Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Interstate_Commerce_Commission_v._Parker/Opinion_of_the_Court
Timestamp: 2020-01-29 03:09:02
Document Index: 633878153

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 41', '§ 43', '§ 345', '§ 41', '§ 306', '§ 402', '§ 1', '§ 5', '§ 302']

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Interstate Commerce Commission v. Parker/Opinion of the Court
< Interstate Commerce Commission v. Parker
899554Interstate Commerce Commission v. Parker — Opinion of the Court
Argued: March 28, 1945. --- Decided: June 18, 1945
There appeals bring here for review a final judgment of the Special District Court which enjoined the enforcement of an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The proceedings below and the appeals here were brought under 28 U.S.C. § 41(28), §§ 43-48 and § 345, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 41(28), 43-48, 345. The report of the Commission appears under the title Willett Co. of Ind., Inc., Extension-Fort Wayne-Mackinaw City, 42 M.C.C. 721. The district court did not file an opinion.
The Interstate Commerce Commission insists that its order authorizing the issuance to Willett of the certificates of convenience and necessity for the specified routes is valid. It bases its contention on the statutory provisions which authorize the Commission to act in regulation of motor carriers and asserts its compliance with them. Under the Interstate Commerce Act, part II, Sec. 206(a), 49 Stat. 551, 49 U.S.C.A. § 306(a), no motor vehicle subject to the act may operate on the highways without a certificate of public convenience and necessity. Section 207(a) provides for issuance of the certificate on application, if the proposed service 'is or will be required by the present or future public convenience and necessity.' No other provisions are here involved. The entire subsection appears below. [1] A finding of public convenience and necessity was made, 42 M.C.C. at 726, but that ultimate finding must have been based on the proper statutory criteria and must have had the necessary factual findings to support it.
Public convenience and necessity is not defined by the statute. The nouns in the phrase possess connotations which have evolved from the half-century experience of government in the regulation of transportation. When Congress in 1935 amended the Interstate Commerce Act by adding the Motor Carrier Act, it chose the same words to state the condition for new motor lines which had been employed for similar purposes for railroads in the same act since the Transportation Act of 1920, § 402(18) and (20), 41 Stat. 477, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1(18, 20). Such use indicated a continuation of the administrative and judicial interpretation of the language. Cf. Case v. Los Angeles Lumber Co., 308 U.S. 106, 115, 60 S.Ct. 1, 7, 84 L.Ed. 110. The Commission has assumed, as its duty under these earlier subsections, the finding of facts and the exercise of its judgment to determine public convenience and necessity. This Court approved this construction. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. v. United States, 283 U.S. 35, 42, 51 S.Ct. 337, 339, 75 L.Ed. 824. Cf. Gray v. Powell, 314 U.S. 402, 411, 412, 62 S.Ct. 326, 332, 86 L.Ed. 301. The purpose of Congress was to leave to the Commission authoritatively to decide whether additional motor service would serve public convenience and necessity. Cf. Powell v. United States, 300 U.S. 276, 287, 57 S.Ct. 470, 476, 81 L.Ed. 643. This, of course, gives administrative discretion to the Commission, cf. McLean Trucking Co. v. United States, 321 U.S. 67, 87, 88, 64 S.Ct. 370, 380, 381, 88 L.Ed. 544, to draw its conclusion from the infinite variety of circumstances which may occur in specific instances. The disputants, here, do not clash over the power of the Commission to determine the need for the new service or that it will serve the public convenience and necessity. The evidence is ample and uncontradicted that delivery by motor of less-than-carload freight to way stations is a more adequate, efficient and economical method for railroads than by 'peddler' car. They join issue on the Commission's determination as to the carrier which will render that service. Shall it be by the railroad through the use of its trucking subsidiary or by the existing common carriers by motor? The National Transportation Policy has recently been authoritatively summarized by Congress. That declaration requires administration so as to preserve the inherent advantages of each method of transportation and to promote 'safe, adequate, economical, and efficient service.' [2] Such broad generalizations, while well expressing the Congressional purpose, must frequently produce overlapping aims. In such situations, the solution lies in the balancing by the Commission of the public interests in the different types of carriers with due regard to the declared purposes of Congress. Cf. Interstate Commerce Comm. v. Inland Waterways Corp., 319 U.S. 671, 691, 63 S.Ct. 1296, 1307, 87 L.Ed. 1655; United States v. Pennsylvania R.R. Co., 323 U.S. 612, 65 S.Ct. 471.
