Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/281/479/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 07:01:51+00:00

Document:
company no standing to bring an independent suit under the Urgent Deficiencies Act of October 22, 1913, to set aside the order of the Commission granting the certificate in the absence of resulting actual or threatened legal injury to such complainant. P. 281 U. S. 486.
2. An independent standing to bring such a suit cannot be based upon the fact that the lines of the complaining carrier connect with those of the carrier to which the certificate is granted where the connection is remote from the point to which the certificate relates and there is no suggestion that the order can affect the complainant as a carrier. Id.
3. An independent standing to bring such a suit cannot be grounded upon the proposition that, by acting upon the certificate, the carrier to which it is granted may, through future regulation of the rates of the terminal, incur liabilities threatening to its financial stability and consequently threatening to the financial interest of the complainant as a minority stockholder of such carrier. P. 281 U. S. 487.
4. A railway company, as a minority stockholder of another which, pursuant to a certificate granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission, was about to abandon one of its stations and avail itself of other terminal facilities under contracts with other carriers, filed a bill in the district court, joining the United States, the Commission, the grantee of the certificate and the other carriers as defendants and praying (1) that the order granting the certificate be set aside; (2) that the company holding the certificate be enjoined from abandoning its station and performing its contracts upon the ground that its directors held office illegally and, in making the contracts and applying for the certificate, were guilty of a breach of trust and violated the rights of stockholders under the state law.
(1) That relief on the second ground, not being ancillary to nor dependent upon the judgment as to the order of the Commission, may not be included in a bill before three judges to set the order aside, but is appropriate only to a suit invoking the plenary equity jurisdiction of the district court and to be heard in ordinary course by a single judge. The Chicago Junction Case, 264 U. S. 258, distinguished. P. 281 U. S. 488.
(2) The decree of the district court as to such general equitable relief is not reviewable in this Court on direct appeal. Id.
(3) Grounds for general equitable relief cannot give standing in this Court on direct appeal under the Urgent Deficiencies Act to a plaintiff who had no right to bring the suit under that Act. Id.
5. A decree dismissing on the merits a bill which should have been dismissed for want of standing in the plaintiff to sue affirmed without prejudice to enforcement of the plaintiff's rights in a proper proceeding. P. 281 U. S. 489.
Appeal from a decree of the district court dismissing a bill to annul an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission and for other equitable relief. The three-judge court was of opinion that the grounds of complaint beyond the attack on the order were not properly before it, but, since diversity of citizenship existed and the district judge concurred in the decree, it passed on them and reserved to appellant the right (of which it did not avail itself) to sever those issues for purposes of appeal and treat its decision on them as the decision of a single judge.
therefore subject to be increased by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and that, if increased so as to eliminate the preference, it would confessedly be much more than the Wheeling could afford to pay, and would imperil its financial condition.
The Commission held that the violation of the Clayton Act was immaterial, since the election of the directors occurred prior to the Commission's finding of violation, and the finding was not made retroactive; that it lacked jurisdiction to pass upon the alleged violations of Ohio law or upon the adequacy of the price agreed to be paid for the Wheeling's site; that, under paragraph 4 of § 3 of the Interstate Commerce Act, the agreed rental for the Wheeling's use of the Union Station was not subject to be increased by it, and that, in view of all the circumstances, the rental was not unduly preferential of the Wheeling. It found that public convenience and necessity would be served by the granting of both applications, and accordingly issued its certificate as prayed for. Operation of Passenger Terminal Facilities at Cleveland, Ohio, by Wheeling & Lake Erie Ry. Co., 154 I.C.C. 516.
additional ground that the order was based on erroneous conclusions of law, to-wit, that the Commission had no jurisdiction to pass on the adequacy of the price to be paid for the land and on the alleged violations of the laws of Ohio; that the Wheeling's directors were competent to act for it in this matter, and that the rental agreed to be paid by the Wheeling for the use of the union terminal facilities was not subject to be increased by the Commission.
entered a final decree dismissing the bill on the merits as to both classes of relief prayed for. It declared, however, that the questions concerning the alleged violation of Ohio law, the competency of the Wheeling's directors, and the other grounds of attack on the Wheeling's action were not properly before it as a three-judge court. But, since diversity of citizenship existed and the District Judge concurred in the judgment, the court passed on them and reserved to appellant the right to sever these issues for purposes of appeal and treat its decision on them as the decision of a single judge. Pittsburgh & West Virginia Ry. Co. v. United States, 41 F.2d 806. Appellant did not avail itself of this privilege, but prosecuted a direct appeal to this Court from the whole decree. It repeats here the several grounds of attack urged before the district court. We have no occasion to consider the merits of the controversy. For we are of opinion that appellant had no standing to bring this suit as one to set aside an order of the Commission, and that, insofar as the suit may be treated as one within the general equity jurisdiction of the district court, we have no jurisdiction on a direct appeal to review its decision.
this order. The bill should have been dismissed without inquiry into the merits.
