Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/90335/texas-pacific-ry-co-vs-abilene-cotton
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 04:35:08+00:00

Document:
Appellant Texas and Pacific Ry. Co.
Respondent Abilene Cotton Oil Co.
Texas & Pacific Railway Company v.
Where defendant in the state court contends that, consistently with the Interstate Commerce Act, the state court has no power to grant the relief, and such contention is essentially involved and expressly, and, in order to support the judgment, necessarily, decided adversely to the defendant, a federal question exists and this Court can review the judgment on writ of error under § 709, Rev.Stat.
Where the state court determined a case involving railroad rates on the hypothesis conceded by counsel on both sides that the rate was one of a lawful schedule duly filed and published in accordance with the Interstate Commerce Act, the contention that the rate was not so filed and published and therefore was not a legal rate is not open in this Court.
While repeals by implication are not favored, and a statute will not be construed as abrogating an existing common law remedy, it will be so construed if such preexisting right is so repugnant to it as to deprive it of its efficacy and render its provisions nugatory.
the duty of publishing schedules of reasonable and uniform rates; and, consistently with the provisions of that law, a shipper cannot maintain an action at common law in a state court for excessive and unreasonable freight rates exacted on interstate shipments where the rates charged were those which had been duly fixed by the carrier according to the act and had not been found to be unreasonable by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
sheets which the company had established, filed, published, and posted, as required by that act, the state court was without jurisdiction to entertain the cause, and, even if such court had jurisdiction, it could not, without disregarding the Act to Regulate Commerce, grant relief upon the basis that the established rate was unreasonable when it had not been found to be so by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
"7th. That the Western Classification Committee, agent and representative of numerous railways and of defendant, filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission what is known as the Western Classification, giving classifications of different articles or items of merchandise, and in same cotton seed is classed as 'A;' that this was the joint act of a number of roads, and the defendant adopted said joint classification; that, on May 30, 1901, the Southwestern Freight Committee, agent of a number of roads and agent of defendant, filed with the said Commission a supplement for numerous roads in connection with defendant, whereby the rate on cotton seed from all points in Louisiana east of Alexandria was fixed at 67 cents per 100 pounds to all points in Texas from all points in Louisiana east of Alexandria and west of Alexandria."
"8th. That said classification and said rate schedule was adopted by defendant and was filed by said S.W. Freight Committee with said Interstate Commerce Commission in behalf of defendant."
"9th. That copies of said schedule and said tariffs and classifications were kept in the office of said defendant at said points of shipment and at said Abilene -- that is, in the freight office and depots, for the inspection of the public, as admitted by plaintiff, which admission is found in the statement of facts."
by or in behalf of defendant in the way of classifications, schedules, or rates on cotton seed from points on its road in Louisiana to points on its road in Texas."
"1st. The facts so found show that this was an interstate shipment."
"2d. The facts so found show that the defendant complied with the interstate commerce law, and said rates and classifications were thereby properly established and in force, except that the rate charged on cotton seed in carload lots was unreasonable and excessive."
"3d. I find that the rate charged by the defendant was that established under the interstate commerce law."
of a number of carloads of cotton seed from the Town of Cottonport and other designated towns in the State of Louisiana to the City of Abilene in the State of Texas."
"So that we are relieved from a consideration of the difficulties discussed in some of the cases in ascertaining the fact, and therefore now have squarely before us the questions whether, in a state court, a shipper in cases of interstate carriage can, by the principles of the common law, be accorded relief from unjust and unreasonable freight rates exacted from him, or shall relief in such cases be denied merely because such unreasonable rate has been filed and promulgated by the carrier under the Interstate Commerce Act?"
"We therefore adopt the trial court's findings of fact, and, applying thereto the principles of law we have deduced, reverse the judgment, and here render judgment in appellant's favor for the said sum of $1,951.83, excessive freights charged, together with interest. . . ."
