Alton Company v. United States (287 U.S. 229)/Opinion of the Court

This suit, under the Urgent Deficiencies Act of October 22, 1913, c. 32, 38 Stat. 208, 220 (see 28 USCA § 44 et seq.), was brought by the Alton Railroad Company in the federal court for Northern Illinois to set aside part of an order entered by the Interstate Commerce Commission under section 15(6) of the Interstate Commerce Act, see Transportation Act, February 28, 1920, c. 91, § 418, 41 Stat. 456, 475, 484, 486 (49 USCA § 15(6). The defendants are the United States and, by intervention, the Commission and carriers adversely interested. The proceeding before the Commission was commenced by the receivers of the Chicago & Alton 'to establish, just, reasonable, and equitable divisions' of existing joint rates for grain and grain products from Peoria, Ill., to points east of Buffalo. The Commission found that the divisions of the so-called 'local' rates were too low, and ordered them increased. It found that the divisions of the so-called 'reshipping' rates were 'not unjust, unreasonable or otherwise unlawful' and refused relief as to them. Wheelock et al., Receivers, v. Akron, Canton & Youngs-town Ry. Co., 169 I.C.C. 594; Id., 179 I.C.C. 517. The Alton Railroad (the corporation which acquired the line under the reorganization, Alton R.R. Co. Acquisition and Stock Issue, 175 I.C.C. 301) insists that by so denying relief the Commission has, in view of the facts specifically found, subjected its property to confiscation; and on this ground seeks to have that part of the order set aside.

Lines of the Alton extend from Peoria to Chicago, Joliet, and Dwight, Ill., and at each of those cities connect with railroads whose lines extend to the East. Peoria is an important market for grain received from the West and Northwest. At Peoria the grain goes into elevators. There it may be sold and resold or it may be manufactured into grain products and by-products. Much of the grain is later shipped from Peoria to the East in the form of grain products and by-products. The transportation of grain consigned to Peoria is completed, however, by the unloading of the cars there and the payment of charges. The carriers serving Peoria have not established joint rates from such points of origin of the grain to the East, with a transit privilege at Peoria. Compare Central R.R. Co. v. United States, 257 U.S. 247, 42 S.Ct. 80, 66 L.Ed. 217. But the tariffs of outbound joint rates from Peoria to points east of Buffalo, voluntarily established by the Alton and connecting railroads, provide for a lower scale of rates applicable, under certain conditions, to grain and the products of grain which had a rail movement inbound from the territory referred to. This lower scale is called 'reshipping' rates; and the merchandise shipped thereunder is called transit grain or grain products. The higher scale applicable to other grain or grain products is called 'local' rates. Compare Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. United States, 279 U.S. 768, 49 S.Ct. 494, 73 L.Ed. 947.

Until July 1, 1929, the divisions of both classes of rates were fixed by agreement of the Alton and the connecting lines. Then the connecting lines, without the sanction of the Commission and over the protest of the Alton, reduced, for both classes of rates, the amounts paid to it as divisions. The connecting lines were and are physically in a position to deprive the Alton of a larger share by reason of the fact that the freight is collected at the destinations and distributed by the collecting carrier. The haul on the Alton outbound from Peoria is from 82 to 155 miles, dependent upon the route selected. The divisions constitute the only revenue received by the Alton for the service performed by it under the 'reshipping' rates. Under the reduced allowances, the Alton does not receive on any shipment more than 2 cents per 100 pounds and on many shipments it receives nothing. The Commission did not suggest that the divisions so received could be deemed compensatory for the outbound haul. It justified its conclusion that the divisions were not 'unjust, unreasonable, or otherwise unlawful' on the ground that the transportation service for the performance of which the Alton sought increased divisions was not of importance to the public, and that, if the Alton desired to participate in the transportation and was dissatisfied with the share allotted, it should secure in some way allowances from the carriers which bring the grain into Peoria.

