Court Opinion

ID: 9445225
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:23:08.394117+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:10.430962
License: Public Domain

SOPER, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
There is merit in the contention of the carrier that, the carriage of agricultural commodities having been exempted from the statute, the present case is not governed by the provisions of the statute but by the law of contracts. It is illogical and inconsistent to hold that dressed poultry is an agricultural commodity within the meaning of sec. 203(b) (6) of the Act, as was held by the Supreme Court in East Texas Motor Freight Lines, Inc., v. Frozen Foods Exp., 351 U.S. 49, 76 S.Ct. 574, and at the same time to hold that the carrier is bound by virtue of the Act to observe tariffs applicable to exempt goods which it had filed by mistake. None of the cited cases support this proposition. It was held in Beaumont-Sour Lakes & Weston Ry. Co. v. Magnolia Provision Co., 5 Cir., 26 F.2d 72, that if a carrier files by mistake too low a tariff for the carriage of goods it must, nevertheless, abide by it, but the goods in that case were not exempt from the statute.
It does not follow, however, that the decision of the District Court was wrong. The carrier’s offer to transport the goods at the published rate was accepted by the shipper and a valid contract, whose terms were set forth in the bill of lading, was thereby formed. It is true that the amount sued for was below the jurisdictional minimum but a substantial federal question was involved and the Court having thereby acquired jurisdiction had power to decide the case on its merits.