Court Opinion

ID: 9448408
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:34:55.288052+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:25.252590
License: Public Domain

JONES, Chief Judge
(concurring).
I join, with reluctance, in the conclusion reached by the majority. I have no doubt that a considerable part, if not the major portion, of plaintiff’s collections were for nontransportation fees and services. The limited distances traveled in relation to the time consumed in each of the various towns make that conclusion manifest.
Between the filing date and the effective date of the tariff, the Interstate Commerce Commission, in a letter from the Assistant Director of its traffic bureau, advised plaintiff of the necessity to show in the filed tariff schedule the charge for the “guides, lecturers and perhaps other services” as well as the charge for transportation, and asked plaintiff to advise whether it would comply promptly with these requirements as set out in section 217(a) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 317(a).
It would have seemed wise for plaintiff to have gotten in touch with a representative of the Commission, worked out a reasonable and satisfactory formula and used that as a pattern. But instead, the plaintiff chose not to file a list of its non-transportation charges but 5 months after the effective date of the tariff schedules its attorney sent the Commission a letter defending the schedules already filed. Plaintiff thus stood pat on its own method of handling, regardless of *453the viewpoint of the Commission which is experienced in such matters.
While this writer feels that at least half of the charges made were probably for nontransportation services, we have been given no sufficient facts on which to make a satisfactory calculation and, of course, we are not permitted to enter the field of guesswork.
WHITAKER, Judge, while concurring in the majority opinion, also concurs in the above concurring opinion by JONES, Chief Judge.