Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/236/412/case.html
Timestamp: 2017-02-23 05:12:13
Document Index: 214568969

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1047', '§ 8', '§ 1', '§ 16', '§ 1', '§ 262', '§ 9', '§ 15', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 1011', '§ 16', '§ 8', '§ 16']

Meeker v. Lehigh Valley R. Co. (full text) :: 236 U.S. 412 (1915) :: Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center Log In
Meeker v. Lehigh Valley R. Co. 236 U.S. 412 (1915)
U.S. Supreme CourtMeeker v. Lehigh Valley R. Co., 236 U.S. 412 (1915)Meeker v. Lehigh Valley Railroad CompanyNo. 434Argued October 13 and 14, 1914Decided February 23, 1915236 U.S. 412CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
The limitations in Rev.Stat., § 1047, on suits for penalties accruing under the laws of the United States relate to punitive penalties for infractions of public law, and not to liabilities imposed for redressing a private injury, even though the wrongful act be a public offense and punishable as such. It does not relate to a liability accruing Page 236 U. S. 413 under §§ 8, 9, 14 and 16 of the Act to Regulate Commerce, which is not punitive, but strictly remedial.
The measure of damages to a shipper is the pecuniary loss inflicted upon him as the result of giving rebates to other shippers and requiring him to pay the higher rate. Such loss must be proved in order to be recovered. Where the findings show that the amount awarded was the actual loss and recite that they are based on evidence, Page 236 U. S. 414 it must be presumed, in the absence of the contrary being shown, that they are justified by the evidence.
The facts, which involve the construction of §§ 1 and 2 of the Act to Regulate Commerce and questions of discrimination by the carrier against shippers of coal over its line, are stated in the opinion. Page 236 U. S. 417
This was an action under § 16 of the Act to Regulate Commerce [Footnote 1] to recover from the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company damages alleged to have been sustained by a shipper and awarded by the Interstate Commerce Commission by reason of the company's violation of the prohibition in §§ 1 and 2 of that act against unreasonable rates and unjust discrimination. The plaintiff prevailed in the district court, but the circuit court of appeals reversed the judgment (211 F. 785), and a writ of Page 236 U. S. 418 certiorari granted under § 262 of the Judicial Code brings the case here. 234 U. S. 749.
On July 17, 1907, a complaint embodying both claims was presented to the Interstate Commerce Commission under §§ 9 and 13 of the act, and after a full hearing in which the railroad company was an active participant, the Commission made a written report (21 I.C.C. 129) finding that the charge of unjust discrimination was sustained by the evidence, condemning as excessive and unreasonable the rate which was in effect from August 1, 1901, to the date of the report, naming what was deemed a maximum reasonable rate, holding that the claimant was entitled to an award of reparation upon both claims, and directing that further proceedings he had to determine the Page 236 U. S. 419 amount to be awarded. Under § 15 of the act, an order was then made requiring the railroad company, within a time named, to cease giving effect to the prior rate found unreasonable, and to establish a new rate not exceeding that found reasonable.
"On basis of our conclusions in the former report, and upon consideration of the evidence adduced at the hearing upon the question of reparation, we now find that, during the period from November 1, 1900, to August 1, 1901, complainant shipped from the Wyoming coal region of Pennsylvania to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, 55,257.75 tons of coal of prepared sizes, 16,689.76 tons of pea coal, 11,448.93 tons of buckwheat coal, and 4,926.77 tons of rice coal, and paid charges thereon, amounting to $129,989.18 at the rates found to have been unjustly discriminatory; that complainant has been damaged to the extent of the difference between the amount which he did pay and $118,979.85, the amount which he would have paid had he been given the benefit of the rates applied by defendant to similar shipments Page 236 U. S. 420 of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and that he is therefore entitled to an award of reparation in the sum of $11,009.33, with interest thereon from August 1, 1901. We find further that, from August 1, 1901, to July 17, 1907, complainant shipped from the Wyoming coal region in Pennsylvania to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, 246,870.15 tons of coal of prepared sizes, 106,051.09 tons of pea coal, and 87,250 tons of buckwheat coal, and paid charges thereon amounting to $685,375.27 at the rates found to have been unreasonable; that complainant has been damaged to the extent of the difference between the amount which he did pay $626,945.62, the amount which he would have paid at the rates found reasonable, less $193.20 deducted by stipulation of all parties on account of certain claims already paid, and that he is therefore entitled to an additional award of reparation in the sum of $58,236.45, with interest, amounting to $27,750.64, on the individual charges comprising said sum from the dates of payment thereof to September 1, 1911, together with interest on said sum of $58,236.45 from September 1, 1911."
