Opinion ID: 360503
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: estoppel to assert the maurer tariff's applicability

Text: 10 The Gas Company contends, as it did in the district court, that the Railroad should be estopped from collecting the hazardous storage charges because the Railroad induced the Gas Company to enter the lease through assurances that the storage charges for hazardous substances would not be collected. In addition, the Gas Company asserts that the parties contractually agreed that the tariff would not apply, and that the Railroad should not be allowed to assert the invalidity of their agreement. Both of these arguments are without merit. 11 The Interstate Commerce Act was designed to provide uniformity in charges for services, and, thereby, to prevent rate discrimination. See, e. g., Midstate Horticultural Co. v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 1943, 320 U.S. 356, 361, 64 S.Ct. 128, 130, 88 L.Ed. 96, 101; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, & St. Louis Railway v. Fink, 1919, 250 U.S. 577, 581, 40 S.Ct. 27, 27, 63 L.Ed. 1151, 1153; Boston & Maine Railroad v. Hooker, 1914, 233 U.S. 97, 112, 34 S.Ct. 526, 528, 58 L.Ed. 868, 876. If a carrier could modify its tariffs without filing a new tariff, it could engage in rate discrimination. Similarly, to permit a party to invoke estoppel in cases in which a recipient of services covered by a tariff was promised a different charge for those services would undermine the policy of uniformity in charges that underlies the Interstate Commerce Act; it would be possible for rate discrimination to occur through the subterfuge of a carrier's deliberately misinforming a shipper as to the proper charges for services to be rendered. 12 Therefore, filed tariffs have the force of law, Southern Pacific Co. v. Brown, Alcantar & Brown, Inc., 5 Cir. 1969, 409 F.2d 1331, 1332; Compania Anonima Venezolana de Navegacion v. A. J. Perez Export Co., 5 Cir. 1962, 303 F.2d 692, 696, Cert. denied, 371 U.S. 942, 83 S.Ct. 321, 9 L.Ed.2d 276, and establish the liability of a recipient of services covered by the tariff, even if the recipient was quoted a different price, See Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Maxwell, 1915, 237 U.S. 94, 97, 35 S.Ct. 494, 495, 59 L.Ed. 853, 855; St. Louis Southwestern Railway Co. v. Garvey Elevators, Inc., 5 Cir. 1974, 505 F.2d 625, 626; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway v. Bouziden, 10 Cir. 1962, 307 F.2d 230, 235, or was party to a contract under which the services were to be provided at a different price, Texas & Pacific Railway v. Mugg & Dryden, 1906, 202 U.S. 242, 245, 26 S.Ct. 628, 50 L.Ed. 1011; Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, 4 Cir. 1971, 441 F.2d 483. See Illinois Steel Co. v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 1944, 320 U.S. 508, 64 S.Ct. 322, 88 L.Ed. 259; Louisville & Nashville Railroad, supra; Tex-O-Kan Flour Mills Co. v. Texas and Pacific Railway, 5 Cir. 1949, 178 F.2d 89, Cert. denied, 1950, 339 U.S. 930, 70 S.Ct. 665, 94 L.Ed. 1350. A carrier cannot waive or modify legally applicable tariffs, See Illinois Steel Co., supra, and Tex-O-Kan Flour Mills Co., supra, and individual hardship is not a defense to the application of such tariffs. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad v. York & Whitney Co., 1921, 256 U.S. 406, 41 S.Ct. 509, 65 L.Ed. 1016; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway v. Fink, supra. Equitable considerations cannot justify a carrier's failure to collect authorized tariff charges, Chicago & North Western Railroad v. Union Packing Co., 8 Cir. 1975, 514 F.2d 30, nor can they be invoked as the basis for an estoppel to collect such charges. Fink, supra, 250 U.S. at 582, 40 S.Ct. at 28, 63 L.Ed. at 1153. See also Baldwin v. Scott County Milling Co., 1939,307 U.S. 478, 59 S.Ct. 943, 83 L.Ed. 1409; York & Whitney Co., supra. 13 The Gas Company, as a shipper, must be presumed to know the law, and to have understood that the rate charged could lawfully be only the one fixed by tariff. Fink, supra, 250 U.S. at 581, 40 S.Ct. at 28, 63 L.Ed. at 1153. Filed tariffs are public information, 49 U.S.C. § 6(1), of which shippers should be aware. Shippers need not rely on the charges quoted by carriers; they may check the filed tariffs to ascertain the cost of services that they desire. Although reviewing filed tariffs may be burdensome to shippers, to permit a tariff to be avoided when the railroad knows of its applicability and the shipper does not would foster the evil of rate discrimination that the Interstate Commerce Act was designed to eliminate. In any case, the Gas Company admits that it was aware of the existence of the Maurer Tariff and of the possibility that the tariff rates might be applicable to the LP gas shipments; the very purpose of its arrangement with the Railroad was to attempt to avoid the tariff. Golden Triangle can hardly pose as an innocent shipper led to a railroad slaughter. 3 14 For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.