Court Opinion

ID: 8903014
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-27 01:23:49.226386+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:07:59.351499
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I concur in the opinion of the court in Nos. 76-1329 and 76-1425. But, in No. 76-1426, I respectfully dissent.
In deciding to prohibit rate bureaus from protesting independent action proposals of member carriers, the Interstate Commerce Commission quotes language from Arbet Truck Lines, Inc. v. Central States Motor Freight, 321 I.C.C. 460, 471, stating that “[i]t is necessary to harmonize Section 5a [49 U.S.C. § 5b] and Sections 216(e) and (g) [49 U.S.C. §§ 316(e) and (g)] of the Act.”
49 U.S.C. § 5b relieves parties to an approved agreement (rate bureaus) from the operation of the antitrust laws. 49 U.S.C. § 316(e) provides in pertinent part:
“Any person, State board, organization, or body politic may make complaint in writing to the Commission that any such rate, fare, charge, classification, rule, regulation, or practice, in effect or proposed to be put into effect, is or will be in violation of this section or of section 317 of this title.”
*1257For a number of years the ICC has given effect to both parts of the statute as enacted by Congress. Central States Motor Common Carriers — Agreement, 299 I.C.C. 773 (1957); Southern Motor Carriers— Agreement, 297 I.C.C. 603 (1956); Middle Atlantic Conference — Agreement, 283 I.C.C. 683, 689 (1951).
In Southern Motor Carriers, the ICC harmonized the two sections in the following way:
“The right to take independent action by conference members is distinguished from, and does not conflict with, the equally established right of the conference, or any other person or body politic to protest or complain of any such action. After a carrier takes independent action, the action taken stands upon exactly the same footing with respect to the conference, in its efforts to foster a sound and stable rate structure in the interest of its members as a whole, as any such action taken by a carrier not a conference member. To interpret section 5a otherwise would not only contravene the provisions of section 216, paragraphs (e) and (g), as stated, and of the national transportation policy, but would jeopardize the full and free hearing so necessary and essential to the development of complete records in proceedings before the Commission. For the foregoing reasons, we are not in accord with the protestants in their request that the agreement be modified to prohibit the conference from petitioning for the suspension of member-carrier rates or participating in complaint proceedings before the Commission.” 297 I.C.C. at 616.
But now, in spite of its findings that “the practice of rate bureaus in protesting rates has been conducted in a manner that is generally fair and devoid of base motives,” and in spite of its statement that “[w]e have not found evidence of any flagrant abuse by rate bureaus in the exercise of the right to protest,” the ICC declares that the rate bureaus’ right to protest must be “subordinated” to the right of independent action.
The statistical background, however, which in this case must speak with more authority than mere feelings, does not show a threat to independent action; indeed I submit the contrary is shown. Of the 7,468 independent actions in 1973, the seven bureaus protested 199, only 2.66 percent. Middle Atlantic, for example, protested 46 of 1,064 independent actions in its tariffs in the twelve months ending May 31, 1973. Thirty-four of the 46 protested tariffs were rejected, suspended, or withdrawn. In 1973, Rocky Mountain Tariff Bureau protested 6 of 320 independent actions in its tariffs. Four of the six protested tariffs were suspended or withdrawn. Southern Motor Carriers Rate Conference protested 26 of the 2,914 independent actions in its tariffs. Thirteen of the 26 protested tariffs were suspended. The low percentage of bureau protests and the high percentage of their success indicate to me that the system is working as Congress intended, that is, as an “advantage and aid to the Commission in the administration of the act and the prevention of destructive rate cutting” in a situation where “[i]t is manifestly impossible, as a practical matter, for the Commission to scrutinize each and all of the multiplicity of tariffs and rate changes that are constantly being filed.” Middle Atlantic Conference, 283 I.C.C. at 689.
For these reasons, I would preserve the rate bureaus’ right to protest as Congress established it in code §§ 316(a) and (g).
Because I rely on the statutory provisions, I find no need to discuss, and express no opinion on, the first amendment issues raised in this appeal and somewhat persuasively presented under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine. Ashwander v. T.V.A., 297 U.S. 288, 346, 56 S.Ct. 466, 80 L.Ed. 688 (1935) (Brandeis, J., concurring). See Eastern R.R. Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., 365 U.S. 127, 81 S.Ct. 523, 5 L.Ed.2d 464 (1961); United Mine Workers v. Pennington, 381 U.S. 657, 85 S.Ct. 1585, 14 L.Ed.2d 626 (1965); California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U.S. 508, 92 S.Ct. 609, 30 L.Ed.2d 642 (1971).