Court Opinion

ID: 6738368
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-20 23:20:15.162953+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:01:52.814220
License: Public Domain

Christianson, J.
(concurring specially). It was stated upon the argument by counsel for both parties that no objection was made because of any mere technical or amendable defect in the complaint. The defendant asserted and stood squarely upon the proposition that the complaint on its face showed clearly that no cause of action existed or could exist against it under the facts pleaded. And that this, and this alone, was the theory on which the demurrer was interposed and on which it had been argued in the court below, and on which it was asserted in this court.
The questions presented in this case are by no means easy to determine. That the constitutional rights of the plaintiff have been infringed upon and its property taken without due process of law cannot be denied. The rate statute became effective July 1, 1907. State ex rel. McCue v. Northern P. R. Co. 19 N. D. 46, 25 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1001, 120 N. W. 869. It was sustained by the decision of this court, filed April 16th, 1909. Ibid. This judgment was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in a decision filed March 14, 1910. Northern P. R. Co. v. North Dakota, 216 U. S. 579, 54 L. ed. 624, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 423. The case was subsequently reopened and the carrier submitted proof of the receipts and expenses chargeable against the lignite coal traffic for the year commencing July 1, 1910, and ending June 30, 1911. State ex rel. McCue v. Northern P. R. Co. 26 N. D. 438, 145 N. W. 135. Upon the proof thus submitted the United States Supreme Court held the rate confiscatory and violative of the 14th Amendment. Northern P. R. Co. v. North Dakota, 236 U. S. 585, 59 L. ed. 735, L.P.A.1917F, 1148, P.U.P.1915C, 277, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 429, Ann. Cas. 1916A, 1.
In a subsequent ease, involving the right of a shipper to recover a sum paid in excess of the statutory rate, it was demonstrated, or rather it was conceded, that there was no substantial change in the cost of handling the intrastate lignite coal traffic on the line of the plaintiff railroad at any time between the 1st day of July, 1907, and the 1st day of July, 1911. C. L. Merrick Co. v. Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. 35 N. D. 331, 338, 160 N. W. 140. Hence, it is established by former adjudications that the rate established by the statute was, in fact, as to the plaintiff confiscatory at all times.
It is undisputed that the plaintiff consistently and vigorously assert*88ed that the statutory rate was confiscatory. It refused to put the rate into effect, and resisted the efforts of the state authorities to do so as long as possible. It put the rate into effect only when it had been commanded by the decree of this court and of the Supreme Court of the United States to do so. Such decree was entered in an action brought on behalf of the state of North Dakota by its attorney general, and such decree necessarily inured to the benefit of the shippers or consumers of lignite coal. A final decree in such action would doubtless be res judicata, upon the railroad company, on the one hand, and those represented by the attorney general, i. e., the state and its people, on the other hand. The only logical and reasonable deduction that can be drawn from the undisputed facts in this case are that the plaintiff did not put the statutory rate into operation, or voluntarily transport coal at the statutory rate, but did so involuntarily and solely because it could no longer refuse to do so without violating the decree of this court and thereby subjecting itself to penalty. It seems clear to me that under such circumstances it cannot be said that the actions of the carrier in accepting and transporting shipments of coal were voluntary, or the contract of carriage freely and voluntarily made. In order that there may be a valid contract, the parties must consent thereto, and the consent must be- free and mutual. The plaintiff had no option. It could not refuse to accept shipments of coal, but “it must, if able to do so, accept and carry” the coal offered to it for transportation, and transport the same over its lines. Rev. Codes 1905, § 5673 (Comp. Laws 1913, § 6236). It was compelled, by the act of the legislature and the judicial decree, to accept and carry intrastate shipments of lignite coal at a confiscatory rate, and it was forbidden under penalty to charge a compensatory rate for performing such service. And if it refused to accept'and transport shipments at the confiscatory statutory rate and exacted a compensatory one, the shipper might sue and recover the amount exacted in excess of the statutory rate. C. L. Merrick Co. v. Minneapolis St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. supra. The ineAdtable result Avas that, by virtue of the legislative enactment and the judicial decree, the plaintiff’s property was taken away and handed over to others, Avithout compensation, in violation of constitutional guaranty. This is indisputably established by, or necessarily inferred from, the facts alleged in the complaint.
