Court Opinion

ID: 9466839
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:30:17.18149+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:00.414545
License: Public Domain

BRIGHT, Circuit Judge,
joining in the dissent.
I join in Judge McMillian’s dissent. When the case was returned to the district court, the shipper moved for a summary judgment on its counterclaim, seeking a construction of the tariff inconsistent with the Commission’s ruling. That motion triggered the statutory procedures for review of an ICC order, which require that the United States be joined. 28 U.S.C. § 2322 (1976). The statutes preclude a federal trial judge from making a tariff interpretation without complying with the procedures mandated by Congress; thus, such ruling amounts to a nullity.
In Schwartz v. Bowman, 244 F.Supp. 51 (S.D.N.Y.1965), aff’d sub nom. Annenberg v. Alleghany Corp., 360 F.2d 211 (2d Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 921, 87 S.Ct. 230, 17 L.Ed.2d 145 (1966), the court appropriately observed:
If it can be established extrinsically that the practical effect of success on the merits by the party making a claim would be to invalidate the [ICC] order, [28 U.S.C. § 2322] applies and its requirements must be met. [Id. at 68 (citations omitted).]
The absence of the United States as a party was “a fatal jurisdictional defect.” Id. at 68. Thus, the judgment was void.
Moreover, I find nothing in the record that indicates that the district court expressly or impliedly made a determination that it had jurisdiction to overrule the Commission’s order construing the tariff in question. Neither party called the court’s attention to the relevant statutory sections, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2321-23, and the district court apparently assumed it could overturn the Commission’s ruling. I find nothing in the record to show that the district court considered whether it possessed jurisdiction to overrule the Commission solely on the shipper’s motion. The jurisdictional issue did not surface until the Railway Co. brought its motion for relief from a void judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(4). The district court then should have corrected its jurisdictional error and granted the motion. Accordingly, I, too, would reverse.
HEANEY, Circuit Judge, joins in the views expressed in Judge Bright’s dissent.