Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-08-01
6. ?. ROAD ASKS
SUPREME COURT
FOR REHEAR|NC
Company Wants to Reopen
the Controversy Regard
ing Divorcing Itself From
the Central Pacific.
by The Associated rress.,

Washington, July 81. - The
Southern Pacific company filed to-
day in the supreme court an appli-
cation for re-hearing of the famous
Southern Pacific case in which the
court recently handed down an
opinion directing the company to
divorce itself Of ownership and con-
troll of the Central Pacific railroad.
The company, in its petition,
grouped the grounds advanced for
the rehearing under five heads and
among other things urged an ap'
plication of the sherman act "in
the light of the rule of reason"
insisting that under the laws Of
California there was authority for
the lease made by the Central Pa
eific, in 1885, which, If valid, con-
stituted the Southern Pacific pro-
prietor of the Central Pacific for
t ninety-nine years.
The petition asserted that 1t was
not the intention of the Sherman
act to "subvert titles vested before
its passage" and that congress in
considering the refunding of the
Central Pacific debt always looked
''for a guaranty of its payment by
the Southern Pacific"
No Action Until October.
No action will be taken upon the
petition until the court meets for
its next term in October,
The petition further stated that
the Sherman law should not be
interpreted as requiring the disin-
tegration of railroad lines which In
the fifty years of their history have
had a community of operation
through a single management of
unbroken continuity" All CONSOLE
dations leases and conveyances of
California companies holding fed
eraI franchises to construct and
operate railways were made upon
the basis which prevailed in the
Central Pacific leases, the petition
asserted, land have stood unchal-
lenged from earliest times" 1t was
stated.
The federal refunding commit
tee was clearly clothed with au-
thority," the petition continued, ito
make a settlement calling for "a
guaranty by the Southern Pacific
predicated on its position as lessee,
inasmuch as such a settlement was
in line with what had always been
regarded in congress as practically
indispensable to refunding."
1.-THE opinion of the court" the
petition said, fails to do justice to
the moral or legal aspects of our
case under the settlement, in that
1t leaves out of consideration gov
ernmental action from 1885 to
1893 indispensable, to sound in
depreciation of the powers confer
red upon the (refunding) commits
sion and the settlement made by it,
The opinion also ignores the lease
as the predicate upon which the
guaranty was requested and given"
the petition asserted, claiming that
1t assumes that the commission
did not request but merely unre-
sistingly accepted the guaranty"
Further Criticism.
The decision of the court Is fur
Their criticised in the petition on
ground at ignores the fact that
without the guaranty the govern
ment could not have obtained pay
ment of the debt" Also that cit
ignores the fact that it was the
first duty of the commission to
familiarize itself with the plan of
reorganization and to satisfy itself
that 1t was adequate to insure the