"* * * *" "The exhibits showing details respecting the shipments upon which reparation is asked are too extensive to be set forth in this report. But, inasmuch as the accuracy of the figures in said exhibits respecting the shipments made, freight charges paid, and reparation due is conceded of record by defendant, we deem it unnecessary to make detailed findings respecting the numerous shipments involved."
"This case being at issue upon complaint and answers on file, and having been duly heard and submitted by the parties, and full investigation of the matters and Page 236 U. S. 421 things involved having been had, and the Commission having, on the date hereof, made and filed a supplemental report containing its findings of fact and conclusions thereon, which said report is hereby referred to and made a part hereof:"
"It is further ordered that defendant Lehigh Valley Railroad Company be, and it is hereby, authorized and required to pay unto complainant, Henry E. Meeker, surviving partner of Henry E. Meeker and Caroline H. Meeker, copartners, trading as Meeker & Company, on or before the 1st day of August, 1912, the sum of $58,236.45, with interest thereon at the rate of 6 percent per annum, amounting to $27,750.64, upon the various individual charges comprising said sum from the dates of payment thereof to September 1, 1911, as itemized in complainant's Exhibit 2, together with interest at the rate of 6 percent per annum on said sum of $58,236.45, from September 1, 1911, as reparation for unreasonable rates charged for the transportation of various shipments of anthracite coal from the Wyoming coal region in Pennsylvania to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, which rates so charged have been found by this Commission Page 236 U. S. 422 to have been unreasonable, as more fully and at large appears in and by said report of the Commission."
Whether the claims were barred in whole or in part by some applicable statute is one of the questions which the record presents, and to dispose of it we must notice three statutes upon which the defendant relies. Page 236 U. S. 423
"All complaints for the recovery of damages shall be filed with the Commission within two years from the time the cause of action accrues, and not after, and a petition for the enforcement of an order for the payment of money shall be filed in the circuit court [Footnote 2] within one year from the date of the order, and not after: Provided, that claims accrued prior to the passage of this act may be presented Page 236 U. S. 424 within one year."
The other contention turns upon the sense in which the words "the passage of this act" were used in the proviso. The act contained a concluding section saying, Page 236 U. S. 425 "this Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage," but, on the day following its approval, its effective date was postponed by a joint resolution for sixty days -- that is, from June 29 to August 28, 1906. 34 Stat. 838. If the act be separately considered and the proviso read in connection with the concluding section, we think it is apparent that the words named referred to the time when the act was to speak and operate as a law, and that the year given for filing accrued claims was to be reckoned from that time. In other words, the meaning was the same as if the proviso had said, "claims accrued heretofore may be presented within one year hereafter," or "claims accrued before this act becomes effective may be presented within one year thereafter." It was not an instance where words referring to the date of passage were chosen to distinguish it from the effective date of the act, for the act was to take effect and be in force upon its passage, and therefore there was no occasion for such a distinction. And, coming to the joint resolution, we think it did not affect the sense of the words in the proviso. That was to be determined in the light of the situation in which they were used, and not by what subsequently happened. Not only so, but the purpose of the joint resolution was to cause the act to speak and operate at the end of the sixty days as if that were the time of its passage. In the meantime, the act laid no duty upon this or any other claimant, and when the sixty days expired, it gave a full year for presenting accrued claims, and not a year less sixty days. See Matter of Howe, 112 N.Y. 100; Harding v. People, 10 Colo. 387, 392; State v. Bemis, 45 Neb. 724, 739; Patrick v. Perryman, 52 Ill.App. 514, 518; Schneider v. Hussey, 2 Idaho 8; Charless v. Lamberson, 1 Ia. 435, 443. It is not a question of notice, as in Diamond Glue Co. v. United States Glue Co., 187 U. S. 611, 187 U. S. 615-616, but of the meaning and operation of the statute. Page 236 U. S. 426
An objection was interposed to the admission of the reports upon the ground that they contained various statements which it was claimed were not findings of fact, and therefore were not admissible. A colloquy ensued Page 236 U. S. 427 between court and counsel in which counsel for the plaintiff conceded that portions of the reports should be eliminated, and suggested that this could be done in the charge to the jury. As a result of the colloquy, the reports were received in evidence, the court observing that it would indicate to the jury what portions were to be considered. The reports were not read at the time, but, when the evidence was concluded, counsel for the plaintiff, as the record recites, "read to the jury what he stated to be material portions" of them. The record does not more definitely identify what was read, nor does it show that complaint was then made that anything was read that should have been omitted, or that the court's attention was drawn to the subject at the time of charging the jury, either by a request for a particular instruction thereon or by excepting to the absence of such an instruction. The court's charge apparently proceeded upon the theory that the portions of the reports which had been read to the jury were properly before them. In these circumstances, the objection cannot now be considered. If it was not obviated by excluding the supposedly objectionable portions of the reports from what was read to the jury, it was waived by the failure to direct the court's attention to the subject when the jury was charged.
