Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/308/141/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 12:24:21+00:00

Document:
1. An oil company owning and operating a pipeline through which it transports to its own refineries for its own refining purposes, partly across state lines, oil which it purchases from producers at the mouths of their wells, is an interstate "pipeline company" and a "common carrier" within the meaning of § 1(1)(b), and (3), of the Interstate Commerce Act, and, under § 19a(a) and (e), may constitutionally be required by the Commission to furnish maps, charts, and schedules of its pipeline properties for use in valuing such properties under that section. P. 308 U. S. 143.
as aforesaid as common carriers for hire,"
the final clause is conjunctive, not a modifier, and does not affect the generality of the first clause as to pipeline companies. P. 308 U. S. 145.
3. The valuation provisions, § 19a(a) and (e), are so far separable from the regulatory provisions of the Act that, in a suit to set aside an order under that section, the question whether the pipeline owner, if subjected to regulation of its rates, etc., as a common carrier would be deprived of property without due process does not properly arise. P. 308 U. S. 146.
4. The validity of the provisions of § 19a(a) and (e) of the Act does not depend upon the extent of a pipeline company's operations. Id.
Appeal from a decree of the District Court of three judges, which dismissed a bill to set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
"engaged in the transportation of oil by pipeline in interstate commerce, and that it is a common carrier subject to the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act."
Through 1,426 miles of pipeline, running to 9,020 wells in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, Valvoline gathers some 75,000 barrels of oil per month for its two refineries in Pennsylvania which manufacture the products distributed by Valvoline to the trade. All of this oil is purchased from producers at the well, 50 percent originating in Pennsylvania, 38 percent in West Virginia, and 12 percent in Ohio. At the time of the final order of the Commission which it challenges here, Valvoline was selling surplus oil, not needed in its own operations, to a refinery in Pennsylvania and to another in West Virginia, but none of this came from out of the state of the refinery. Because, thus, it does not transport interstate other oil than that which it purchases at the well for its own use, Valvoline claims that it is not a common carrier of oil subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, or, should it be held to come within the terms of the statute, that the statute is unconstitutional as to it in that the provisions violate due process by taking the carrier's property for public use without compensation. Const. Amend. 5.
There is no controversy over whether appellant is an interstate pipeline company. Obviously it is. The contentions above are advanced to show it is not subject to the Act. Section 1(3) defines common carrier to include "all pipeline companies." If this definition is not limited by the subsequent clause "engaged . . . as common carriers for hire," extended consideration of these characteristics of a private carrier is unnecessary, as the language of the definition is decisive.
"That the provisions of this Act shall apply to any . . . person or persons engaged in the transportation of oil or other commodity, except water and except natural or artificial gas, by means of pipelines, . . . or partly by pipelines and partly by water, who shall be considered and held to be common carriers within the meaning and purpose of this Act."
This Court construed that section to cover those who were common carriers in substance even if not in technical form, and read it that those "engaged in the transportation of oil . . . by means of pipelines" shall be treated as common carriers under the Act. The last clause was held not "to cut down the generality" of the Act.
"amends the first five paragraphs of section 1 of the Commerce Act, making minor corrections and classifying language in several respects, but making no important changes in policy. [Footnote 5]"
under the Act by means of the last clause of subsection (3) only. [Footnote 6] This clause is a conjunctive, not a modifier. It does not affect the generality of the first clause as to pipeline companies.
The appellant relies upon the Pipe Line Cases to show that the present act does not cover a pipeline transporting oil for its own refining purposes only. The discussion referred to is that concerning the Uncle Sam Oil Company. But that company's pipeline was used for the "sole purpose of conducting oil from its own wells to its own refinery." This was held not to be transportation under the Act. Here, however, it is the purchase from many sources and subsequent carriage that determine the applicability of the statute to Valvoline.
Judicial Code § 238, 28 U.S.C. § 345.
38 Stat. 220, 28 U.S.C. §§ 47, 47a.
"Sec. 1. (1) The provisions of this chapter shall apply to common carriers engaged in --"
"(b) The transportation of oil or other commodity, except water and except natural or artificial gas, by pipeline, or partly by pipeline and partly by railroad or by water; or"
"From one State . . . to any other State. . . ."
"(3) The term 'common carrier' as used in this chapter shall include all pipeline companies; . . . express companies; sleeping-car companies, and all persons, natural or artificial, engaged in such transportation or transmission as aforesaid as common carriers for hire."
"Sec.19a. (a) The Commission shall, as hereinafter provided, investigate, ascertain, and report the value of all the property owned or used by every common carrier subject to the provisions of this chapter."
"(e) Every common carrier subject to the provisions of this chapter shall furnish to the commission or its agents from time to time and as the commission may require maps, profiles, contracts, reports of engineers, and any other documents, records, and papers, or copies of any or all of the same, in aid of such investigation and determination of the value of the property of said common carrier. . . ."
34 Stat. 584; see 40 Cong.Rec. 6365-66; Pipe Line Cases, 234 U. S. 548, 234 U. S. 559.
Rep. No. 456, Nov. 10, 1919, to accompany H.R. 10453, 66th Cong., 1st Sess.
Cf. Pennsylvania R. Co. v. Public Utilities Comm'n, 298 U. S. 170, 298 U. S. 174.
II Sharfman, The Interstate Commerce Commission 96.
Labor Board v. Fainblatt, 306 U. S. 601, 306 U. S. 606.

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