Court Opinion

ID: 9752540
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:13:56.153927+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:17.303275
License: Public Domain

*732WHITAKER, Judge
(dissenting).
I think plaintiff is entitled to no more than the value of the metals taken by the defendant. Its effort to support an “in-place” value for any part of its railroad leaves me unconvinced.
It had filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission an application to abandon its entire line. That application was granted on the condition that any portion of its line should be sold to any person desiring to operate it “at a price not less than the fair net salvage value thereof.” It was negotiating with the Hutchinson and Northern Railway Company for the sale of 13 miles of it, and with the Kansas Gas & Electric Company for the sale of 5 miles of it, but the transactions never got beyond the negotiation stage. Whether either of these two prospective purchasers would have agreed to pay more than the “net salvage value” is doubtful.
After the metals had been requisitioned by the Government, the Government re-v leased therefrom 1% miles of track over which the Hutchinson and Northern Railway had been operating under lease from plaintiff. So far as appears, neither the Hutchinson and Northern Railway Company nor plaintiff sought to have the other 13 miles released from the requisition. Had the Hutchinson and Northern Railway Company been really interested in these 13 miles it would seem that an effort would have been made to have had them released from the requisition at the same time the 1% miles were released.
The testimony shows that the Kansas Gas & Electric Company was interested in the purchase of the other 5 miles and had discussed with plaintiff its purchase, but they had never gotten so far as to discuss prices.
I do not think the evidence supports a value higher than the net salvage value.
I agree that plaintiff is not justly compensated by payment of the Office of Price Administration ceiling price for the materials requisitioned. That price was below the market for the rails at the time the price was fixed. Plaintiff is entitled to no less than the market value at that time, since it appears that, except for the restrictions imposed, the plaintiff could have gotten for its rails much more than the ceiling price fixed by the Office of Price Administration. Even so, I think the judgment granted is substantially more than plaintiff is entitled to, and for this reason I dissent.