Another objection which was directed against the orders as well as the reports is that they contain no findings of fact, or at least, not enough to sustain an award of damages. The arguments advanced to sustain this objection proceed upon the theory that the statute requires that the reports, if not the orders, shall state the evidential, rather than the ultimate facts -- that is to say, the primary facts from which, through a process of reasoning and inference, the ultimate facts may be determined. We think this is not the right view of the statute, and that what it requires is a finding of the ultimate facts -- a finding which, as applied to the present case, would disclose (1) the relation of the parties Page 236 U. S. 428 as shipper and carrier in interstate commerce; (2) the character and amount of the traffic out of which the claims arose; (3) the rates paid by the shipper for the service rendered and whether they were according to the established tariff; (4) whether and in what way unjust discrimination was practised against the shipper from November 1, 1900, to August 1, 1901; (5) whether, if there was unjust discrimination, the shipper was injured thereby, and, if so, the amount of his damages; (6) whether the rate collected from the shipper from August 1, 1901, to July 17, 1907, was excessive and unreasonable, and, if so, what would have been a reasonable rate for the service, and (7) whether, if the rate was excessive and unreasonable, the shipper was injured thereby, and, if so, the amount of his damages. Upon examining the reports as set forth in the record, we think they contain findings of fact which meet the requirements of the statute, and that the facts stated in the findings, if taken as prima facie true, sustain the award of the Commission. True, the findings in the original report are interwoven with other matter, and are not expressed in the terms which courts generally employ in special findings of fact, but there is no difficulty in separating the findings from the other matter, or in fully understanding them, and particularly is this true when the two reports are read together, as they should be. We say "should be" because both were made in the same proceeding, and the later one affirmatively shows that it was made to supplement and give effect to the original.
But it is said that the reports disclose that the Commission applied an erroneous and inadmissible measure of damages, and therefore that no effect can be given to the award. What the reports really disclose is that the Commission, "upon consideration of the evidence adduced upon the hearing upon the question of reparation," found (a) that, by reason of the unjust discrimination resulting from Page 236 U. S. 429 giving the rebate to the Lehigh Valley Coal Company Meeker & Company were "damaged to the extent of the difference" between what they actually paid from November 1, 1900, to August 1, 1901, and what they would have paid had they been dealt with on the same basis as was the Coal Company, and (b) that, by reason of being charged an excessive and unreasonable rate from August 1, 1901, to July 17, 1907, Meeker & Company were "damaged to the extent of the difference" between what they actually paid and what they would have paid had they been given the rate which the Commission found would have been reasonable. In this we perceive nothing pointing to the application of an erroneous or inadmissible measure of damages. The Commission was authorized and required by § 8 of the Act to Regulate Commerce to award "the full amount of damages sustained," and that, of course, was to be determined from the evidence. If it showed that the damages corresponded to the rebate in one instance and to the overcharge in the other, the claimant was entitled to an award upon that basis. The case of Pennsylvania Railroad v. International Coal Mining Co., 230 U. S. 184, is cited as holding otherwise, but it does not do so. There, a shipper, without proving that he sustained any damages, sought to recover from a carrier for giving a rebate to another shipper, and this Court, referring to § 8, said (p. 230 U. S. 203):
There is nothing in either report of the Commission which is in conflict with what was said in that case. On the contrary, the plain import of the findings is that the amounts awarded represent the claimant's actual pecuniary loss; and, in view of the recital that the Page 236 U. S. 430 findings were based upon the evidence adduced, it must be presumed, there being no showing to the contrary, that they were justified by it.
