Court Opinion

ID: 9419420
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:49:25.422062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:17.992276
License: Public Domain

Me. Justice Robeets :
I dissent. I pass the contentions of the appellants respecting the power of Congress to regulate the State’s activities under consideration, the scope of the term “person” as used in the Shipping Act, and the alleged absence of any grant of power to the Commission to fix minimum rates for water carriers or others. This for the reason that, in my opinion, Congress has withheld from the Com*587mission authority to fix or regulate the rates or charges of those furnishing wharfage facilities.
The Shipping Act of 1916, in all parts here relevant, has remained as it was originally adopted, though amended in other respects by later legislation. In § l,1 after defining carriers by water, which are the primary subject of its regulatory provisions, the Act adds:
“The term ‘other person subject to this Act’ means any person not included in the term ‘common carrier by water/ carrying on the business of forwarding or furnishing wharfage, dock, warehouse, or other terminal facilities in connection with a common carrier by water.”
Section 162 provides:
“That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier by water, or other person subject to this Act, either alone or in conjunction with any other person, directly or indirectly—
“First. To make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, locality, or description of traffic in any respect whatsoever, or to subject any particular person, locality, or description of traffic to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever.” [Italics supplied.]
Section 17,3 in pertinent part, provides:
“No common carrier by water in foreign commerce shall demand, charge, or collect any rate, fare, or charge which is unjustly discriminatory between shippers or ports, or unjustly prejudicial to exporters of the United States as compared with their foreign competitors. Whenever the commission finds that any such rate, fare, or charge is demanded, charged, or collected it may alter the same to the extent necessary to correct such unjust discrimination *588or prejudice and make an order that the carrier shall discontinue demanding, charging, or collecting any such unjustly discriminatory or prejudicial rate, jare, or charge. [Italics supplied.]
“Every such carrier and every other person subject to this Act shall establish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable regulations and practices relating to or connected with the receiving, handling, storing, or delivering of property. Whenever the commission finds that any such regulation or practice is unjust or unreasonable it may determine, prescribe, and order enforced a just and reasonable regulation or practice.” [Italics supplied.]
Section 18,4 so far as relevant, is:
“Every common carrier by water in interstate commerce shall establish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable rates, fares, charges, classifications, and tariffs, and just and reasonable regulations and practices relating thereto and to the issuance, form, and substance of tickets, receipts, and bills of lading, the manner and method of presenting, marking, packing, and delivering property for transportation, the carrying of personal, sample, and excess baggage, the facilities for transportation, and all other matters relating to or connected with the receiving, handling, transporting, storing, or delivering of property.” [Italics supplied.]
The Commission concedes, as it must, that whereas the Act definitely deals with the rates of water carriers, and places those rates under the regulatory jurisdiction of the Commission, it contains no such specific mandate to the Commission concerning the rates or charges of wharfin-gers. It must equally be conceded that the order of the Commission under review does establish minimum rates and charges for services rendered by those maintaining and operating wharves used by water carriers. In the absence of specific authority in this behalf, the Commission turned to that portion of § 16 which prohibits not only water carriers but other persons subject to the Act from *589granting preferences or practicing discrimination, and that portion of § 17 which comprehends both water carriers and other persons subject to the Act and enjoins just and reasonable regulations and practices respecting receiving, handling, storage or delivery of property.
The oversimplified argument in support of this position is that a rate or charge is, in a broad sense, a regulation or practice. The difficulty with the argument is that, in the Interstate Commerce Act, and elsewhere, Congress has always sharply distinguished, as it did in the present Act, between rates and charges on the one hand, and regulations and practices on the other. The legislative history of the Shipping Act indicates that Congress well understood that states and municipalities, in order to encourage the flow of commerce through their ports, had established public wharves and that Congress intended that, as respects such public facilities, preferences and discriminations should not be permitted. But there is nothing in the legislative history to indicate that, in the teeth of the plain words of the statute as enacted, Congress had in mind conferring power to regulate the rates and charges for such publicly owned facilities; much less that if a state or its agency deemed it advisable and in the public interest to operate such facilities at low rates, to encourage the flow of commerce through its ports, the Commission could put a floor under its rates and compel it in effect to aid competing private enterprise.
Little need be, or can be, added to the clearly expressed words of the statute. It speaks for itself, and I think the court ought not to permit the use of a prohibition against practices to be availed of to write additional provisions into the section dealing with rates and charges.
The attempt to bolster this process, on the part of the Commission, by reference to the decisions of this court seems to me futile. The Commission and the Government rely principally upon Baltimore & Ohio R. Co. v. *590United States, 305 U. S. 507. That ease obviously not only fails to support the order but seems to me to be an authority against it. The case arose under the Interstate Commerce Act. It dealt with a practice of carriers which was to maintain warehouses in respect of which low cost storage was afforded to persons who would ship over the carrier’s lines. In essence the practice of warehousing at such low rates operated as a rebate or discrimination in the carrier’s transportation rate favoring any shipper who would use the carrier’s lines and disfavoring those who would not, or could not, do so. Here we are not concerned with water carriers’ rates, fares or charges. The Commission’s order is directed at services rendered by privately and publicly owned wharves, applicable to all seeking to avail themselves of the services which are proffered to all alike. If any discrimination by the appellants as between shippers were pointed out it may well be that the Commission might order the discontinuance of such discrimination. That is not this case. The Commission purports to order the discontinuance of a discrimination but, in reality, orders a rise in the level of rates applicable without discrimination to all those who can and do use the proffered services. Its order is a thinly veiled attempt to cloak a rate order under the guise of a regulation. I think it plain that Congress granted no such power.
I would reverse the judgment.
Me. Justice Black, Mr. Justice Douglas, and Mr. Justice Murphy join in this dissent.

 U. S. C. 801.

 46 U. S. C. 815.

 46 U. S. C. 816.

 46 U.S. C. 817.