as to the posting of the established schedule. We think this contention is not open on this record. As we have seen, the trial court expressly concluded that the railway company had complied with the Act to Regulate Commerce in the matter of filing, etc., its schedule of rates, and the appellate court opened its opinion by the statement that the course of the trial and the briefs of counsel confined the issue for determination to the question of the effect of the Act to Regulate Commerce upon the rights of the parties, manifestly upon the assumption that the correctness of the conclusion of the trial court as to compliance with the act was conceded by both parties. In other words, as the court below, in deciding the case, expressly declared that the course of the argument and briefs of counsel before it had confined the case to the issue of whether there was a right to recover upon the hypothesis that a schedule of rates had been filed and published, we do not think that it is now open to contend that that which the court below in effect declared was conceded in the briefs of counsel to be a lawful schedule of rates was not such. Non constat that, if the court of civil appeals, having the evidence before it, had not treated the case as presented, it might not have considered the facts in relation to the publication of the schedule and affirmatively found facts inevitably compelling the conclusion that the Act to Regulate Commerce had been fully complied with, even if such inference was not sufficiently sustained by the findings of the trial court which the appellate court adopted. Because we thus find the question not open for consideration, we must not be considered as conceding the correctness of the conclusion attempted to be drawn from the supposed failure to post.
with that act, even if jurisdiction existed. We say that these questions are only seemingly different because they present but different phases of the fundamental question, which is the scope and effect of the Act to Regulate Commerce upon the right of a shipper to maintain an action at law against a common carrier to recover damages because of the exaction of an alleged unreasonable rate, although the rate collected and complained of was the rate stated in the schedule filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission and published according to the requirements of the Act to Regulate Commerce, and which it was the duty of the carrier under the law to enforce as against shippers. We come therefore first to the consideration of that subject.
Without going into detail, it may not be doubted that, at common law, where a carrier refused to receive goods offered for carriage except upon the payment of an unreasonable sum, the shipper had a right of action in damages. It is also beyond controversy that, when a carrier accepted goods without payment of the cost of carriage or an agreement as to the price to be paid, and made an unreasonable exaction as a condition of the delivery of the goods, an action could be maintained to recover the excess over a reasonable charge. And it may further be conceded that it is now settled that even where, on the receipt of goods by a carrier, an exorbitant charge is stated, and the same is coercively exacted, either in advance or at the completion of the service, an action may be maintained to recover the overcharge. 2 Kent, Comm. 599, and note a; 2 Smith, Lead.Cas. pt. 1, 8th ed., Hare & Wallace notes, p. 457.
concede that we must be guided by the principle that repeals by implication are not favored, and, indeed, that a statute will not be construed as taking away a common law right existing at the date of its enactment unless that result is imperatively required -- that is to say unless it be found that the preexisting right is so repugnant to the statute that the survival of such right would in effect deprive the subsequent statute of its efficacy -- in other words, render its provisions nugatory.
Both parties concede that the question for decision has not been directly passed upon by this Court, and that its determination is only persuasively influenced by adjudications of other courts. They both, hence, mainly rely upon the text of the Act to Regulate Commerce as it existed at the time the shipments in question were made. The case therefore must rest upon an interpretation of the text of the act and is measurably one of first impression.
Let us, without going into detail, give an outline of the general scope of that act, with the object of fixing the rights which it was intended to conserve or create, the wrongs which it proposed to redress, and the remedies which the act established to accomplish the purposes which the lawmakers had in view.
"shall do, cause to be done, or permit to be done any act, matter, or thing in this act prohibited or declared to be unlawful, or shall omit to do any act, matter, or thing in this act required to be done, such common carrier shall be liable to the person or persons injured thereby for the full amount of damages sustained in consequence of any such violation of the provisions of this act. . . ."
of the damages for which such common carrier may be liable under the provisions of this act, in any district or circuit court of the United States of competent jurisdiction; but such person or persons shall not have the right to pursue both of said remedies, and must, in each case, elect which one of the two methods of procedure herein provided for he or they will adopt. . . ."
And by § 22, which we shall hereafter fully consider, existing appropriate common law and statutory remedies were saved.
When the Act to Regulate Commerce was enacted, there was contrariety of opinion whether, when a rate charged by a carrier was in and of itself reasonable, the person from whom such a charge was exacted had at common law an action against the carrier because of damage asserted to have been suffered by a discrimination against such person or a preference given by the carrier to another. Parsons v. Chicago & Northwestern Ry., 167 U. S. 447 , 167 U. S. 455 ; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 145 U. S. 263 , 145 U. S. 275 . That the Act to Regulate Commerce was intended to afford an effective means for redressing the wrongs resulting from unjust discrimination and undue preference is undoubted. Indeed, it is not open to controversy that to provide for these subjects was among the principal purposes of the act. Interstate Commerce Commission v. Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Ry. Co., 167 U. S. 479 , 167 U. S. 494 . And it is apparent that the means by which these great purposes were to be accomplished was the placing upon all carriers the positive duty to establish schedules of reasonable rates which should have a uniform application to all, and which should not be departed from so long as the established schedule remained unaltered in the manner provided by law. Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Ry. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 162 U. S. 184 , 167 U. S. 167 U.S. 479.
