 S.Ct. 936, 81 L.Ed. 1333; A. O. Smith Corporation v. United States, 301 U.S. 669, 57 S.Ct. 936, 81 L.Ed. 1333; United States v. Pan American Petroleum Corp., 304 U.S. 156, 58 S.Ct. 771, 82 L.Ed. 1262. The 55th of these Supplemental Reports, made on May 22, 1936, concerned spotting service at the plant of the intervener, A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company. In this report the Commission found that the intraplant spotting of cars then performed by the Staley Company, for which the railroads paid Staley an allowance, was a private service not within the obligations of the carriers and covered by their line haul rate and that the assumption of such obligation by the carriers was a violation of Section 6(7) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 6(7). The Commission made an order requiring the carriers to cease and desist from the payment of such allowances.

Subsequently, the Staley Company ceased performing such spotting service and arranged with the carrier to do the same and a charge of $2.50 per car was established for such service, in addition to the line haul rates. Later the plaintiff carriers by schedules effective December 15, 1939, proposed to cancel such charge for spotting services in the Staley plant but the Commission by their order of May 6, 1941, suspended the operation of such proposed schedule, leaving the spotting charge against Staley in full force and effect. Neither plaintiffs nor intervener challenges in this proceeding the validity of prior orders entered in Ex Parte 104, but the principal point of contention arises from the assertion of the plaintiffs and the intervener and denial by defendants that by the order of May 6, 1941, the Staley Company is unduly prejudiced by reason of the fact that competing industries at Decatur, Illinois, and other places within the state are receiving spotting services from the carriers without charge. The carriers and Staley assert that the order exacting a charge from Staley amounts to a continuing discrimination against Staley.

The Commission made six findings of fact and six conclusions of law. Finding of fact 5 is, as follows: “5. All services between the tracks described in the immediately preceding finding and points of loading and unloading within the plant area of the Staley Company are services in excess of those rendered shippers generally in the receipt and delivery of traffic on team tracks or industrial sidings and spurs.”

Conclusion of law 3 is, as follows: “3. That the performance by respondents, without charge in addition to the line-haul rates and charges, of service (a) from Burwell yard tracks to points of unloading within the plant area of the Staley Company (b) from points of loading within said plant area to Burwell yard tracks on loaded cars moved to that yard, and (c) from points of loading within said plant area to Wabash storage or general yard tracks on loaded cars that do not move to the Burwell yard, would result in the Staley Company receiving a preferential service not accorded to shippers generally and would result in the refunding or remitting of a portion of the rates and [143]*143charges collected or received as compensation for the transportation of property in violation of section 6(7) of the act.”

Among other contentions, it is claimed by plaintiffs and intervener that finding 5 is unsupported by the evidence or by the finding of any basic facts to support it, and that Conclusion 3 is, therefore, unwarranted.

At the hearing before the Commission much evidence was introduced on this point to show that spotting service was being rendered by the carriers without charge other than the line-haul tariffs to numerous industries at Decatur and throughout Illinois and particularly to those engaged in direct competition with Staley. We think it fair to say that the evidence in the record is uncontradicted that Staley is the only concern at Decatur or within a reasonable radius thereof that is now being required to pay a spotting charge. At Decatur, Illinois, the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, Decatur Soya Bean Products Company, and Spencer Kellogg & Sons, all of whom are in direct competition with Staley, are without exception receiving spotting service under conditions comparable to those existing at the Staley plant. The Corn Products Refining Company at Argo, Illinois, shown by the evidence to be one of the largest producers of corn products in the country, with some eighteen or twenty miles of track within its plant and with at least twenty points of loading and unloading within the plant, has always received spotting service. This plant is one of Staley’s chief competitors. The plaintiffs, Illinois Central Railroad Company and Illinois Terminal Railroad Company, make no spotting charge for the delivery or receipt of freight upon their entire systems with the single exception of the Staley plant. The plaintiff, Wabash Railroad Company, was obliged to except the Staley plant from the operation of their general rule that no charges be made for spotting cars.

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Related

United States v. Wabash Railroad
321 U.S. 403 (Supreme Court, 1944)

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Bluebook (online)
51 F. Supp. 141, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wabash-r-v-united-states-ilsd-1943.