Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/257/247/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 13:50:21+00:00

Document:
1. Orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission may be set aside when based upon mistake of law. P. 257 U. S. 256.
the process of creosoting and forwarded on the original bill of lading to the destination therein named, without depriving the shipper of the benefit of through rates. P. 257 U. S. 257.
3. What Congress sought to prevent by § 3 of the Act to Regulate Commerce was not differences between localities in transportation rates, facilities, and privileges, but unjust discrimination between them by the same carrier or carriers. P. 257 U. S. 259.
4. Participation in joint rates does not make connecting carriers partners, and they can be held jointly and severally responsible for unjust discrimination only if each has participated in some way in that which causes it. P. 257 U. S. 259.
5. Neither the Transportation Act of 1920 nor any earlier amendatory legislation has changed in this respect the purpose or scope of § 3. P. 257 U. S. 260.
6. Where the Commission found that denial of the creosoting privilege to a plant located at a point on the lines of certain carriers was not, in itself, unjust or unreasonable, but concluded that the plant suffered undue prejudice and disadvantage because they and other carriers before the Commission maintained joint rates over routes passing through the point in common with still other carriers, not parties, who had allowed the privilege to plants on their own lines as an item in their local tariffs and without the concurrence of the carriers before the Commission or participation by them in the revenues from the privilege, held that the case was not remediable under § 3 of the Act to Regulate Commerce, and that an order requiring the carriers proceeded against to remove the discrimination should be set aside. P. 257 U. S. 257.
Appeal from a decree of the district court denying a preliminary injunction in a suit brought by the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and twenty-one other railroad corporations to set aside an order made by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
the case was heard before three judges on an application for a preliminary injunction. This was denied without written opinion, and the case is here on appeal under the Act of October 22, 1913, c. 32, 38 Stat. 208, 220.
The order of the Commission was entered upon a petition of the American Creosoting Company to which these twenty-three carriers -- and no others [Footnote 1] -- were made respondents. American Creosoting Co. v. Director General, 61 I.C.C. 145. It alleged that the petitioner had a creosoting plant at Newark, New Jersey, which was connected by switch tracks with the Central and the Pennsylvania; that these carriers had failed to establish there the privilege known as creosoting in transit; that this failure was unjust and unreasonable in violation of § 1 of the Act to Regulate Commerce of February 4, 1887 as amended, and that it was also unjustly discriminatory in violation of § 3. The Commission found that failure to establish this transit privilege was not unjust or unreasonable, and denied relief under § 1. But it found on the facts hereinafter stated that this failure subjected the company to unjust discrimination; and, granting relief under § 3, the Commission directed that the discrimination be removed by the respondents, who are the appellants here.
and at some time thereafter, it is redelivered to the carrier as if there were an initial shipment of the creosoting product. Then it is forwarded to the final destination. Although some charge is made for the transit service, the shipper secures thereby a lower freight rate. For through rates are generally much less than the rate on the untreated forest product from point of origin to the transit point plus that on the treated product from there to destination.
the review of such questions. Interstate Commerce Commission v. Diffenbaugh, 222 U. S. 42; Philadelphia & Reading Ry. v. United States, 240 U. S. 334.
and the Pennsylvania to install the privilege at Newark or to cause the southern and midwestern carriers to discontinue the practice on their lines. The Central and the Pennsylvania are likewise powerless to cause these connecting carriers to withdraw the privilege. They can, it is true, equalize conditions by establishing the privilege at Newark. But to do so would involve departure from a policy to which they have steadfastly adhered and adhesion to which was held by the Commission not to be unreasonable. If they should establish the privilege at Newark, they would act contrary to their judgment, and would adopt a practice which some connecting carriers had introduced without their concurrence or consent, and which may hereafter, upon appropriate inquiry, be held by the Commission to be unjust and unreasonable. Congress could not have intended that, under such circumstances, relief should be afforded under § 3 when a direct remedy is available under § 1.
on joint rates. Even the abolition of the through routes (which is not suggested) would leave the relative positions of the several creosoting concerns unchanged. Cancellation of the joint rates would, at most, relieve appellants from the charge that they are violating the provisions of § 3.
same carrier or carriers. Neither the Transportation Act 1920, February 28, 1920, c. 91, 41 Stat. 456, nor any earlier amendatory legislation has changed, in this respect, the purpose or scope of § 3.
Except the New York, Ontario & Western Railway Company, another carrier in the Trunk Line territory, whose interests were presumably not affected by the order. The number of carriers is therefore referred to herein as being twenty-three.
The transit privilege so granted includes cutting of paving blocks into shape at creosoting plant. On some of the railroads, the joint rates do not apply through the transit point. On them, the privilege includes and out of line movement, and, on some lines, also a backhaul to reach final destination. This broadened privilege was sought for Newark.
See In Matter of Alleged Unlawful Rates and Practices, 7 I.C.C. 240; In Matter of Substitution of Tonnage at Transit Points, 18 I.C.C. 280; Transit Case, 24 I.C.C. 340.

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