Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/175/648/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 00:56:26+00:00

Document:
The conceded facts from which it has been assumed in this case, as a matter of law, that the railway carriers were operating "under a common control, management or arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment" were as follows: the several carriers transported hay from Memphis under through bills of lading, by continuous carriage, to Summerville and Charleston. The several roads shared in an agreed rate on traffic to Charleston and in a precisely equal in amount rate on traffic to Summerville. On shipments to Summerville, however, there was added to the Charleston rate the amount of the local rate from Charleston to Summerville, the benefit of which additional exaction was solely received by the local road on which Summerville was situated. The contention that, under this state of facts, the carriers did not constitute a continuous line, bringing them within the control of the Act to Regulate Commerce, is no longer open to controversy in this Court. In Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 162 U. S. 184, which was decided after this case was before the Commission and the circuit court, it was held under a state of facts substantially similar to that here found that the carriers were thereby subject to the Act to Regulate Commerce.
It is settled by previous decisions that the construction given in this cause by the Interstate Commerce Commission and the circuit court of appeals to the fourth section of the Act to Regulate Commerce was erroneous, and hence that both the Interstate Commerce Commission and the circuit court of appeals mistakenly considered, as a matter of law, that competition, however material, arising from carriers who were subject to the Act to Regulate Commerce could not be taken into consideration, and likewise that all competition, however substantial, not originating at the initial point of the traffic, was equally as a matter of law excluded from view.
effect upon traffic and ratemaking, was proper under the statute to be taken into consideration.
It follows that while the carrier may take into consideration the existence of competition as the producing cause of dissimilar circumstances and conditions, his right to do so is governed by the following principles: First: the absolute command of the statute that all rates shall be just and reasonable, and that no undue discrimination be brought about, though, in the nature of things, this latter consideration may in many cases be involved in the determination of whether competition was such as created a substantial dissimilarity of condition. Second: that the competition relied upon be not artificial or merely conjectural, but material and substantial, thereby operating on the question of traffic and ratemaking, the right in every event to be only enjoyed with a due regard to the interest of the public, after giving full weight to the benefits to be conferred on the place from whence the traffic moved as well as those to be derived by the locality to which it is to be delivered.
This controversy was commenced on December 29, 1892, when Henry W. Behlmer, a resident of Summerville, South Carolina, and a wholesale hay and grain dealer therein, began proceedings before the Interstate Commerce Commission under the Act to Regulate Commerce, passed February 4, 1887, as amended, to restrain the continuance of acts asserted by him to be a violation of the statute referred to. The petition was filed by Behlmer on his own behalf and that of other merchants, residents of Summerville, and the parties complained of were the Memphis & Charleston Railroad Company, the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad Company, the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company (the owner of a railroad designated as the Georgia Railroad), the South Carolina Railway Company, and other companies and individuals who were averred to be lessees or receivers of some of the above-named companies. All the lines of railroad mentioned were asserted to be members of a combination styled the Southern Railway & Steamship Association.
Memphis and Summerville was averred to be 748 miles, as follows: between Memphis and Chattanooga, 310 miles over the Memphis & Charleston Railroad; between Chattanooga and Atlanta, Georgia, 152 miles over the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad; from Atlanta to Augusta, Georgia, 171 miles over the Georgia Railroad, and from Augusta, Georgia, to Summerville, South Carolina, 115 miles over the South Carolina Railway. The principal subject of complaint was that, though Summerville was 22 miles west of Charleston and was that distance nearer to Memphis, where the hay and grain shipments originated, yet the defendants exacted from the petitioner and other merchants of Summerville a freight charge of twenty-eight cents per hundred pounds for hay, carried from Memphis to Summerville, while only nineteen cents per hundred pounds were charged for the same article when carried to Charleston, the longer distance. It was averred that the rate of twenty-eight cents to Summerville was made up of the through rate to Charleston, with the addition of the local rate from Charleston to Summerville of nine cents per hundred pounds. It was also alleged that the shipments of hay to Summerville were made over the same line, in the same direction as Charleston, and under substantially similar circumstances and conditions. The freight charges complained of were averred to be in violation of the fourth section of the Act to Regulate Commerce, commonly referred to as the long- and short-haul clause. Besides, it was alleged that the local rate between Summerville and Charleston of nine cents per hundred pounds was excessive and unreasonable, and that such also was the case as regards the charge of twenty-eight cents from Memphis to Summerville, and hence such charges were in violation of the first section of the Act to Regulate Commerce. It was also asserted that the discrimination and excessive rates against Summerville existed not only on hay, "but on all articles of interstate commerce coming to that place, much to the detriment and disadvantage of the town and the business of its merchants."
