Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/397/532
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 10:54:51+00:00

Document:
'(9) Names and addresses of existing carriers who have either failed or refused to provide the service, and the reasons given for any such failure or refusal.' Appellant American Farm Lines (AFL) filed an application for temporary operating authority. 4 The application was accompanied by a supporting statement of the Department of Defense (DOD). The ICC Temporary Authorities Board denied the application on the ground that the 'applicant has not established that there exists an immediate and urgent need for any of the service proposed.' Divison I of the ICC (acting as an Appellate Division) reversed the Board and granted AFL temporary authority. Protesting carriers sought review of this action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. A single judge of the District Court temporarily restrained the operation of the ICC order and the ICC thereupon ordered postponement of the operation of its grant. At that time numerous petitions for reconsideration were pending before the Commission and the stay order did not direct the Commission to stay its hand with respect to them. The record was indeed not filed with the court until much later. Meanwhile, the Commission granted the petitions and reopened the proceeding to receive a further supporting statement of DOD. This took the form of the verified statement of Vincent F. Caputo, DOD Director for Transportation and Warehousing Policy, which was submitted as a purported reply to the pending petitions for reconsideration. Based upon this statement, the ICC entered a new order granting the AFL application. A single judge of the District Court restrained the operation of the new order. Thereafter a three-judge District Court conducted a full hearing on the merits. 5 The ICC admitted at that stage that its first order 'may not have been based upon evidence to support its conclusion,' but argued that there was no infirmity in the new order. The three-judge court set aside both orders. 298 F.Supp. 1006. Both AFL and ICC appealed to this Court and we noted probable jurisdiction. 6 396 U.S. 884, 90 S.Ct. 173, 24 L.Ed.2d 159.
This power of the Commission to reconsider a prior decision does not necessarily collide with the judicial power of review. For while the court properly could provide temporary relief against a Commission order, its issuance does not mean that the Commission loses all jurisdiction to complete the administrative process. It does mean that thereafter the Commission is 'without power to act inconsistently with the Court's jurisdiction.' Inland Steel Co. v. United States, 306 U.S. 153, 160, 59 S.Ct. 415, 419, 83 L.Ed. 557. When the Commission made the additional findings after its first order was stayed by the court, it did not act inconsistently with what the court had done. It did not interfere in the slightest with the court's protective order. What the Commission did came before the court was ready to hear arguments on the merits and before the record was filed with it. Moreover, the Commission in light of the District Court's stay, by express terms, directed AFL not to perform operations under the first order and made the second order effective only on further order of the Commission. 9 Since by the Act the Commission never lost jurisdiction to pass on petitions for rehearing, and since the stay order did not forbid it from acting on those pending petitions, it was not necessary for the Commission to seek permission of the court to make those rulings.
Insofar as ICC regulations emphasize the requirement of information concerning the ability of existing carriers to provide the service sought by a shipper, they implement not only the statutory standard under Interstate Commerce Act § 210a, 49 U.S.C. 310a, but also the fundamental scheme of our national transportation policy. Ever since the enactment in 1887 of the Interstate Commerce Act, 24 Stat. 379, national policy has reflected the congressional determination that the public interest is served by regulating competition among carriers. See, e.g., Act of September 18, 1940, § 1, 54 Stat. 899, 49 U.S.C. preceding § 1. Regulation of entry into the motor transportation industry is one important feature of the pattern of regulation. American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. United States, 344 U.S. 298, 73 S.Ct. 307, 97 L.Ed. 337 (1953); Pan-Atlantic Steamship Corp. v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 353 U.S. 436, 440, 77 S.Ct. 999, 1002, 1 L.Ed.2d 963 (1957) (Burton, J., dissenting). The Motor Carrier Part of the Interstate Commerce Act was passed because 'the industry was unstable economically, dominated by ease of competitive entry and a fluid rate picture' and 'as a result * * * became overcrowded with small economic units which proved unable to satisfy even the most minimal standards of safety or financial responsibility.' Therefore, 'Congress felt compelled to require authorization for all interestate operations to preserve the motor transportation system from overcompetition.' American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. United States, supra, 344 U.S. at 312313, 73 S.Ct. at 316. To ensure fair and effective regulation of entry, 49 U.S.C. 305309 require that entry ordinarily be authorized by the ICC only after full adversary proceedings.
This congressional concern to protect existing carriers was again forcefully expressed in the 1968 amendment to § 203(b)(5) of the Act, 82 Stat. 448, 49 U.S.C. 303(b)(5) (1964 ed., Supp. IV), which curtails substantially the authority of agricultural cooperatives like AFL to haul nonmembers' freight.