The District Court, three judges sitting, did not consider the merits of the controversy. It dismissed the bill on the ground that the part of the order complained of was negative in character, and that hence the court was without jurisdiction. The case is here on direct appeal. Whether the order is a negative one within the meaning of the rule (compare Procter & Gamble Co. v. United States, 225 U.S. 282, 32 S.Ct. 761, 56 L.Ed. 1091, United States v. Los Angeles & Salt Lake R.R. Co., 273 U.S. 299, 47 S.Ct. 413, 71 L.Ed. 651) is the main question requiring decision. The Alton concedes that courts have ordinarily no power to review a finding of the Commission that a particular division is not unreasonable or inequitable. The Alton's contention is that, while the joint rates are in force, it is obliged to accept traffic under them; that until the Commission decides otherwise it is entitled to the divisions agreed upon when the joint rates were established; that the order of the Commission in approving the reduced allowance to the Alton made by the connecting carriers in effect established new divisions; and that, since these are obviously confiscatory, the order is void.

First. The order while negative in form was, in effect, an affirmative one. The joint 'reshipping' rates and the divisions thereof were established by agreement of the carriers participating in the transportation. The divisions were a term of that agreement. So long as the joint rates voluntarily established remain in force, each carrier is entitled as of right to the division originally agreed upon, unless a readjustment of the divisions has been made either by the parties or by the Commission pursuant to the power conferred by paragraph 6 of section 15. The connecting carriers were legally without power to reduce the divisions of the Alton over its objection. If they deemed its divisions unreasonably large, they could have invoked the power of the Commission to make a reduction. Instead of applying to the Commission to adjust the existing divisions, they resorted to force. Availing themselves of their strategic position as collectors of the freight, they withheld from the Alton a part of what was due it.

The Alton might have sued at law for the part of the divisions wrongfully withheld. St. Louis S.W. Ry. Co. v. S. H. Bolinger & Co. (C.C.A.) 17 F.(2d) 924. Compare Malvern & F.V.R.R. Co. v. Chicago, R.I. & P. Ry. Co. (C.C.) 182 F. 685. But that was not its only remedy. Under section 15(6), it was entitled to invoke the jurisdiction of the commission. It could obviously have applied to the Commission to have the agreed divisions increased; and likewise it was entitled to apply to secure a determination that the agreed division shall be maintained. The Commission was not at liberty to decline to exercise its jurisdiction. Paragraph 6 imposed upon it the obligation to act upon the complaint. Compare New England Divisions Case, 261 U.S. 184, 43 S.Ct. 270, 67 L.Ed. 605; United States v. Abilene & Southern Ry. Co., 265 U.S. 274, 44 S.Ct. 565, 68 L.Ed. 1016. The Commission's finding that the Alton's divisions were 'not unjust, unreasonable or otherwise unlawful,' and the refusal of relief, had the effect of reducing the divisions which had been fixed by agreement of the parties and to which, but for the Commission's action, the Alton would have continued to be legally entitled.

Second. The jurisdiction of courts to review orders of the Commission is not dependent upon the form in which the order is couched. If the Eastern carriers had applied to the Commission for a change in the divisions fixed by agreement, and the Commission had authorized divisions precisely like those which they are now imposing upon the Alton by their unauthorized action, the order would have been affirmative in form and would obviously have been subject to attack by the Alton in a suit in the federal court. By their unauthorized action the connecting carriers forced the Alton to become the moving party before the Commission, with the result that the Commission's approval of the divisions effected by them was expressed in the form of a refusal to interfere. This result of the alignment of parties does not endow the Commission's order with immunity from judicial review.