"(Second.) Charleston is a port on the Atlantic coast, accessible and easily reached from the ports of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and other eastern ports from which hay is shipped by water. If the rail lines from Memphis to Charleston charged rates to Charleston as high as the rate to Summerville, although the latter rate is, in itself, reasonable, no hay would be brought from Memphis to Charleston, but Charleston would be supplied with hay from north Atlantic ports and the railroads would lose the hay business and Memphis would lose a hay market. "
"(Third.) The rates on western produce to Charleston and other coast cities, such as Savannah, Port Royal, and Brunswick, are made with a view to actual, existing water competition. Western produce, such as grain, hay, etc., distributed from Chicago, can reach Charleston through the ports of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore over continuous water routes via the lakes and canal or over combined rail and water routes."
"The all-rail lines seeking to do business between Chicago and Charleston and other coast cities are compelled to make their rates approximate those which are offered by the continuous water route or by the combined rail and water routes. The all-rail routes make their rates as much higher as the difference in the service will permit, and those rates are correspondingly adjusted from all western points, such as Evansville, Cairo, St. Louis, Memphis, etc. At present, the all-rail rate from Chicago to Charleston on hay, for instance, is 33 c. per 100 lbs.; from St. Louis, 28 c.; from Louisville, Evansville, and Cairo, 23 c., and from Memphis, 19 c. -- the route through Memphis offering facilities for the transportation of hay, grain, and western products generally from the states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, etc."
"The rate from Memphis to Charleston on hay is therefore forced upon the defendant lines by actual existing water competition and other competition beyond the control of defendant."
"The controlling element in said competition is the lake, canal, and ocean transportation between Chicago and Charleston, or the lake transportation from Chicago to Buffalo, or other lake port, thence by rail to New York, thence by ocean to Charleston; or rail transportation from Chicago to Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York, thence by ocean to Charleston."
under circumstances and conditions similar to those appearing in the case, than was being charged for such transportation for the longer distance to Charleston. This order, however, stated that it was made without prejudice to the right of the defendants to apply to the Commission for relief under the fourth section of the Act to Regulate Commerce. The order not having been obeyed, Behlmer, as authorized by section 5 of the Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 855, c. 382, amending section 16 of the original act, filed his complaint in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Fourth Circuit, Eastern District of South Carolina, against the defendants in the proceedings before the Commission and the purchasers, assignees, and successors of some of them, praying that the court might enforce compliance with the order of the Commission. By stipulation, the testimony taken before the Commission was used at the hearing in the circuit court, and by consent certain documentary evidence (consisting of railway agreements, tariffs, reports, etc.) was filed as additional evidence on behalf of the defendants.
The case was heard by the circuit court, and on January 22, 1896, the bill was ordered to be dismissed. 71 F. 835. The controversy was then taken by appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and that court reversed the judgment of the circuit court, and remanded the cause with instructions to render a decree substantially in accordance with the order made by the Commission. 83 F. 898. A motion for a rehearing having been denied, the case was then brought to this Court.
The questions which arise on this record involve the consideration of several provisions of the Act to Regulate Commerce. 24 Stat. 379.
"If it shall appear in this case that the defendants violate the long- and short-haul clause of the law by keeping the higher rate to Summerville in force, it will be unnecessary to consider in this report whether the rate to Summerville is in violation of other provisions of the law. In that event, the prohibition in the fourth section will afford all the reduction demanded in the complaint."
When it approached the fourth section of the act, the Commission declined to weigh the evidence before it as to the existence of competition, except insofar as to enable it to determine that the evidence established that the competition relied upon by the carriers did not originate at the point of shipment, or if it did arise at such place, it was alone engendered by the presence there of other carriers who were subject to the commerce law.
from points other than Memphis, does not justify the defendant carriers in departing from the general rule of the fourth section upon their own motion. Such considerations may constitute reasons for applying to the Commission for relief under the proviso clause of that section, but for reasons stated in our decisions of the cases above cited, they do not justify carriers in departing from the rule of the fourth section without such a relieving order. Water competition, to justify lower long haul rates, must exist between the point of shipment and the longer-distance point of destination. (James & M. Buggy Co. v. Cincinnati, N. O. & T. P. R. Co., supra.) One transportation line cannot be said to meet the competition of another transportation line for the carrying trade of any particular locality unless the latter line could and would perform the service alone if the former did not undertake it. (Chattanooga Board of Trade v. East Tennessee, V. & G. R. Co., supra.) The competition of markets, or the competition of carrying lines, subject to regulation under the Act to Regulate Commerce, does not justify carriers in making greater short-haul or lower long-haul charges over the same line without an order issued by the Commission on application therefor and after investigation. (Ga. R. Com. v. Clyde S.S. Co., 4 I.C.C. 524, and Gerke Brew. Co. v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 4 I.C.C. 267; 5 I.C.C. 596.)"
