Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-22
HIGHER TRIBUNAL
REVERSES lands
Standard Oil Case Remanded
for New Trial.
BIG FINE Is INVOLVED
Decision of the. Three Appellate
Judges Unanimous. .
IMPORTANT ERRORS FOUND
Shipper Cannot Be Presumed to
Know the Rates-Company
Accused of Accepting
Rebates.
Decision of the. Three Appellate
Judges Unanimous.
IMPORTANT ERRORS FOUND

The Standard Oil Company
decision by which the company
was fined S29.24o,ooo by Judge
kenesaw NJ Lands of the United
States district. court was today
reversed by the United States cir
cult court of appeals in Chicago.
The case was remanded for a new
trial. The decision of the three
appellate judges was unanimous.
The court OF appeals differs
with the trial court on three vital
points, holding that Judge Lands
excluded evidence for the Stand
ard Oil Company of Indiana which
should have been admitted to
show proper intent in the rate the
company paid on oil that he erred
in considering each carlot a sep
arate Otfense, and that in impos-
ing the maximum fine for a first
offense he abused the discretion
vested in his court. 1T is strange
doctrine, says the opinion,
"whereunder a million-dollar cor
poration such as the defendant
the Standard Oil Company of In
diana-may be fined twenty-nine
times the amount of its capital
stock in order to punish a defend
ant not even under indictment. :"
By this latter is meant the parent
company, the Standard Oil Com
pany of New Jersey.
CHICAGO. July 22.-By unanimous opin-
ion of the United States circuit court OF
appeals for the seventh district the fa-
nous case of the government against the
Standard Oil Company. in which the lat
ter was fined s2924O,OOe by Judge Lands
in the district court. must be retired
This decision. concurred in by Judges
Baker and Seaman, was delivered here
today by Judge Grosscup. who wrote the
opinion. The closing sentence of the opin-
ion reads:
The judgment of the district court
is reversed and the case remanded with
instructions to grant a new trial. and
proceed further In accordance with this
opinion"
Fined for Taking Rebates.
The decision handed down today was
on the appeal made by the Standard Oil
Company of Indiana from the verdict rem
dered April 10, 1907. by which the COM
pany was found guilty of accepting re-
bates and was later fined by Judge Lam
dis of the United States district court
SO. 9.24O 600, the maximum under the counts
of the indictment.
The specific charge against the Stand
ard Oil Company of Indiana was that it
had accepted rebates on shipments of Oil
in carload lots from Whiting, Ind, to
East ST. Louis. Ill. over the Chicago and
Alton railroad. Evidence was adduced
at the trial showing that the company re-
ceived rates one-third as large as other
shippers were obliged to pay. 1t was con-
tended by the counsel of the oil COM
pany that the rate was not secret, but
the jury found otherwise.
During the trial the counsel for the oil
company refused to give information
called for by Judge Lands after he had
taken the case under advisement. The
court thereupon issued subpoenas for the
officials of the Standard Oil Company of
New Jersey. among them John d. Rookie
feller These officials appeared in court
July d. 1907. and were personally exam
ined by Judge Lands.
Appeal of the Company.
1t developed from the questions put by
the court that the Indiana corporal ton
against which indictments had been re-
turned is owned by the Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey, the earnings Of
which during the three years in which
occurred the transactions covered by the
indictments amounted to nearly 5000. .0OO.-
600, and that dividends averaging 40 per
cent per annum were paid during that
time. Judge Landis. after keeping the
case under advisement for several weeks.
passed sentence on the Standard Oil Com
pany of Indiana August ,. 1907. The
company entered a motion for a new trial,
which was refused. and ii then appealed
from the decision of the jury in the Unit
ed States district court on the ground
that the verdict was not based upon the
facts was unjustifiable. and that the fine
imposed by Judge Lands was excessive.
IL was on this appeal that the decision of
today was handed down.
Errors Claimed.
The opinion begins with brief state.
ment of the manner in which the case
was brought from the district court to
the court of appeals. Section of the
interstate commerce act relating to the
publishing and filing of rates is quoted
and the opinion continues:
There are 169 assignments of error
taking up sixty-seven pages of printed
record In view Of the conclusion. how
ever. TO which we have come. II is un-
necessary to review many of these as
signments-the ones reviewed covering al
the propositions of law that We deem
essential to the guidance of the district
court in the event of second trial
Comprehensively stated. the assignments
Of error which we shall review relate:
First: To the view adopted by the
trial court, carried out in its rulings or
the admission and exclusion of evidence
and embodied IN It's charge to the jury
that shipper can be convicted of ac
cepting concession from the lawful pub
lished rate, even though 1t is not shown
as bearing on the matter of intent. tina
the shipper at the time of accepting sucf
concession knew what the lawful pub
lished rate actually was.
Secondly. To the view adopted by tht
Continued on Fifteenth Page.)