An order of the Commission which denies relief in part, or which dismisses the complaint, may be reviewed by a court. Inter-Mountain Rate Cases, 234 U.S. 476, 490, 34 S.Ct. 986, 58 L.Ed. 1408; United States v. New River Co., 265 U.S. 533, 539-541, 44 S.Ct. 610, 68 L.Ed. 1165. To annul the order would not, as in Lehigh Valley R.R. Co. v. United States, 243 U.S. 412, 37 S.Ct. 397, 61 L.Ed. 819, merely leave unchanged the very situation which the Commission's order refused to alter. Here the Alton, by virtue of the pre-existing agreement for divisions, would secure a measure of protection simply from the annulment of the order. To take jurisdiction would not be tantamount to usurpation by the court of the functions of the Commission. The court is not called upon here, as it was in Manufacturers' Ry. Co. v. United States, 246 U.S. 457, 483, 38 S.Ct. 383, 62 L.Ed. 831, and Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 283 U.S. 235, 241, 51 S.Ct. 429, 75 L.Ed. 999, to afford relief which the Commission, in the exercise of its powers, had found that the complainant was not entitled to receive. The court is not asked to prescribe reasonable divisions, or to direct that they be prescribed by the Commission. The court is asked to find that the Commission denied the Alton a constitutional right as a result of acting upon erroneous principles of law, and therefore to enjoin that part of the order.

The determination of the questions presented is properly within the scope of judicial review of the Commission's orders. The questions are not the correctness of its conclusion as to the reasonableness of the divisions, or the correctness of its findings as to any of the factors which the act directs it to consider in determining reasonableness. The question is the correctness of the legal principles adopted by the Commission as a basis for reaching a conclusion from its findings. The Commission reasoned that, since the particular transportation services of the Alton here in question were not of importance to the public, and since the Alton was in substance an intermediate, not an originating, carrier, it might be denied a compensatory share of the existing joint rates with the defendant carriers. Whether the 'importance to the public of the transportation services of such carriers,' as specified in the act, means the importance of the particular services in question, and whether a carrier not participating in joint rates with inbound roads is an 'intermediate line' within the meaning of the section dealing with divisions, are questions upon which a court may properly pass. So, too, is the more fundamental question whether, assuming the Commission was correct in its construction of the act, it follows that a noncompensatory share of existing joint rates may be imposed. Upon these questions the Alton was entitled to invoke the judgment of the court. Compare Southern Ry. Co. v. St. Louis Hay Co., 214 U.S. 297, 301, 29 S.Ct. 678, 53 L.Ed. 1004; Southern Pacific Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 219 U.S. 433, 449, 31 S.Ct. 288, 55 L.Ed. 283.

Third. The defendants contend that what is sought to be enjoined is not an 'order' within the meaning of the Urgent Deficiencies Act. That contention is unsound. The action of the Commission presents none of the characteristics which have led this court in other cases to hold that there was want of jurisdiction. It is part of an order (compare United States v. Atlanta, B. & C.R.R. Co., 282 U.S. 522, 527, 51 S.Ct. 237, 75 L.Ed. 513); and the order is final, not tentative (compare Delaware & Hudson Co. v. United States, 266 U.S. 438, 448, 45 S.Ct. 153, 69 L.Ed. 369). It was entered as the result of a formal controversy, not a project of the Commission (compare United States v. Los Angeles & Salt Lake R.R. Co., 273 U.S. 299, 47 S.Ct. 413, 71 L.Ed. 65); and it marked the disposition of the controversy, not a preliminary stage (compare United States v. Illinois Central R.R. Co., 244 U.S. 82, 37 S.Ct. 584, 61 L.Ed. 1007). The suit to enjoin the order is not premature. Compare Piedmont & Northern Ry. v. United States, 280 U.S. 469, 50 S.Ct. 192, 74 L.Ed. 551. It subjects the Alton to damage which is substantial, immediate, and irreparable. If the order is allowed to stand, and the Eastern carriers continue to retain their present share of the joint rates, the Alton's only redress will be a subsequent complaint before the Commission. Even if the Commission should then decide that the existing divisions are unreasonable, it might be powerless to award reparation for the period from the entry of the present order. Brimstone R. & Canal Co. v. United States, 276 U.S. 104, 121, 48 S.Ct. 282, 72 L.Ed. 487.

The decree of the District Court dismissing the bill for want of jurisdiction is reversed, and the cause remanded to it for further proceedings.

Reversed.