"But if we assume, for the sake of argument, that all the defendants are affected by this charge, does it violate the fourth section of the act above quoted? Judge Cooley, in In re Southern R. & S.S. Asso. 1, I.C.C. 278, sub nom. In re L. & N. R. Co., 1 I.C.C. 57, says:"
or receiving greater compensation for the shorter than for the longer haul is sure [seen] to be forbidden only where both are under substantially the same circumstances and conditions. And therefore if in any case the carrier, without first obtaining an order of relief, shall depart from the general rule, its so doing will not alone convict it of illegality, since, if the circumstances and conditions of the two hauls are dissimilar, the statute is not violated."
"When, then, may the circumstances and conditions of the two hauls be said to be dissimilar? Judge Cooley, in the same case, answers this question:"
"Among other things, in cases where the circumstances and conditions of the traffic were affected by the element of competition, and where exceptions might be a necessity if the competition were to continue. And water competition was, beyond doubt, especially in view."
"In the case from 50 F. above cited, this is one of the rubrics:"
"Los Angeles, California, is a point to which there is active competition in certain kinds of freight between several transcontinental railway lines, direct or by water, via Vancouver and San Francisco; also, by ocean freights via Aspinwall and the Straits of Magellan, from points east of the Missouri River. And a through rate on the same kind of freight, lower than to San Bernardino, an intermediate, noncompetitive point, 60 miles from Los Angeles, on one of the competing railroad lines, is not prohibited by the act, since the circumstances and conditions were substantially dissimilar."
"The circumstances of the case at bar are closely like those of the case just quoted. Charleston is a competitive point between all railroad routes, routes party by rail and partly by water, and routes all water. If the defendants had not consented with each other to lower the rate, no hay whatever would come from the hay-producing territory tributary to Memphis, and all the southeast Atlantic states would be compelled to rely on other portions of the west, north, or northeast for hay. "
"The evidence clearly shows that the rate to Charleston was forced down by this competition. But this is an advantage to all the territory tributary to Charleston, and all stations share in it. No such competition exists at Summerville, a small inland town. If it, and others like it, were permitted to share in the circumstances and conditions surrounding Charleston, and to get the benefit of the competition which Charleston enjoys, and they have not, then, ex necessitate, the South Carolina Railway will be called upon to elect between its through business and its local business, and in this election to give up the former. Thus, all stations on the line of road will pay local freight on hay, and the market, to the extent of imports from Memphis, will be destroyed. The interstate commerce law was intended to promote trade. Such a construction as is now sought would destroy competition, the life of trade."
Subsequently the attention of the circuit court was called to the asserted fact that there had been a service on the defendant, as to whom it was stated, in the opinion of the court, there had been no service of process. In a memorandum opinion, the court in substance said that, conceding arguendo the correctness of the fact called to its attention, as it would not change the result of the decision, it was unnecessary to further consider it.
"The decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission concerning the proper construction of section 4 of the Interstate Commerce Act have not been uniformly sustained by the decrees of the courts of the United States in cases instituted for the purpose of enforcing the orders of the Commission concerning that section, and therefore prior to the announcement of the opinion of the Supreme Court in the Social Circle Case, there was much confusion concerning the true meaning of the same. A careful reading of that opinion impels us to the conclusion that the construction given that section by the Interstate Commerce Commission in a number of cases decided by it prior to such decision is the proper one. In this connection may be cited the following: James & Mayer Buggy Co. v. Cin., N. O. & Tex. Pac. R. Co., 3 I.C.C. 682; Trammell v. Clyde S.S. Co., 4 I.C.C. 120; Chattanooga Board of Trade v. East Tenn., V. & G. R. Co., 4 I.C.C. 213."