When Congress directed that the act should be administered to preserve the inherent advantages of each mode of transportation, it is abundantly clear that it was not intended to bar railroads from the operation of off-the-rail motor vehicles. In 1938 when committee hearings were being held to consider amendments to the Motor Carrier Act, 1935, Mr. Eastman explained the difference in opinion as to whether or not railroads should acquire motor carriers. [3] Section 213(a) of the 1935 act specifically regulated acquisition of motor carriers by railroads. Provision for such acquisitions appear now in Section 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act, 54 Stat. 905, 49 U.S.C.A. § 5. See McLean Trucking Co. v. United States, supra. Section 202(c)(1) of the 1940 Interstate Commerce Act, part II, as amended, withdraws railroad operation of motor carriers in terminal areas from the scope of motor carrier regulation and leaves such operations under part I. [4] Railroads may, therefore, in appropriate places operate trucks. However, since the preservation of the inherent advantages of motor carriers is of equal importance with efficiency under the national transportation policy, the Commission must weigh the needs of the railroad against disadvantages to the motor carriers to find the balance of public convenience and necessity in determining whether to grant a railroad application for motor operation where these certificates are required. Cf. State of Texas v. United States, 292 U.S. 522, 530, 54 S.Ct. 819, 824, 78 L.Ed. 1402.
Certificates of the general character of the one proposed by the Commission for Willett have been granted heretofore. [5] The motor service was not the normal over-the-road type but restricted to services auxiliary or supplemental to the rail service. In order to restrict motor carriers, which were operated by railroads to this coordinated service, the Commission customarily inserted a provision in the order granting the application that the motor shipments must have prior or subsequent movement by rail. E.g. Kansas City S. Transport Co., Inc., Com. Car. Application, 10 M.C.C. 221, 240. The rail carriers pointed out, however, that this restriction interfered with the efficiency of their operations, since commodities might be offered them at one way-station for transportation to another way-station within ordinary motoring distance. In such a case a way-freight train would be required. It was to meet this situation that the key-point or break-bulk rule, which is employed here, was developed. Kansas City S. Transport Co., Inc., Com. Car Application, 28 M.C.C. 5, 9, 11, 22 (par. 3), 25 (App. B).
It is, of course, obvious that opportunity exists for limited encroachment upon the over-the-road business of the existing motor carriers. A shipper from one way-station to another station on the same railroad within the permitted key point limitation may use the railroad motor carrier instead of the motor carrier. Free pickup and delivery service may extend the competition to the limits of the territorial boundaries of the railroad terminal areas and give a further advantage to the railroad where the motor carrier does not furnish the same service. [6] If the Commission later determines that the balance of public convenience and necessity shifts through competition or otherwise, so that injury to the public from impairment of the inherent advantages of motor transportation exceeds the advantage to the public of efficient rail transportation, the Commission may correct the tendency by restoration of the rail movement re uirement or otherwise.