*89That a party may recover excessive payments exacted from bird by a common carrier for the transportation of goods, under such circumstances as to indicate that the payment was involuntary, is well settled. And, ordinarily, excessive charges paid under protest to a common carrier having goods in its possession, in order to secure possession of the goods, may bo recovered. Such payments are generally recognized as being made under duress, sometimes termed “duress of goods.” See cases cited in note to Illinois Glass Co. v. Chicago Teleph. Co. 18 L.R.A.(N.S.) 124. There is another class of cases more nearly peculiar to public service corporations in which the courts allow recovery of excessive payments made, not under duress, but under public necessity resulting from the unequal relation of the parties and the dependence of the individual upon the services in carrying on his business. Ibid.
It would seem to follow as a necessary corollary to the rule stated that where a common carrier is compelled to carry goods at a confiscatory rate under such circumstances as clearly to indicate that the service was performed involuntarily, it ought to be entitled to recover from the person who received the benefit of such involuntary service the difference between the amount received and what would amount to a reasonable compensation for the service performed.
But is the right of the carrier (if any) to recover concluded by the decree putting the rate into effect ? At the time the case of C. L. Merrick Co. v. Minneapolis St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co., supra, was submitted, the writer was inclined (as were, in fact, all the members of this court) to hold that the first decree, which was qualified as “without prejudice,” had been superseded by the final decree. And that the rights of the parties in the C. L. Merrick Go. Case must be measured by the final decree in the rate ease. But while the C. L. Merrick Co, Case was pending for decision, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision in Missouri v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. 241 U. S. 533, 60 L. ed. 1148, 36 Sup. Ct. Rep. 715. In that case tbe court held that a decree in a rate case, although qualified “as ‘without prejudice,’ not to leave open the controversy as to the period with which the decree dealt and which it concluded, but in order not to prejudice the rights of property in the future, if from future operations and changed conditions arising in such future it resulted that *90there was confiscation.” And that the reservation “without prejudice” was to bo considered “as looking forward to the future and providing for the conditions which might then arise.” If this is correct, and if such decree conclusively establishes the validity of the rate during the period prior to its rendition, regardless rvhether such rate is in fact confiscatory, then the rate so established ought to be deemed valid until the decree is set aside and the rate adjudged to be confiscatory. For, as to the period prior to the rendition of the decree, the parties realize that the validity of the rate is being questioned and its confiscatory character is being asserted by the carrier, while thereafter, and as to the period intervening between the date of the rendition of the decree sustaining the rate and the reopening of the case and the subsequent adjudication of invalidity, the shippers know that the rate has been established not only by legislative enactment, but by judicial decree. This may be illustrated by applying the rule to concrete cases. Thus, in the Merrick Case the carrier refused to accept and transport the coal at the statutory rate for the avowed reason that such rate was confiscatory, and -exacted from the shipper a compensatory rate. At the time of the shipment, the shipper knew that the validity of the rate was being questioned, and it was in a position to, and probably did, include the rate paid in fixing the price of the coal. In the instant case, the defendant coal company knew that the statutory rate had been sustained by the decree of this court and of the United States Supreme Court against attack by the carrier on the ground that it was confiscatory; and it probably fixed the price of the coal in view of the prevailing freight rate.
It may also be observed that, although the plaintiff’s complaint shows that its property has been taken away and handed over to others without just compensation, it does not show, nor can it reasonably be inferred, that plaintiff’s loss was occasioned by any act of the defendant. On the contrary, it appears that such loss was occasioned by the actions of the legislature and of the coui*ts. It would have been possible to have protected the rights of the plaintiff, as well as of the shippers, by proper provision in the first decree, but no such provision was made. And while it is apparent that plaintiff has sustained loss, and that someone has received a benefit corresponding to such loss, it does not necessarily follow that the defendant received such benefit. It is quite *91■as, and in fact more, likely that the freight rate was reflected in the price of the coal, and that the benefit of the decreased rate was received by the purchasers and consumers of the coal.
The order sustaining the demurrer should be affirmed.