from any particular locality unless one line could perform the service if the other did not. Such we believe to be the true meaning of section 4 so far as the point we are now considering is involved. We are also of opinion that the competition claimed by the appellees to exist between the different markets -- particularly those of Memphis, Chicago, and the north Atlantic ports -- to supply the trade of Charleston with the products mentioned, is not in reality the competition that affects rates from a particular locality, but is one that is regulated by the commercial circumstances existing at those points, applicable to business of that character and not connected with the usual conditions under which transportation is conducted; nor does such competition in our judgment create the dissimilar circumstances and conditions referred to in the fourth section of the act now under consideration. And we further hold that competition between carriers subject to the requirements of said act does not produce such substantial dissimilarity in the circumstances and conditions under which transportation is performed as will justify such carriers in making a greater charge for the shorter than for the longer haul without an order to that effect from the Commission granted by it as provided for in the proviso to the fourth section."
"SEC 4. That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act to charge or receive any greater compensation in the aggregate for the transportation of passengers or of like kind of property, under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, for a shorter than for a longer distance over the same line, in the same direction, the shorter being included within the longer distance; but this shall not be construed as authorizing any common carrier within the terms of this act to charge and receive as great compensation for a shorter as for a longer distance: Provided, however, that upon application to the Commission appointed under the provisions of this act, such common carrier may, in special cases, after investigation by the Commission, be authorized to charge less for longer than for shorter distances for the transportation of passengers or property, and the Commission may from time to time prescribe the extent to which such designated common carrier may be relieved from the operation of this section of this act."
Third. If it be concluded that the Commission and the circuit court of appeals erroneously interpreted the fourth section of the act, is the record in such a condition as to justify this Court in deciding, as a question of first impression, whether the through rates complained of were just and reasonable, and whether, if yes, the proof offered by the carrier established such substantial and material competition as would support a charge by the carrier, on his own motion, of a lesser rate for the longer than is exacted for the shorter distance?
not denied in the argument at bar. They may be assumed, therefore, as being unchallenged for the purpose of the legal questions presented. We come, then, to the immediate consideration of the propositions above referred to in the order stated.
1st. The conceded facts from which it was deduced as a matter of law that the carriers were operating "under a common control, management, or arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment" were as follows: the several carriers transported hay from Memphis under through bills of lading, by continuous carriage, to Summerville and Charleston. The several roads shared in an agreed rate on traffic to Charleston and in a precisely equal in amount rate on traffic to Summerville. On shipments to Summerville, however, there was added to the Charleston rate the amount of the local rate from Charleston to Summerville, the benefit of which additional exaction was solely received by the local road on which Summerville was situated. The contention that under this state of facts the carriers did not constitute a continuous line, bringing them within the control of the Act to Regulate Commerce, is no longer open to controversy in this Court. In Cin., N. O. & Texas Pacific Railway v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 162 U. S. 184, decided since the case in hand was before the Commission and the circuit court, it was held under a state of fact substantially similar to that here found that the carriers were thereby subject to the Act to Regulate Commerce.
would be also cut off from the Memphis supply, if the rates from Memphis to Charleston had not been made lower to meet the competition at Charleston.
"forthwith cease and desist from carrying any article of imported traffic shipped from any foreign port through any port of entry of the United States, or any port of entry in a foreign country adjacent to the United States, upon through bills of lading destined to any place within the United States at any other than upon the inland tariff covering other freight from such port of entry to such place of destination, or at any other than the same rates established in such inland tariff for the carriage of other like kind of freight, in the elements of bulk, weight, value, and expense of carriage."
by steamships and sailing vessels in connection with railroads across the isthmus of Panama; by steamships and sailing vessels from Europe to New Orleans, connecting these under through arrangements with the Southern Pacific Company to San Francisco. That unless the defendant company charges substantially the rates specified in its answer, it would be prevented, by reason of the competition aforesaid, from engaging in the carrying and transportation of property and import traffic from Liverpool and London to San Francisco, and would lose the revenue derived by it therefrom, which is considerable, and important and valuable to said company. That the rates charged by it are not to the prejudice or disadvantage of New Orleans, and work no injury to that community, because if said company is prevented from participating in said traffic, such traffic would move via the other routes and lines aforesaid without benefit to New Orleans, but, on the contrary, to its disadvantage. That the foreign or import traffic is upon orders by persons, firms, and corporations in San Francisco and vicinity buying direct of first hands in London, Liverpool, and other European markets, and if the order of the Commission should be carried into effect, it would not result in discontinuance of that practice or in inducing them to buy in New Orleans in any event. That the result of the order would be to injuriously affect the defendant company in the carriage of articles of foreign imports to Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City, and other Missouri River points."
