Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/343/373
Timestamp: 2019-05-22 02:54:23
Document Index: 792480164

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1253', '§ 71', '§ 3', '§ 15', '§ 1', '§ 3']

SWIFT & CO. v. UNITED STATES et al. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
SWIFT & CO. v. UNITED STATES et al.
343 U.S. 373 (72 S.Ct. 716, 96 L.Ed. 1008)
Argued: March 6, 1952.
dissent, REED, DOUGLAS [HTML]
Syllabus from pages 373-374 intentionally omitted
On July 28, 1947, the appellant, Swift and Company, filed a complaint, later amended, before the Interstate Commerce Commission against the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and other railroads, alleging that the charges on direct carload shipments of livestock 1 from points outside Illinois to its proposed new plant in the Chicago Packingtown area are (1) unreasonable, (2) unduly prejudicial to livestock as a commodity, and (3) unduly prejudicial to Swift as against its competitors, all in violation of the Interstate Commerce Act. 2 Swift asked for the establishment of reasonable joint through rates for line-haul carriers serving Chicago and the Chicago Junction Railroad's lessee, the Chicago River and Indiana Railroad, hereafter called Junction, 3 such joint rates to include delivery of livestock to Swift's industrial siding at its proposed plant and not to exceed the line-haul rates now in effect at the Union Stock Yards and other points of delivery on line-haul railroads in the area. Swift's proposed plant, near its present plant, will be located on Junction's rails and not on those of any line-haul carrier.
The Commission dismissed the complaint and refused to cancel the switching tariff as to livestock. Swift & Co. v. Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co., 274 I.C.C. 557. Swift then sought review of the Commission's order of dismissal by a statutory three-judge District Court. That court sustained the Commission's order, and this appeal followed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1253 and 2101(b), 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1253, 2101(b). No question is raised as to the Commission's refusal to cancel the switching tariff.
All livestock shipments by rail to the Chicago area are handled solely by the line-haul carriers; delivery is direct to line-haul terminals at the line-haul rate. Such terminals are the Stock Yards and those unloading pens located on switches directly adjoining a line-haul carrier's rails. Swift is the one large packer in Chicago that has such a line-haul terminal and can receive all its direct shipments of livestock at line-haul rates. This terminal, the Omaha Packing Plant, a Swift subsidiary situated two and one-half miles northeast of Swift's present plant and outside the Stock Yards district, is located on the rails of the Burlington Railroad, a line-haul carrier. Here Swift receives its direct livestock shipments, about 6,500 carloads annually, which it trucks to its plant in the Stock Yards area. 4 The balance of the livestock delivered in Chicago, whether direct or otherwise, is delivered to the Stock Yards, with some minor exceptions, by the line-haul carriers over certain Junction running tracks to the Stock Yards unloading pens. The carriers have trackage rights on these running tracks for which a charge is paid to Junction. On direct shipments to a packer delivered to the Stock Yards, the Yards' facilities, including a vast system of runways, overpasses and tunnels, are used to drive the livestock from the unloading pens to the packer's plant. The charges for these facilities are fixed by the Secretary of Agriculture. Junction has never switched or handled any livestock except in an emergency.
The delivery of livestock in the Stock Yards area is to be contrasted with that of 'dead freight.' 5 The line-haul carriers make no direct deliveries of dead freight; none of the approximately 500 industries in the area have plants located on line-haul rails and the line-haul carriers do not have trackage rights over the Junction rails which lead to the plants. Consequently, all dead freight is switched by Junction and delivered to the industrial sidings of team tracks alongside of and connecting with Junction's rails.
Since Junction provides only trackage rights for the livestock shipments to the Stock Yards, the line-haul rates on livestock do not include Junction as a participating carrier. Junction does participate, however, in joint rates for dead freight. For any switching operation not covered by line-haul rates in which Junction participates, Junction has a flat switching charge of $28.80 per car. 6 This charge would apply to any direct shipments at Swift's proposed plant in Packingtown which, as we have noted, is not located on any line-haul rails but rather on Junction's rails.
If this complaint were granted, livestock would move to Swift's proposed plant in the manner of dead freight. Instead of one movement, as the line-haul movement to the Stock Yards, there would be two movementsone to the receiving tracks in the South Ashland Yards made by the line-haul carriers, and the second movement by Junction from its South Yards to Swift's plant, located on Junction's rails. The tie-up on Track 1103, described above, would be increased accordingly as trains consigned to the Stock Yards would have to place any of Swift's livestock cars on the Junction receiving tracks. The congestion and costs involved would be increased by the fact that livestock cannot be handled as easily as dead freight. Livestock cars cannot be 'kicked' in switching operations as can dead-freight cars, which are stopped by collision with other cars. Livestock cars must be placed with a minimum of rough handling. Still further difficulties would be encountered because livestock must be unloaded, watered and fed every twenty-eight hours, in accordance with federal law. 45 U.S.C. 71 et seq., 45 U.S.C.A. § 71 et seq. When livestock arrives in Chicago, there are generally only a few hours remaining for delivery to unloading pens in order to comply with this law. Therefore, expeditious handling of the livestock is required, especially since there are no facilities along Junction's rails for such unloading, watering and feeding. Some 31 hours are required for a car of dead freight to clear Ashland Yards and be delivered. It is apparent that livestock must be handled in much less time.
