The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-12-23


LINES.
The decision of District Judge Pur-
nell in the case of the Southern Rail-
way Company VS.. the North Carolina
Corporation Commission and the
Greensboro Ice and Coal Company, if
it is the law, and is allowed to stand,
is far reaching in the injury it will do
shippers and persons having business
with the Southern Railway Company.
No such power as the Southern Rail-
way Company can, by indirection, ex-
ercise over it's shippers if this decision
should stand ought to be exercised by
this great quasi public corporation.
Public policy and the interest of the
citizens of the State forbid it.
The facts out of which this litiga-
ton arose have Deen established by
the Corporation Cosmission, and
again upon a rehearing before it upon
exceptions filed by the Southern Rail-
way Company, and in the subsequent
proceedings in the Superior court and
the Supreme Court of the State, where
that case was taken by appeal by the
Railroad Company; and also by the
findings of the Master (ex-Chief JUS
tice James e. Shepherd) in the suit in
the Federal Court. Briefly and accu-
rately stated they are, that the Ice and
Coal Company has a side track which
was built for it by the Cape Fear and
Yadlxin Valley Railroad, and in the fall
of 1903 the Ice and Coal Company. ac-
cording to plans furnished by the
Southern Railway Company, and
under an implied contract with the
Railway Company that the side track
should be used, built a trestle for un-
loading car loads of coal, which was
accepted by the Railway Company.
When the tra5.'.a wa: finished thii teen
cars of coal colsis led TO the Ice and
Coal Company were ready for delivery
and they were delivered and unlolued,
and the cars returned to the Railway
Company within few hours from TIE
time they were delivered to the Ice
and Coal Company. The Railway
Company claimed that $146 .demur-
rage charges had accrued on account
Of :hesc cars. bat the Ice o',i Coz
Company denied that it owed this or
any amount. but offered to pay t if
tho Railway Company would establish
by any legal proceeding it's liability
f"r i: The Southern hallway r'nIn-
pany sac notice in writing that IN
less this $4,000 claimed to be- due was
paid that on and after a da.e named
il would cease to deliver cars on the
side track of the Ice and Coal Com
pany and on several occasions sUbse-
quent to this, offered to deliver the
cars if the Ice and Coal Company
would pay this amount claimed to be
due. A few days after the date fixed
| by the Southern Railway Company,
when it would not longer deliver cars,
| there were four cars consigned TO the
| Ice ard Coal Company on the freight
| yards at Greensboro, and the Ice and
Coal Company being unable to get the
| Railway Company to deliver them on
| its side track, applied to the North
| Carolina Corporation Commission for
relief. The Corporation Commission
| ordered that the cars be placed, and
| in as much as the Southern Railway
Company admitted the solvency of the
Ice and Coal Company. left the ques-
| ton of Indebtedness of STAG for de-
murrage open. The Railway Com
pany excepted and the Corporation
| Commission held a session in Green's
/ boro and heard all the evidence Of
fered by both sides and decided that
murrage was not due, and that there
was an implied contract between the
| Railway Company and the Ice and
| Coal Company that the side track
should be used. and that it would
relieve the congested condition of the
Railway Company's freight yard at
Greensboro to use the siding, and that
the cars of coal could be unloaded
with greater dispatch and less ex-
penses to- the Railway Company and
| the Ice and Coal Company, on this
/ side track than elsewhere. From this
| decision the Railway Company ap-
pealed to the Superior Court, and
| ton TO remove it to the Federal
| Court. This motion was refused and
the Railway Company appealed to the
Supreme Court; the Supreme Court
held that there was not $4,000 in
volved, but only the question of plac-
ing the four cars of coal, which were
the subject of the Corporation Com
missions order, and that the case
ought not to have been removed. When
the case was called again in the Su-
perior Court the appeal from the cor
poration commission was dismissed,
leaving the judgment of the
Commission standing. The Ice
and Coal Company, through its
counsel, addressed letter to the
Southern Railway Company in which
it was stated that there was no dis
position to punish the Railway Com
pany for anything that it had done,
or due it for penalties, and that all
that was asked was that the Railway
Company should treat the Ice and Coal