"would seem to constitute 'circumstances and conditions' worthy of consideration, when carriers are charged with being guilty of unjust discrimination or of giving unreasonable and undue preference or advantage to any person or locality,"
and conditions' as they are directed in the act to consider. The Commission thought it was constrained by the act to regard foreign and domestic traffic as like kinds of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, and that the action of the defendant company in procuring through traffic that would, except for the through rates, not reach the port of New Orleans, and in taking its pro rata share of such rates, was an act of 'unjust discrimination,' within the meaning of the act."
"In so construing the act, we think the Commission erred."
"That among the circumstances and conditions to be considered, as well in the case of traffic originating in foreign ports as in the case of traffic originating within the limits of the United States, competition that affects rates should be considered, and in deciding whether rates and charges made at a low rate to secure foreign freights which would otherwise go by other competitive routes are or are not undue and unjust, the fair interests of the carrier companies and the welfare of the community which is to receive and consume the commodities are to be considered."
from Louisville, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and from New York, Baltimore, and other northeastern points, and the defendants, common carriers which participate in the transportation of phosphate rock from South Carolina and Florida to Troy, and the defendants, common carriers which participate in the transportation of cotton from Troy to the ports of New Orleans, Brunswick, Savannah, Charleston, West Point, or Norfolk, as local shipments or for export, have made greater charges, under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, for the shorter distance to or from Troy than for longer distances over the same lines in the same direction, and have unjustly discriminated in rates against Troy, and subjected said place and dealers and shippers therein to undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage in favor of Montgomery, Eufaula, Columbus, and other places and localities and dealers and shippers therein, in violation of the provisions of the Act to Regulate Commerce."
of the act, are questions of construction of the statute, and are to be determined before we reach the question of fact in this case."
"It is contended in the brief filed on behalf of the Interstate Commerce Commission that the existence of rival lines of transportation, and consequently, of competition for the traffic, are not facts to be considered . . . when determining whether property transported over the same line is carried 'under substantially similar circumstances and conditions' as that phrase is found in the fourth section of the act."
"That competition is one of the most obvious and effective circumstances that make the conditions under which a long and short haul is performed substantially dissimilar, and as such must have been in the contemplation of Congress in the passage of the Act to Regulate Commerce, has been held by many of the circuit courts. It is sufficient to cite a few of the number: Ex Parte Koehler, 31 F. 315; Missouri Pacific Railway v. Texas & Pacific Railway, 31 F. 862; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Atchison, Topeka &c. Railroad, 50 F. 295; Same v. New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railroad, 56 F. 925, 943; Behlmer v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 71 F. 835; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 73 F. 409."
"That which the act does not declare unlawful must remain lawful if it was so before, and that which it fails to forbid the carrier is left at liberty to do, without permission of anyone. . . . The charging or receiving the greater compensation for the shorter than for the longer haul is seen to be forbidden only when both are under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, and therefore if in any case the carrier, without first obtaining an order of relief, shall depart from the general rule, its doing so will not alone convict it of illegality, since, if the circumstances and conditions of the two hauls are dissimilar, the statute is not violated. . . . Beyond question, the carrier must judge for itself what are the 'substantially similar circumstances and conditions' which preclude the special rate, rebate, or drawback, which is made unlawful by the second section, since no tribunal is empowered to judge for it until after the carrier has acted, and then only for the purpose of determining whether its action constitutes a violation of law. The carrier judges on peril of the consequences, but the special rate, rebate, or drawback which it grants is not illegal when it turns out that the circumstances and conditions were not such as to forbid it, and as Congress clearly intended this, it must also, when using the same words in the fourth section, have intended that the carrier, whose privilege was in the same way limited by them, should in the same way act upon its judgment of the limiting circumstances and conditions."
"The view thus expressed has been adopted in several of the circuit courts (Interstate Commerce Commission v. Atchison, Topeka &c. Railroad, 50 F. 295, 300; Same v. Cincinnati, N. O. & Tex. Pac. Railway, 56 F. 925, 943; Behlmer v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 71 Fed.
835, 839), and we do not think the courts below erred in following it in the present case. We are unable to suppose that Congress intended, by the fourth section and the proviso thereto, to forbid common carriers, in cases where the circumstances and conditions are substantially dissimilar, from making different rates until and unless the Commission shall authorize them so to do."
the decision by this Court in the Midland case, the construction of the statute which was announced by the Commission in previous cases as well as in this has no longer been applied. 11 Ann.Rep. I.C.C. (1897), pp. 38, 43, 91; 7 I.C.C. 479-480; Savannah Bureau of Freight & Transportation v. Charleston & Savannah Ry. Co. et al.
