Opinion ID: 6025
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: PJAX II declaratory order (92-4691B)

Text: 42 Petitioners NMFTA and TMTA petition for review of another ICC declaratory order holding that a wholly intrastate shipment could be tacked to an earlier interstate shipment in private carriage to make the entire shipment interstate in nature. Because we find that TMTA has no standing, we dismiss its petition for review. Because NMFTA is unable to establish venue in the Fifth Circuit, we transfer its petition to the D.C. Circuit.
43 The motor carrier Pittsburgh-Johnstown-Altoona Express, Inc. (PJAX) initiated this declaratory proceeding to seek a determination that the movements it described were in interstate commerce. In ruling on the petition for declaratory order, the ICC found that a movement of goods in private carriage from out-of-state to a Pennsylvania warehouse may be tacked to a for-hire, in-state movement from warehouse to customer to create one continuous interstate movement. 44 Petitioners begin with the bedrock premise that private carriage, unlike for-hire carriage, is not regulated by either the ICC or the state. See 49 U.S.C. 10102(16). Petitioners contend that the ICC departed from its prior, well-established rulings that any portion of a shipment by private carriage should not be considered in determining the interstate nature of the transportation. The transportation must be considered as beginning at the point where the shipper tenders his goods to a for-hire carrier. If delivery is then made at a point in the same State, the relevant transportation is not interstate transportation. Motor Transportation of Property Within a Single State, 94 M.C.C. 541, 550 (1964), aff'd sub nom. Pennsylvania R.R. Co. v. United States, 242 F.Supp. 890 (E.D.Pa.1965), aff'd per curiam sub nom. American Trucking Ass'ns v. United States, 382 U.S. 372, 86 S.Ct. 533, 15 L.Ed.2d 421 (1966). See also Pennsylvania R.R. Co. v. Public Utils. Comm'n, 298 U.S. 170, 56 S.Ct. 687, 80 L.Ed. 1130 (1936) (single-state movement by rail was not part of interstate transportation because preceding interstate movement by private rail carriage was not transportation). 45 Petitioners, including NMFTA, filed a petition to reopen the proceeding in light of this court's Central Freight decision casting doubt on the ICC's new interpretation of its jurisdiction. See Central Freight Lines v. ICC, 899 F.2d 413, 425 (5th Cir.1990). The ICC denied this petition in Pennsylvania-Johnstown-Altoona Express, Inc., 8 I.C.C.2d 815 (1992) (PJAX II ). The petitioners now seek review of that portion of the ICC's order holding that the ICC gains jurisdiction over a for-hire, single-state movement by tacking it to a private carriage, interstate movement.
46 First, we must determine whether the parties are properly before this court. The ICC argues that NMFTA, a party to the proceeding below, is unable to establish venue in the Fifth Circuit. Venue is proper in an agency review proceeding in the judicial circuit in which the petitioner resides or has its principal office, or in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2343. The nationwide character of NMFTA's membership does not affect venue. American Civil Liberties Union v. FCC, 774 F.2d 24, 26 (1st Cir.1985) (ACLU ). Because NMFTA resides, or was incorporated in, 15 the District of Columbia and its principal office is in Virginia, the ICC requests that this petition be transferred to the D.C. or Fourth Circuit. 47 We have reviewed NMFTA's arguments in support of establishing venue in this circuit and find that none of them have merit. First, NMFTA asks us to exercise pendant venue over its petition because it arises out of a common nucleus of operative facts with other petitions for review before this court in which venue is proper. See 1A, Part 2 James W. Moore et al., Moore's Federal Practice 0.340(5) (2d ed. 1985). We decline the invitation. This petition challenges the ICC's decisions in PJAX I and PJAX II on the narrow question of whether an interstate movement in private carriage can be joined with an in-state movement to become transportation in interstate commerce. This narrow inquiry does not arise out of a common nucleus of facts with the other petitions before this court. See Association of Texas Warehousemen, 8 I.C.C.2d 476 (1992); Policy Statement-Motor Carrier Interstate Transportation, 8 I.C.C.2d 421 (1992). Rather, those petitions challenged the ICC's determination that certain factors are sufficient to demonstrate shipper intent to move goods beyond a Texas warehouse to a Texas customer in one continuous, interstate movement. 