wholly inconsistent with the administrative power conferred upon the Commission, and with the duty, which the statute casts upon that body, of seeing to it that the statutory requirement as to uniformity and equality of rates is observed. Equally obvious is it that the existence of such a power in the courts, independent of prior action by the Commission, would lead to favoritism, to the enforcement of one rate in one jurisdiction and a different one in another, would destroy the prohibitions against preferences and discrimination, and afford, moreover, a ready means by which, through collusive proceedings, the wrongs which the statute was intended to remedy could be successfully inflicted. Indeed, no reason can be perceived for the enactment of the provision endowing the administrative tribunal which the act created with power, on due proof, not only to award reparation to a particular shipper, but to command the carrier to desist from violation of the act in the future, thus compelling the alteration of the old or the filing of a new schedule, conformably to the action of the Commission, if the power was left in courts to grant relief on complaint of any shipper, upon the theory that the established rate could be disregarded and be treated as unreasonable, without reference to previous action by the Commission in the premises. This must be, because, if the power existed in both courts and the Commission to originally hear complaints on this subject, there might be a divergence between the action of the Commission and the decision of a court. In other words, the established schedule might be found reasonable by the Commission in the first instance and unreasonable by a court acting originally, and thus a conflict would arise which would render the enforcement of the act impossible.
the general terms of the section, when taken alone, might sanction such a conclusion, but, when the provision of that section is read in connection with the context of the act and in the light of the considerations which we have enumerated, we think the broad construction contended for is not admissible. And this becomes particularly cogent when it is observed that the power of the courts to award damages to those claiming to have been injured, as provided in the section, contemplates only a decree in favor of the individual complainant, redressing the particular wrong asserted to have been done, and does not embrace the power to direct the carrier to abstain in the future from similar violations of the act -- in other words, to command a correction of the established schedules, which power, as we have shown, is conferred by the act upon the Commission in express terms. In other words, we think that it inevitably follows from the context of the act that the independent right of an individual originally to maintain actions in courts to obtain pecuniary redress for violations of the act, conferred by the ninth section, must be confined to redress of such wrongs as can, consistently with the context of the act, be redressed by courts without previous action by the Commission, and therefore does not imply the power in a court to primarily hear complaints concerning wrongs of the character of the one here complained of. Although an established schedule of rates may have been altered by a carrier voluntarily or as the result of the enforcement of an order of the Commission to desist from violating the law, rendered in accordance with the provisions of the statute, it may not be doubted that the power of the Commission would nevertheless extend to hearing legal complaints of, and awarding reparation to, individuals for wrongs unlawfully suffered from the application of the unreasonable schedule during the period when such schedule was in force.
in the construction which the act has apparently received from the beginning in practical execution, and, second, is persuasively supported by decisions of this Court, which, whilst not dealing directly with the question here presented, yet necessarily concern the same.
1. In Swift & Co. v. Philadelphia & R. Co., 64 F. 59, it was held that, in an action at law to recover damages for the exaction of an alleged unreasonable freight charge, the rate established in conformity with the Act to Regulate Commerce must be treated by the courts as binding upon the shipper until regularly corrected in the mode provided by the statute. And in Kinnavey v. Terminal R. Association, 81 F. 802, in an able opinion, the question was carefully considered and the same doctrine was announced and applied. When it is considered that the Act to Regulate Commerce was enacted in 1887, and that neither the diligence of counsel nor our own researches has brought into view any case except the one now under consideration holding that a court could, compatibly with the terms of that act, grant relief upon the basis that the established rate could be disregarded as unreasonable, it would seem to follow that the terms of the act had generally been treated in practical execution as incompatible with the existence of such power or right.
And this is greatly fortified when it is borne in mind that the reports of the decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission show that many cases have been passed upon by that body concerning the unreasonableness of a rate fixed in an established schedule, which have resulted in awarding reparation to shippers and to the making of orders directing carriers to desist from future violation of the act -- that is to say, in necessary legal effect, correcting established schedules.
of orders of the Commission. After deciding that the orders of the Commission were not entitled to be enforced because of errors of law committed by that body, this Court declined to consider the question of the reasonableness per se of the rates as an original question -- in other words, the correction of the established schedule without previous consideration of the subject by the Commission.