The provision only establishes a rebuttable presumption. It cuts off no defense, interposes no obstacle to a full contestation of all the issues, and takes no question of fact from either court or jury. At most, therefore, it is merely a rule of evidence. It does not abridge the right of trial by jury, or take away any of its incidents. Nor does it in any wise work a denial of due process of law. In principle, it is not unlike the statutes in many of the states, whereby tax deeds are made prima facie evidence of the regularity of all the proceedings upon which their validity depends. Such statutes have been generally sustained. Pillow v. Roberts, 13 How. 472, 54 U. S. 476; Marx v. Hanthorn, 148 U. S. 172, 148 U. S. 182; Turpin v. Lemon, 187 U. S. 51, 187 U. S. 59; Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 7th ed. 525, as have many other state and federal enactments establishing other rebuttable presumptions. Mobile &c. Railroad v. Turnipseed, 219 U. S. 35, 219 U. S. 42; Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U. S. 61, 220 U. S. 81; Reitler v. Harris, 223 U. S. 437; Luria v. United States, 231 U. S. 9, 231 U. S. 25. An instructive case upon the subject is Holmes v. Hunt, 122 Mass. 505, where, in an elaborate opinion by Chief Justice Gray, a statute making the report of an auditor prima facie evidence at the trial before a jury was held to be a legitimate exercise of legislative power over rules of evidence, and in no wise inconsistent with the constitutional right of trial by jury. And in Chicago &c. Railroad v. Jones, 149 Ill. 361, 382, a like ruling was Page 236 U. S. 431 made in respect of a statutory provision similar to that now before us.
Without considering whether the mere amount of an allowance under the statute can ever be reexamined here (see Rev.Stat. § 1011; Martinton v. Fairbanks, 112 U. S. 670, 112 U. S. 672; Montague v. Lowry, 193 U. S. 38, 193 U. S. 48; Railroad Co. v. Fraloff, 100 U. S. 24, 100 U. S. 31; New York &c. Railroad v. Winter, 143 U. S. 60, 143 U. S. 75), we are clear that it cannot be in this instance. The record discloses that the allowance was predicated upon an exhibition of a transcript of the proceedings before the Commission and upon a statement made in open court, in the presence of counsel for the defendant, of the services rendered before the Commission and in the action. But the transcript and statement have not been made part of this record, and so we cannot know what was shown by them, and cannot judge of their bearing upon the amount of the allowance. Besides, it does not appear that the defendant offered any evidence tending Page 236 U. S. 432 to show what would be a reasonable allowance, or that it in any way objected or excepted to the amount of the allowance when it was made. The only exception reserved was addressed to the allowance of any fee for the services before the Commission or for those in the action. In this situation, the defendant is not now in a position to claim that, as matter of fact, the allowance is excessive. Whether, as matter of law, it is objectionable is another question.
In our opinion, the services for which an attorney's fee is to be taxed and collected are those incident to the action in which the recovery is had, and not those before the Commission. This is not only implied in the words of the two provisions just quoted, but is suggested by the absence of any reference to proceedings anterior to the action. And that nothing more is intended becomes plain when we consider another provision in § 16 which requires the Commission, upon awarding damages, to make an order directing the carrier to pay the sum awarded "on or before a day named," and then declares that, if the carrier does not comply with the order "within the time limit," the claimant may proceed to collect the damages by suit. The Commission is not to allow a fee, but only to find the amount of the damages and fix a time for payment; and, if the carrier pays the award within the time named, no right to an attorney's fee arises. It is only when the Page 236 U. S. 433 damages are recovered by suit that a fee is to be allowed, and this is as true of the provision in § 8 as of that in § 16. The evident purpose is to charge the carrier with the costs and expenses entailed by a failure to pay without suit -- if the claimant finally prevails -- and to that end to tax as part of the costs in the suit wherein the recovery is had a reasonable fee for the services of the claimant's attorney in instituting and prosecuting that suit. It follows that the district court erred in matter of law in allowing a fee for services before the Commission.