Opinion ID: 1510109
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Heading: Divisions of Intrastate Rates.

Text: It is well settled that the powers of a state Commission are special and limited, and they can exercise only such authority as is legally conferred by express provisions of law, or such as is by fair implication and intendment incident to and included in the authority expressly conferred for the purpose of carrying out and accomplishing the objects for which the Commission was created, and that any reasonable doubt of the existence of any particular power in the Commission should be resolved against the exercise of such power. State ex rel. Railroad Com'rs v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 57 Fla. 526, 49 So. 39; Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co., 213 U. S. 175, 194, 29 S. Ct. 451, 53 L. Ed. 753; Board of R. Commissioners of Oregon v. Oregon Ry. & Nav. Co., 17 Or. 65, 19 P. 702; 10 C. J. p. 54, § 41. We have seen that the fixing of divisions for the future is a legislative function. Terminal R. R. Ass'n v. U. S., supra; Great Northern Ry. v. Merchants' Elevator Co., supra. This legislative power to fix divisions may be lawfully delegated to a state Commission. Grand Trunk Ry. Co. v. Michigan R. R. Commission, 231 U. S. 457, 34 S. Ct. 152, 58 L. Ed. 310; Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co. v. Garrett, 231 U. S. 298, 34 S. Ct. 48, 58 L. Ed. 229; Railroad Commission Cases, 116 U. S. 307, 6 S. Ct. 334, 388, 1191, 29 L. Ed. 636; Minneapolis & St. Louis R. R. Co. v. Minnesota, 186 U. S. 257, 22 S. Ct. 900, 46 L. Ed. 1151, 10 C. J. p. 54, § 39. In Railroad Co. v. Minnesota, supra, the court said: The argument for the railroad companies in this case assumes that, while the state may interfere as between the railways and their customers, the shippers of freight, it cannot do so as between the railways themselves, by fixing joint tariffs and apportioning such tariffs among the several railways interested in the transportation.    Granting that a state has no right to interfere with the internal economy of a railroad farther than to secure the safety and comfort of passengers, as, for example, to fix the wages of employés or control its contracts for construction, or the purchase of supplies, it has a clear right to pass upon the reasonableness of contracts in which the public is interested, whether such contracts be made directly with the patrons of the road, or for a joint action in the transportation of persons or property in which the public is indirectly concerned. We must therefore look to the statutes of Minnesota to determine whether the Legislature authorized the Railroad and Warehouse Commission of Minnesota to fix divisions of joint intrastate rates. The applicable provisions of the Minnesota statutes are found in sections 4638, 4639, 4640, 4641, 4644, and 4700, General Statutes Minn. 1923. These sections are set out in marginal note [1] . It is clear that by section 4700 the Legislature intended to grant comprehensive powers to the Commission to fix and establish joint rates. But, neither this section nor, so far as we have been able to discover, any other section of the present statutes defining and fixing the powers of the Commission, expressly authorizes it to fix divisions. However, without the power to fix divisions the power to establish joint rates would be incomplete and ineffectual. The carriers by refusing to agree as to divisions could greatly delay if not defeat the effect of an order fixing a joint rate. The fixing of each carrier's share is really a part of the establishing of a joint rate. Until the division is fixed the rate for practical purposes is incomplete. We think, therefore, that section 4700 by necessary implication conferred power upon the Commission, not only to fix and establish joint rates but also to fix the divisions of such rates between the carriers. That such was the intent of the Legislature is evidenced by the provision the share of any railroad company of any joint through rate shall not be construed to fix the charge that it may make for transportation for a similar distance over any part of its line for any single rate shipment. This language seems to assume that the Commission will fix divisions. It will be observed that section 4700 provides that the Commission upon the application of any person interested may revise, change, or add to, any joint through rates fixed or promulgated pursuant to such section. We think that under this provision the complainant could have lodged its complaint and upon a proper showing secured a revision of the joint intrastate rates and the divisions thereof between the Minnesota Company and the Northern Pacific. The reasons which require preliminary resort to the Interstate Commerce Commission and a determination by it of what is a proper division of a joint interstate rate before judicial relief can be had on account of unjust, unreasonable and inequitable divisions in the past apply with equal force where the question of divisions of intrastate rates are involved, and it logically follows that before the complainant could secure judicial relief on account of past intrastate divisions, it was necessary for it to first apply to the Railroad and Warehouse Commission of the state of Minnesota, and have the preliminary question of what is a fair division of the rates involved first determined by that Commission. We therefore conclude that the District Court was without jurisdiction to fix divisions of joint rates between the Minnesota Company and the other carriers involved for the future, and because the preliminary question of what is a just, reasonable, and equitable division of joint interstate rates had not been determined by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and of joint intrastate rates had not been determined by the Minnesota Railroad and Warehouse Commission, it was also without jurisdiction to award damages on account of divisions of such joint rates in the past. The decree appealed from is affirmed, with costs.