The delivery of livestock through this bottleneck of Ashland Yards must be geared to provide for the expeditious and special handling that livestock must receive. The huge quantities of dead freight which are handled 7 and the restricted facilities of Ashland Yards have resulted in the development, over a period of seventy years, of a complicated, intricate pattern of operation. For this reason, any attempt to change the pattern calls for the most expert consideration and administrative judgmenta task that courts are ill-fitted to perform. If the Commission gave weight to the relevant factors, its decision should not be overturned. We move then to the Commission's report.
The Commission found that in the circumstances presented the switching charge provided by the existing tariff would not be unreasonable or otherwise unlawful as applied to livestock, and secondly, that the establishment of joint rates for such transportation was not necessary or desirable in the public interest. It took account of the historical development of the Stock Yards and the delivery of livestock therein which together with the industrial development of the area have made further yard expansion impracticable. The Commission found that the switching yards are now highly congested and, as one witness put it, are 'running bank full.' While it is true that livestock shipments into the area have been decreasing, dead-freight shipments have increased several fold, and the congestion will continue in the foreseeable future. The Commission gave careful consideration to the complication of operations through the additional and different switching movements required in the handling of livestock as contrasted with dead freight. Whether the system for the delivery of livestock into Chicago which has existed for over seventy years at an established line-haul rate, and which has recognized definite terminals calling for a minimum of train movements in a highly congested area, should be displaced by another system which would further complicate the operations and would necessitate the use of properties and services not included when the present line-haul rates and terminals were fixed, is a question committed to the administrative judgment of the Commission. When that judgment is based on findings abundantly supported by the evidence on the whole record, as it is in this case, it is the duty of the courts to sustain it. Ayrshire Collieries Corp. v. United States, 335 U.S. 573, 593, 69 S.Ct. 278, 289, 93 L.Ed. 243; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Jersey City, 322 U.S. 503, 522523, 64 S.Ct. 1129, 1138, 88 L.Ed. 1420; Swift & Co. v. United States, 316 U.S. 216, 230231, 62 S.Ct. 948, 955, 86 L.Ed. 1391; Adams v. Mills, 286 U.S. 397, 409410, 52 S.Ct. 589, 592, 76 L.Ed. 1184; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Union Pacific R. Co., 222 U.S. 541, 547548, 32 S.Ct. 108, 110 111, 56 L.Ed. 308.
I am not able to accept the conclusion of the majority that the Interstate Commerce Commission can on this record deny the appellant's prayer for joint through rates between the line-haul defendants and the terminal defendant, the Chicago Junction Railroad. It is admitted here that every manner of freight save livestock is delivered to private industrial sidings in the Chicago switching district under tariffs embracing joint through rates. When the Court concludes that it is not a 'discrimination against livestock as a commodity to impose a switching charge in addition to the line-haul rate for delivery of livestock to the same point,' it violates the statutory requirement of equality between commodities. To accord joint through rates for switching to private sidetracks to all commodities save livestock, constitutes such a preference to those commodities over livestock as is proscribed by 49 U.S.C. 3(1), 49 U.S.C.A. § 3(1). See note 2 of the opinion of the Court.
When, as here, the carriers while fixing joint through rates for commodities in general fail to furnish them to shippers of livestock, on application the Commission should fix such rate. That rate should be established, 49 U.S.C. 15(3), 49 U.S.C.A. § 15(3), in the same manner as similar rates for other commodities, of course with proper consideration of the costs of handling the respective commodities. I consider it no answer on this record to say that the switching charge may be no more than the difference in cost of handling dead freight and livestock. The shipper is entitled to meet that problem when the Commission comes to determine the switching factor in the joint through rate. Joint through rates should be accorded to livestock shipments on Swift's siding. Then, and not until then, if the rate is attacked as unreasonable, may the Court properly rely on the fact, if supported by a finding of the Interstate Commerce Commission, that the 'more complex nature of the switching services required by livestock as compared with dead freight' makes justifiable the difference in the rates. See majority opinion, 72 S.Ct. 722. The reasonableness of any commission increase of livestock rates over other commodities should depend upon evidence and findings showing its necessity because of the extra cost of handling without regard to congestion.
As the Court views the matter, the Commission had before it merely a rate-fixing controversy and more specifically whether relevant transportation considerations justified imposition of a local switching charge of 4.8 cents per 100 pounds 1 in combination with the line-haul charge as a fair rate for delivery of livestock to private sidings. And the record, according to the Court, amply sustains the finding of the Commission that such a combination did not constitute an unreasonable rate. Mr. Justice REED and Mr. Justice DOUGLAS interpret the order not to be a rate-fixing order at all, but, in effect, a determination by the Interstate Commerce Commission that livestock, unlike all other Commodities, may be excluded from private sidings in the stockyards area, although this is done not in terms but by a designedly preferential rate. The difficulty is, of course, intensified in that the rate is in fact prohibitive.
49 U.S.C. 1 et seq., 49 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq. Sections 1(4) and 1(5) require the carriers to establish just and reasonable rates; § 3(1) prohibits the carriers from giving any undue or unreasonable preference to any particular shipper or to any particular description of traffic.