Administrative discretion rests with the Commission to further improveents in transportation. The Interstate Commerce Act contains no provision by which the Commission may compel non-rail motor carriers to coordinate their road service with rail service or may compel rail carriers to coordinate their service with motor carriers. [7] When in railroad applications for coordinated motor service the Commission finds public convenience and necessity for such motor service on evidence of transportation advantages to shippers and economy to the rail carriers, cf. State of Texas v. United States, 292 U.S. 522, 530, 54 S.Ct. 819, 824, 78 L.Ed. 1402, it is in a position to determine by its administrative discretion whether the projected service may be better rendered by the railroad or existing motor carriers. In the absence of power to compel coordination between the modes of transportation and in the presence of the probable gains in operative efficiency from unified management, we think the Commission, in view of the limitations on the railroad's motor service, is entitled to conclude that the public will be better served by the rail operation than by use of the available motor carrier facilities. The alternative to the existence of this discretion is that the language of the Interstate Commerce Act, part II, forbids the granting to railroads of a certificate of convenience and necessity for the operation of motor trucks, under specially limited certificates, when there are certificated motor carriers, independent of railroad authority or supervision, with whom arrangements for the service might be made by the rail carriers. There is no such prohibition in terms. Any such implication is negated by the discretion to grant certificates conferred on the Commission by the Act.
I can find in the Act no indication whatsoever that railroad applicants for a motor vehicle certificate are to be considered any more favorably than any other type of applicant. Yet it is plain that this decision permits just that. For if any applicant other than a railroad affiliate were before the Commission with an application for a certificate to serve this precise territory, it would have to show that existing transportation facilities were inadequate to serve the needs of the public efficiently. [1] No such showing has been made here. None has been attempted.
^1 49 Stat. 551, 552:
^2 Act Sept. 18, 1940, 54 Stat. 899, 49 U.S.C.A. preceding section 301:
'It is hereby declared to be the national transportation policy of the Congress to provide for fair and impartial regulation of all modes of transportation subject to the provisions of this Act so administered as to recognize and preserve the inherent advantages of each; to promote safe, adequate, economical, and efficient service and foster sound economic conditions in transportation and among the several carriers; to encourage the establishment and maintenance of reasonable charges for transportation services, without unjust discriminations, undue preferences or advantages, or unfair or destructive competitive practices; to cooperate with the several States and the duly authorized officials thereof; and to encourage fair wages and equitable working conditions;-all to the end of developing, coordinating, and preserving a national transportation system by water, highway, and rail, as well as other means, adequate to meet the needs of the commerce of the United States, of the Postal Service, and of the national defense. All of the provisions of this Act shall be administered and enforced with a view to carrying out the above declaration of policy.'
^3 Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, 75th Cong., 3d Sess. on S.3606, p. 23:
^4 56 Stat. 300, Sec. 2, 49 U.S.C.A. § 302(c)(1):
'(c) Notwithstanding any provision of this section or of section 203, the provisions of this part * * * shall not apply-
^5 Pennsylvania Truck Lines, Inc.-Control-Barker, 1 M.C.C. 101, 113; 5 M.C.C. 9. Similar finding was made in Illinois Central R. Co. Common Carrier Appl., 12 M.C.C. 485; Gulf, M. & N.R. Co. Common Carrier Appl., 18 M.C.C. 721; Missouri Pac. R. Co., Extensions of Operations-Illinois, 19 M.C.C. 605; Willett Co. of Ind., Inc., Extension-Ill., Ind. and Ky., 21 M.C.C. 405; Pacific Motor Trucking Co. Common Carrier Appl., 34 M.C.C. 249, 322, par. 4.
^6 I.C.C. Local Freight Tariff, Rules, Charges and Allowances for the Pick-Up and Delivery Service on Less Than Carload Freight, Issued January 2, 1942, effective February 6, 1942, p. 9:
^7 10 M.C.C. 235, 236:
^1 Norton Common Carrier Application, 1 M.C.C. 114; C & D Oil Company Contract Carrier Application, 1 M.C.C. 329; Carr Contract Carrier Application, 2 M.C.C. 263, 269; Irven G. Saar Common Carrier Application, 2 M.C.C. 729; Merrill & Hamel, Inc., Common Carrier Application, 8 M.C.C. 115, 117; Boyles & Luten Common Carrier Application, 8 M.C.C. 593; White Circle Line Common Carrier Application, 16 M.C.C. 516.
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