Court Opinion

ID: 9686585
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:56:32.408969+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:20.475013
License: Public Domain

VAN PELT, District Judge
(dissenting):
It is with regret that I express disagreement with the holding of my col*334leagues affirming the Commission’s action in this case.
I am in agreement that the House Bill was the one adopted and that comments as to the effect of adopting the Senate version are inappropriate. I also agree with the conclusion that the division approved by the Commission is sufficiently based upon evidence before the Commission that we should accord great weight to the division which the Commission approved.
My disagreement is in the area of congressional intent. Railroad car shortages have been an important public issue for years. For more than a decade prior to the Commission’s decision now before us the Interstate Commerce Commission had before it this proceeding to increase per diem rates and thus afford some remedy for this evil. Under the guise of lack of information and that as it was investigating the situation, the proceeding remained undecided. During this delay car shortage became more acute.
The Congress thereupon properly decided to do something about it. The result was the enactment of an amendment to Section 1(14) (a) of the Interstate Commerce Act. It provided in the amendment certain language italicized in the majority opinion and which I repeat italicizing the word “shall” :
“In fixing such compensation to be paid for the use of any type of freight car, the Commission shall give consideration to the national level of ownership of such type of freight car and to other factors affecting the adequacy of the national freight car supply, and shall, on the basis of such consideration, determine whether compensation should be computed solely on the basis of elements of ownership expense involved in owning and maintaining such type of freight car, including a fair return on value, or whether such compensation should be increased by such incentive element or elements of compensation as in the Commission’s judgment will provide just and reasonable compensation to freight car owners, contribute to sound car service practices (including efficient utilization and distribution of cars), and encourage the acquisition and maintenance of a car supply adequate to meet the needs of commerce and the national defense.”
In the House Report recommending this legislation, it is stated:
“If the committee amendment is enacted, the Commission in fixing compensation under existing section 1(14) (a) of the Interstate Commerce Act will be empowered, in the same proceeding, to go beyond the basis of elements of ownership expense in computing compensation. Where warranted consideration may be given as to whether such compensation should be increased by an incentive element or elements which will encourage acquisition and maintenance of an adequate car supply. This will be a discretionary power * * See House Report No. 1183, 2 U.S.Code Congressional and Administrative News, 1966, p. 2230.
Under the Commission order now affirmed by my colleagues, a rate is promulgated which admittedly has been established without consideration of the factors which the Congress said shall be considered. Instead of considering these factors in this case, as the House of Representatives expected, as shown by the words “in the same proceeding”, it has set up a separate proceeding. Whether it will pend a decade or more, as this case has, is speculation. It is not speculation that the congressional will and intent has been disregarded by the Commission. It is not speculation that a serious car shortage exists. According to the House Report, supra, there is “recurring national shortages of railroad freight cars.” These shortages so affect the national economy that the Congress properly gave directions to the Interstate Commerce Commission as to the elements which the Commission shall consider “in its setting of the rates of compensation to be paid for the use of any type of freight car.” Congress, in *335view of the car shortage and the Commission’s inaction, was within its rights in using the mandatory “shall” and in attempting to prevent the Commission from doing what it now proposes to do, namely, start another proceeding, with endless hearings and examinations by requiring that its action be taken in the same proceeding in which it “fixes compensation.” I feel this court should insist that the mandate of the Congress be carried out now. I would set aside the Commission order and refer the case back to the Commission to make the determination in this proceeding in the manner the Congress intended.