Second. The prayer that the contemplated action of the Wheeling should be enjoined because its directors hold office illegally, are faithless to their trust, are acting in violation of the rights of stockholders under the Ohio law, and, hence, that the Wheeling could not legally exercise the authority granted to it by the Commission, was not properly joined in this suit, and is not subject to review in this Court on a direct appeal. An application for such relief may not be included in a bill under the Urgent Deficiencies Act to set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Compare Cleveland, C.C. & St.L. Ry. Co. v. United States, 275 U. S. 404, 275 U. S. 414; Great Northern Ry. Co. v. United States, 277 U. S. 172, 277 U. S. 181. It is neither ancillary to nor dependent upon the judgment as to the order. Relief of that character may be had only in a suit invoking the plenary equity jurisdiction of the district court. Such a suit would be heard in ordinary course by a single judge, and it would be appealable only to the circuit court of appeals. The case at bar is wholly unlike The Chicago Junction Case, 264 U. S. 258, 264 U. S. 269, where a prayer to set aside the illegal purchase of stock and the lease already made was held proper as ancillary to setting aside the order of the Commission authorizing the same. There, the joinder was permitted in order to carry out the purpose of Congress to make the judicial review effective. Here, such joinder is unnecessary for that purpose. Moreover, grounds for general equitable relief obviously cannot give the Pittsburgh a standing in this Court on direct appeal under the Urgent Deficiencies Act when it had no right to bring suit under that act.
decree is affirmed without prejudice to the right, if any, of the Pittsburgh to enjoin in a proper proceeding action by the Wheeling.
Application for this authority had previously been dismissed. 70 I.C.C. 342. The Union Terminals Company is owned entirely by the New York Central, the New York, Chicago, & St. Louis Railroad Co. (Nickel Plate), and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. (Big Four).
The land upon which the station was to be constructed was owned by the Cleveland Terminals Building Company. It conveyed the ground to the Terminals Company, reserving the air rights to itself. And it undertook to procure for Terminals an easement in Wheeling's site.
Five contracts was executed by the Wheeling: (a) A contract with the Building Company containing an option to sell the Ontario street site for $1,600,000; (b) a contract with the Terminals for the use of the Union Depot; (the provisions of this contract are set out in detail in the report of the Commission); (c) a contract with the Erie Railroad for the temporary use of its Superior Avenue Station pending completion of the union terminal; (d) a contract with the Big Four for the temporary use of its tracks in order to reach the Erie's station; (e) a contract with the Terminals for reimbursement by it of the amounts which the Wheeling would have to any under its contracts with the Erie and the Big Four.
This authority was also sought from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, but the application was dismissed for want of jurisdiction and the order of dismissal was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Ohio. Pittsburgh & West Virginia Ry. Co. v.Pub. Util. Comm'n, 120 O.S. 434. See also Wheeling & Lake Erie Ry. Co. v. Pittsburgh & West Virginia Ry. Co., 33 F.2d 390.
"announced that the hearing, either temporary or as final, would be considered as involving two classes of questions: first, those involving the validity of the order of Interstate Commerce Commission as dependent upon the record before it, and thus involving questions of public interest in which the United States and Interstate Commerce Commission are interested, and second, those involving all other grounds of attack upon the proposed action of the defendant [the Wheeling] and in which neither the United States nor the Interstate Commerce Commission was interested, and that the hearing would proceed upon the first class of questions involved; that the court would then decide whether to dispose of the matter upon those questions or to continue the hearing upon the other question. . . . Thereupon . . . the record of the proceedings and testimony before the Interstate Commerce Commission . . . was received . . . upon the first class of questions, and the extent of its admissibility on the second class . . . reserved until the hearing of branch of the case."
But no further hearings were held. Appellant claimed the right to introduce additional evidence and excepted to the above ruling of the court. Compare Tagg Bros. & Moorhead v. United States, 280 U. S. 420, 280 U. S. 442. Appellant's consent to final submission was subject to the above claims.
The Pittsburgh's lines connect with those of the Wheeling at Mingo Junction and at Pittsburgh Junction, Ohio.
The Pittsburgh contends also that it is seeking to acquire control of the Wheeling and that the Interstate Commerce Commission has allocated the Wheeling and the Pittsburgh to one system in its plan for the consolidation of the railroads. But these vague speculative interests are clearly insufficient to give the Pittsburgh an independent standing in this suit.
See Control of Big Four by N.Y. Central, 72 I.C.C. 96; Nickel Plate Unification, 105 I.C.C. 425; Control of Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western R. Co., 124 I.C.C. 476; Proposed Unification of Southwestern Lines, 124 I.C.C. 401; N.Y. Central Unification, 150 I.C.C. 278; Lease of Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis Ry., 150 I.C.C. 741; Proposed Control Erie R. Co. & Pere Marquette Ry., 150 I.C.C. 751; Denver & Rio Grande Western Reorganization, 90 I.C.C. 141. Compare Stock of Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 131 I.C.C. 27.

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