It was pointed out that, by the effect of the Act to Regulate Commerce, it was peculiarly within the province of the Commission to primarily consider and pass upon a controversy concerning the unreasonableness per se of the rates fixed in an established schedule. It was therefore declared to be the duty of the courts, where the Commission had not considered such a disputed question, to remand the case to the Commission to enable it to perform that duty -- a conclusion wholly incompatible with the conception that courts, in independent proceedings, were empowered by the Act to Regulate Commerce equally with the Commission, primarily to determine the reasonableness of rates in force through an established schedule.
by the defendant and the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company and filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, the latter company, as a matter of favoritism, had issued this bill of lading at a rate less than the tariff rate, both the defendant company and its agent would, by delivering the goods upon the receipt of only such reduced rate, subject themselves to the penalties of the national law, while, on the other hand, if the tariff rate was insisted upon, then the corporation would become liable for the damages named in the state act. In case of such a conflict, the state law must yield."
In Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Mugg, 202 U. S. 242 , the facts were as follows: on an interstate shipment, a given rate, less than the lawful schedule rate, was quoted to the shipper by the agent of the railroad at the point of shipment. On the arrival of the goods at their destination, the road exacted the schedule rate, whilst the shipper insisted he was entitled to the lower and quoted rate. And a recovery of the excess collected over the quoted rate was allowed by a court of the State of Texas. Reversing the judgment, it was here held that the rate fixed in the schedule filed pursuant to the Act to Regulate Commerce was controlling, that it was beyond the power of the carrier to depart from such rates in favor of any shipper, and that the erroneous quotation of rates made by the agent of the railroad did not justify recovery, since to do so would be, in effect, enabling the shipper, whose duty it was to ascertain the published rate, to secure a preference over other shippers, contrary to the Act to Regulate Commerce.
there force in the suggestion that a like dilemma arises from the recognition of power in the Commission to award reparation in favor of an individual because of a finding by that body that a rate in an established schedule was unreasonable. As we have shown, there is a wide distinction between the two cases. When the Commission is called upon, on the complaint of an individual, to consider the reasonableness of an established rate, its power is invoked not merely to authorize a departure from such rate in favor of the complainant alone, but to exert the authority conferred upon it by the act, if the complaint is found to be just, to compel the establishment of a new schedule of rates applicable to all. And like reasoning would be applicable to the granting of reparation to an individual after the establishment of a new schedule because of a wrong endured during the period when the unreasonable schedule was enforced by the carrier and before its change and the establishment of a new one. In other words, the difference between the two is that which, on the one hand, would arise from destroying the uniformity of rates which it was the object of the statute to secure, and on the other, from enforcing of that equality which the statute commands.
". . . Nothing in this act contained shall in any way abridge or alter the remedies now existing at common law or by statute, but the provisions of this act are in addition to such remedies."
common law or statutory remedies existed for the redress of the particular grievance or wrong dealt with in the act.
"Whenever any carrier files with the Interstate Commerce Commission or publishes a particular rate under the provisions of the Act to Regulate Commerce or acts amendatory thereof, or participates in any rates so filed or published, that rate, as against such carrier, its officers, or agents, in any prosecution begun under this act, shall be conclusively deemed to be the legal rate, and any departure from such rate or any offer to depart therefrom shall be deemed to be an offense under this section of this act."
And, by section 3, power was conferred upon the Interstate Commerce Commission to invoke the equitable powers of a circuit court of the United States to enforce an observance of the published tariffs.
Concluding, as we do, that a shipper seeking reparation predicated upon the unreasonableness of the established rate must, under the Act to Regulate Commerce, primarily invoke redress through the Interstate Commerce Commission, which body alone is vested with power originally to entertain proceedings for the alteration of an established schedule, because the rates fixed therein are unreasonable, it is unnecessary for us to consider whether the court below would have had jurisdiction to afford relief if the right asserted had not been repugnant to the provisions of the Act to Regulate Commerce. It follows, from what we have said that the court below erred in the construction which it gave to the Act to Regulate Commerce.
The judgment below is therefore reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

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