48 Next, NMFTA argues that its co-petitioner TMTA, a Texas entity, properly lodged its petition in this court. NMFTA contends that generally we may review petitions lacking proper venue so long as contemporaneous petitions for review are filed by parties who are able to establish venue. See American Newspaper Publishers Ass'ns v. U.S. Postal Serv., 789 F.2d 1090, 1092 (5th Cir.1986). The question for resolution thus narrows to whether TMTA lodged a valid petition in this court. 49 The ICC argues that TMTA and its nominal co-petitioners have no standing to challenge the ICC's declaratory order because they are not parties aggrieved by the order. See 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2344. Ordinarily, to qualify as a party aggrieved, the entity must have participated in the underlying agency proceeding. ACLU, 774 F.2d at 25. Neither TMTA nor its co-petitioners participated in the agency proceeding. 50 TMTA attempts to avail itself of a narrow exception to this aggrieved party requirement. TMTA argues that although it was not a party to the original agency proceeding, it may appeal an agency decision if it attacks the decision as exceeding the agency's authority. Wales Transp., Inc. v. ICC, 728 F.2d 774, 776 n. 1 (5th Cir.1984) (citing American Trucking Ass'ns, Inc. v. ICC, 673 F.2d 82, 85 n. 4 (5th Cir.1982) (per curiam)). According to petitioners, this exception applies because they challenge the ICC's order in PJAX II as unlawfully expanding the ICC's jurisdiction to reach intrastate commerce, a power clearly reserved to the states by 49 U.S.C. Sec. 10521(b). They argue that Wales gives them standing to make this argument. We therefore must determine whether the petitioners' attack qualifies under Wales as a challenge to the ICC's authority to issue the order. 51 Texas v. United States, 866 F.2d 1546 (5th Cir.1989) provides some insight into our inquiry. In that case Texas contended that the ICC lacked jurisdiction to issue a declaratory order pertaining to transportation that was facially intrastate, because the order had the effect of regulating intrastate commerce. We found that the ICC had primary jurisdiction to determine at the outset whether the transportation at issue was in interstate or intrastate commerce. Id. at 1553; see also Service Storage & Transfer Co. v. Virginia, 359 U.S. 171, 79 S.Ct. 714, 3 L.Ed.2d 717 (1959) (ICC has primary jurisdiction over scope of ICC certificates); cf. Weinberger v. Hynson, Westcott & Dunning, Inc., 412 U.S. 609, 625-27, 93 S.Ct. 2469, 2481-82, 37 L.Ed.2d 207 (1973) (FDC has primary jurisdiction to determine its jurisdiction and may do so by declaratory order). 52 Texas therefore makes it clear that the ICC has authority to determine it own jurisdiction, i.e. whether the transportation at issue is interstate in character. See Texas, 866 F.2d at 1553. We are satisfied therefore that none of petitioners' claims qualify as an attack on the ICC's power to act. The Wales exception to the requirement that one seeking review must be an aggrieved party is exceedingly narrow. TMTA has not succeeded in demonstrating that it fits within this exception. 16 Thus, TMTA's petition must be dismissed for lack of standing. 17 53 Because neither TMTA nor its nominal co-petitioners have a valid petition before this court, we conclude that it is in the interest of justice to transfer NMFTA's petition to a circuit court having proper venue. See 28 U.S.C. 1631; Dornbusch v. Commissioner, 860 F.2d 611, 612 (5th Cir.1988). Accordingly, we transfer NMFTA's petition to the District of Columbia Circuit, as it appears to be the most convenient circuit for both NMFTA and the ICC. 54 The petition by TMTA and its nominal co-petitioners in 92-4691B for review is DISMISSED and ICC's motion to transfer NMFTA's petition to the D.C. Circuit is GRANTED.