"So too, it could not be readily supposed that Congress intended, when regulating such commerce, to interfere with and interrupt, much less destroy, sources of trade and commerce already existing, nor to overlook the property rights of those who had invested money in the railroads of the country, nor to disregard the interests of the consumers, to furnish whom with merchandise is one of the principal objects of all systems of transportation."
us is controlled, attention was pointedly called to the fact that, in considering the power of the carrier, of his own motion, to charge a lesser sum for the longer haul, not only was the interest of the carrier to be taken into account, but also the interest of the public -- especially at the place from which the traffic moved and the place to which it was to be delivered, and to these principles we shall before concluding again advert.
The Commission and the circuit court of appeals, it is asserted, although they may have expressed erroneous opinions as to the construction of the statute, yet ultimately, in substance, decided, as a matter of fact, that the competition was not of sufficient weight to bring about dissimilarity of circumstances and conditions. But this suggestion is without merit. We have shown in our previous analysis of the action of the Commission and of the views expressed by the circuit court of appeals that whilst the facts were considered insofar as was necessary to determine that the competition was due only to certain particular causes, the result of the competition was not examined in order to ascertain the substantial materiality of its operation on traffic and rates. And this because both the Commission and the circuit court of appeals determined that competition of the particular character which they found that relied on to be, as a matter of law, however weighty in its operation on rates, was not legally entitled to be considered in reviewing the action of the carrier.
"But the question was one of fact peculiarly within the province of the Commission whose conclusions have been accepted and approved by the circuit court of appeals, and we find nothing in the record to make it our duty to draw a different conclusion."
If it be again, arguendo, conceded the state of the record in that case was such that an analysis of the action taken below might have well led the court to a different opinion; in other words, might have justified it in holding that both the Commission and the circuit court of appeals had rested their conclusions, not on the want of proof as to the claimed competition, but solely on the absence of legal power to assert competition of the character relied on, such concession could have no influence upon the decision of this cause. This follows because the only deduction possible from the proposition would be that the particular case had been decided on a question of fact, when it should have been controlled by a question of law, which would afford no reason for the failure to apply sound principles of law to the facts of this record. It involves a complete non sequitur to assert that, because legal principles may not have been applied to a given case, on the assumption that the facts did not render their application necessary therefore in future cases, where it was found that the facts brought the controversy within the principles, they should not be applied.
"But it does not mean that the action of the carriers, in fixing and adjusting the rates, in such instances, is not subject to revision by the Commission and the courts, when it is charged that such action has resulted in rates unjust or unreasonable, or in unjust discriminations and preferences."
"In order further to guard against any misapprehension of the scope of our decision, it may be well to observe that we do not hold that the mere fact of competition, no matter what its character or extent, necessarily relieves the carrier from the restraints of the third and fourth sections, but only that these sections are not so stringent and imperative as to exclude in all cases the matter of competition from consideration in determining the questions of 'undue or unreasonable preference or advantage,' or what are 'substantially similar circumstances and conditions.' The competition may in some cases be such as, having due regard to the interests of the public and of the carrier, ought justly to have effect upon the rates, and in such cases there is no absolute rule which prevents the Commission or the courts from taking that matter into consideration."
defense considered, in the first instance at least, by the Commission upon a full consideration of all the circumstances and conditions upon which a legitimate order could be founded. The questions whether certain charges were reasonable or otherwise, whether certain discriminations were due or undue, were questions of fact to be passed upon by the Commission in the light of all facts duly alleged and supported by competent evidence, and it did not comport with the true scheme of the statute that the circuit court of appeals should undertake, of its own motion, to find and pass upon such questions of fact in a case in the position in which the present one was."
The decree of the circuit court of appeals should be reversed with costs, that the case be remanded to the Circuit Court with instructions to modify its decree adjudging that the order of the Commission be set aside with costs, by providing that the dismissal be without prejudice to the right of a party in interest to apply to the Commission to be substituted in the original proceeding before the Commission in the stead of the deceased petitioner, and that, upon such substitution, the Commission should proceed upon the evidence already introduced before it or upon such evidence and any additional evidence which it might allow to be introduced, to hear and determine the matter of controversy in conformity to law. A decree will be entered accordingly, such entry to be made nunc pro tunc as of the date of the submission of the cause in this Court.

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