Court Opinion

ID: 9646966
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:18:49.906773+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:44.317765
License: Public Domain

RODNEY, District Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I am in entire accord with most of the conclusions herein reached. I agree that, under existing provisions of law and procedure, where change of rate of transportation is considered by the carrier, it is the duty of the carrier, intending such change, to file the proposed new rates with the Interstate Commerce Commission. Upon a protest being filed, it becomes the duty of the Interstate Commerce Commission to determine the lawfulness of the new rates. In doing this the Commission may, but need not, order a suspension of the new rates until final hearing. If suspension is ordered, reasons for the action by the Commission must be assigned. If no suspension of the new rates is ordered by the Commission, no order is signed and, under the weight of authority, no reasons need be assigned for such refusal.
The failure or refusal of the Interstate Commerce Commission to suspend the operation of the new rates as in this case until final hearing is, I agree, an exercise of discretion vested in such Commission and since the discretion has been exercised then under the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C.A. § 1009(e)) it is excluded as to reviewability. So much for the relief sought against the Interstate Commerce Commission by injunction.
*615The complaint also states a claim against the defendant railroads and others acting in combination with them under the antitrust laws. The majority opinion finds that the doctrine of Primary Jurisdiction requires that this matter be first considered by the Interstate Commerce Commission and dismisses the plaintiff’s claim as arising from the violation of the antitrust laws upon that basis. It is not the conclusion that the Primary Jurisdiction with reference to some features of the antitrust laws rests with the Interstate Commerce Commission to which I object for I do not reach that question. I question whether the special three-judge court should determine this matter or whether it should be determined by the district court as normally constituted, and with which this case was originally filed.
The three-judge court is somewhat of an anomaly. It is a federal district court consisting at times of three judges instead of one. It is of purely statutory origin and intended for distinct and limited purposes.
Starting as an expediting provision in 1903 with reference to certain antitrust cases and as insuring direct review by the Supreme Court (32 Stat. 823, 15 U. S.C.A. §§ 28, 29) the three-judge court has been made applicable to several situations. Among these were suits to annul, set aside or restrain orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission and matters concerning the constitutionality of the state statutes or administrative orders. In these latter instances the requirement of a three-judge court is inextricably and almost universally interwoven with the matter of injunction and the disinclination to allow the issuance or refusal of an injunction in certain cases to be determined by one judge. So it is that by 28 U.S.C. § 2325 any injunction restraining the enforcement operation or execution, in whole or in part, of any order of the Interstate Commerce Commission will be determined by a three-judge court under 28 U.S.C. § 2284.
It will be borne in mind that it is not every proceeding to review an order or action of the Interstate Commerce Commission that requires a three-judge court. While every action to enforce, annul or set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission is required by 28 U.S.C. § 2321 to be taken under the provision of Chapter 157 of Title 28, yet the bringing of such action does not operate of itself to require a three-judge court or to operate as a stay or suspend the order of the Interstate Commerce Commission and if no request is made for a stay or suspension of the order of the Interstate Commerce Commission the case would remain in the district court as normally constituted.
It is only under.Section 2325 the three-judge court comes into existence. If an interlocutory or permanent injunction restraining the enforcement of the order of the Interstate Commerce Commission is requested, then and only then does the three-judge court come into existence.
In the present proceedings and insofar as the antitrust claim is concerned, no injunction against the Interstate Commerce Commission with reference to the antitrust claim is suggested in the complaint nor mentioned in the relief sought. It is true that in the briefs the plaintiff seeks to consider the action of the Commission in refusing to suspend the proposed rates as constituting an effective step in the antitrust claim, but no injunction is considered in the complaint with reference to that claim.
Although neither the complaint in this case nor the prayers for relief mention the Interstate Commerce Commission with reference to the antitrust claim, yet the majority of this Court considers that the Interstate Commerce Commission is claimed by the plaintiff with participating in some way in the antitrust violation. Whether the Commission be considered an active participant in the antitrust claim and therefore essentially as a defendant, or whether the non-action of the Commission merely furnished the means by which the railroads may be charged with violation of the antitrust *616laws, then in neither case do I see any jurisdiction in a three-judge court since no injunctive relief is involved in any way.
I am of the opinion that the three-judge court as such has only such jurisdiction as is expressly given to it by statute and does not have jurisdiction to determine either the merits of the antitrust claim nor to dismiss the antitrust claim under the Primary Jurisdiction principle. I think that all questions as to the antitrust claim should be considered by the district court as normally constituted and as embracing the residuum of the claim of the plaintiff not cognizable by the three-judge court. A portion of the complaint not cognizable by a three-judge court may, I think, be segregated from that part coming within the jurisdiction of such three-judge court.1

. Shippers’ Car Supply Committee v. Interstate Commerce Comm., D.C.D.Or., 1958, 160 F.Supp. 939, 943.