ICC Rules 1131.2(c)(8) and (9) are not hypertechnical rules, or mere matters of housekeeping convenience. They go to the heart of the issue in a temporary authority proceeding. The significance of the rules does not depend on whether, in the Court's words, they 'confer important procedural benefits upon individuals.' but rather on the fact that they are designed to elicit information crucial to determining whether in light of congressional policies a particular factual situation warrants the grant of a temporary authority. Nor is the question in this case, as the Court assumes, whether the ICC erred in failing to require 'strict' compliance with the rules. The District Court did not hold the Commission to a standard of strict compliance, and appellees have not argued that strict compliance is required. The issue is whether there was reasonable compliance with rules that the ICC purported to apply in this case. 2 The District Court found that the Caputo statement relied on by the ICC in issuing the new order 'fails to show any efforts by the Department of Defense to obtain from existing carriers the service AFL seeks to provide, or the identity of any existing carriers who failed or refused to provide the needed service and the reasons given for any such failure or refusal.' 298 F.Supp., at 1011. I reach the same conclusion from my examination of the statement.
AFL argues that (8) and (9) require information, not action, and that therefore a response that no effort has been made to obtain the service from other carriers is compliance with both items. However, apart from the doubtful premise that in the circumstances of this case the statute would authorize a grant of temporary operating authority without proof of such effort, the argument is foreclosed by the ICC's express finding in its second order that DOD did in fact attempt to obtain the service elsewhere. 3 See SEC v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194, 196, 67 S.Ct. 1575, 1577, 1760, 91 L.Ed. 1995 (1947); Burlington Truck Lines, Inc. v. United States, 371 U.S. 156, 168169, 83 S.Ct. 239, 245 246, 9 L.Ed.2d 207 (1962).
In sum, the DOD statement fails to supply that concrete evidence of the inability of particular existing carriers to provide the needed service that would enable protestants and ICC to make an informed assessment of AFL's application. Of course, DOD was not called upon to supply the specifics of innumerable instances of inadequate or unavailable service or of every effort to obtain improved service. However, the congressional concern expressed in the statutory limitation demanded that ICC be given at least enough specifics concerning inadequate or unavailable service and efforts to obtain better service so that protestants would have an opportunity for informed rebuttal and ICC the basis for an informed determination. It is of course irrelevant that DOD is the Nation's largest shipper and that its freight consists almost entirely of defense needs. ICC has held that '(w)here necessary facts are lacking' the Government is in no better position than any other shipper. Riss & Co., Inc., ExtensionExplosives, 64 M.C.C. 299, 328 (1955), National Freight, Inc., ExtensionCommodities in Bulk, 84 M.C.C. 403, 407 (1961).
AFL is a federation of agricultural marketing cooperatives created in 1964 to provide transportation for its members. By virtue of § 203(b)(5) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 54 Stat. 921, as amended, 49 U.S.C. 303(b)(5), AFL may transport freight for its members without obtaining a certificate of convenience and necessity from the ICC. In 1965 § 203(b)(5) was construed to exempt from the certification requirement any freight transportation by an agricultural cooperative for shippers other than its own members to the extent that such nonmember transportation is incidental and necessary to its principal transportation activities. See Northwest Agricultural Cooperative Assn. v. ICC, 9 Cir., 350 F.2d 252. The next year, AFL began transporting freight for DOD. In 19681969 AFL's ability to continue serving DOD was restricted by two events. First, certain competing carriers obtaned injunctions prohibiting AFL from making two consecutive movements for DOD and from transporting freight for any nonmember except when going to pick up or returning from delivery of, a member's freight. Munitions Carriers Conference, Inc. v. American Farm Lines, 10 Cir., 415 F.2d 747. Second, § 203(b)(5) was amended to restrict the exemption for agricultural cooperatives to those whose transportation for nonmembers does not exceed 15% of their total annual interstate transportation, measured by tonnage. See 82 Stat. 448, 49 U.S.C. 303(b)(5) (1964 ed., Supp. IV). AFL had transported 74,155,685 pounds for DOD between December 1966 and June 1968, and, in an effort to continue providing this service, applied to the ICC in May 1968 for temporary operating authority. The authority sought was to transport general commodities, including Class A and B explosives moving on government bills of lading over irregular routes between points in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas on the one hand, and points in Washington, California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona on the other.
It was once proposed that the same requirement be written into the law respecting those orders of the Commission reviewed by the courts of appeal as distinguished from the three-judge district courts. See H.R.Rep.No.1619, 80th Cong., 2d Sess., 4. But the ICC was deleted from the measure. Id., at 1. And the Act as approved covered only other designated agencies. 28 U.S.C. 2342 (1964 ed., Supp. IV).
Marvin STONE, Petitioner v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE.
UNITED STATES et al. v. BENMAR TRANSPORT AND LEASING CORP. et al.
BELL LINES, INC., et al. v. UNITED STATES et al.
Donald L. WARNER, etc., et al., petitioners, v. KEWANEE MACHINERY & CONVEYOR CO.
Daniel Jay SCHACHT, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES.

References: v. 
 § 210
 § 1
 § 1
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 § 203
 v. 
 v. 
 § 203
 § 203
 v. 
 v. 
 § 203
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.