Interstate Commerce Commission v. Brimson

• Decision Date: 26 May 1894
• Docket Number: No. 883,883
• Citation: 38 L.Ed. 1047,154 U.S. 447,14 S.Ct. 1125
• Parties: INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION v. BRIMSON et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

154 U.S. 447

14 S.Ct. 1125

38 L.Ed. 1047

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION

v BRIMSON et al.

No. 883.

May 26, 1894.

[Syllabus from pages 447-449 intentionally omitted] Sol. Gen. Maxwell and George F. Edmunds, for appellant.

E. Parmalee Prentice, Chas. S. Holt, and J. C. Hutchins, for appellees.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 449-456 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice HARLAN.

This appeal brings up for review a judgment rendered December 7, 1892, dismissing a petition filed in the circuit court of the United States on the 15th day of July, 1892, by the interstate commerce commission, under the act of congress entitled 'An act to regulate commerce,' approved February 4, 1887, and amended by the acts of March 2, 1889, and February 10, 1891. 24 Stat. 379, c. 104; 25 Stat. 855, c. 382; 26 Stat. 743, c. 128; 1 Supp. Rev. St. 529, 684, 891.

The petition was based on the twelfth section of the act authorizing the commission to invoke the aid of any court of the United States in requiring the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of documents, books, and papers.

The circuit court held that section to be unconstitutional and void, as imposing on the judicial tribunals of the United States duties that were not judicial in their nature. In the judgment of that court, this proceeding was not a case to which the judicial power of the United States extended. 53 Fed. 476, 480.

The provisions of the interstate commerce act have no application to the transportation of passengers or property, or to the receiving, delivering, storing, or handling of property wholly within one state, and not shipped to a foreign country from any state or territory, or from a foreign country to any state of territory; but they are declared to be applicable to carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water, when both are used, under a common control, management, or arrangement, for a continuous carriage or shipment from one state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States, and also to the transportation in like manner of property shipped from any place in the United States to a foreign country, and carried from such place to a port of transshipment, or shipped from a foreign country to any place in the United States, and carried to such place from a port of entry either in the United States or an adjacent foreign country.

The term 'railroad,' as used in the act, includes all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease; and the term 'transportation' includes all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage.

All charges made for services rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property, as above stated, or in connection therewith, or for the receiving, delivering, storing, or handling of such property, are required to be reasonable and just; and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful. Section 1.

Any carrier subject to the provisions of the act, directly or indirectly, by special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, charging, demanding, collecting, or receiving from any person or persons a greater or less compensation for services rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property than it charges, demands, collects, or receives for doing a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, is to be deemed guilty of unjust discrimination, which the act expressly declares to be unlawful. Section 2.

So it is made unlawful for any such carrier to make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or to any particular description of traffic, or to subject any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular kind of traffic, to undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect; and carriers subject to the provisions of the act are required to afford, according to their respective powers, all reasonable, proper, and equal facilities for the interchange of traffic between their respective lines, and for the receiving, forwarding, and delivering of passengers and property to and from their several lines and those connecting therewith, and not to discriminate in their rates and charges between such connecting lines; but this regulation does not require a carrier to give the use of its tracks or terminal facilities to another carrier engaged in like business. Section 3.

It is made unlawful for any carrier subject to the provisions of the act to charge or receive any greater compensation in the aggregate for the transportation of passengers or of like kind of property, under substantially similar circumstances and con- ditions, for a shorter than for a longer distance over the same line, in the same direction, the shorter being included within the longer distance; but this does not authorize the charging and receiving as great compensation for a short as for a longer distance. Upon application to the commission, the carrier may, in special cases, after investigation by that body, be authorized to charge less for longer than for short distances for the transportation of passengers or property; and the commission may, from time to time, prescribe the extent to which the carrier may be relieved from the operation of this section. Section 4.

It is also made unlawful for any carrier subject to the provisions of the act to enter into any contract, agreement, or combination with any other carrier or carriers for the pooling of freights of different and competing railroads, or to divide between them the aggregate or net proceeds of the earnings of such railroads, or any portion thereof; and, in any case of an agreement for the pooling of freights as aforesaid, each day of its continuance is deemed a separate offense. Section 5.

Another section of the act provides for the printing and posting by carriers of their rates, fares, and charges for the transportation of passengers and property, including terminal charges, classifications of freight, and any rules or regulations affecting such rates, fares, and charges, including the rates established and charged for freight received in this country to be carried through a foreign country to any place in the United States; forbids any advance or reduction in such rates, fares, and charges, so established and published, except upon public notice, of which changes the commission shall be notified; requires every carrier to file with the commission copies of all contracts, agreements, or arrangements with other carriers relating to any traffic affected by the provisions of the act, as well as copies of schedules of joint tariffs of rates, fares, or charges for passengers and property over continuous lines or routes operated by more than one carrier; declares it to be unlawful for any carrier, party to any joint tariff, to charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person or persons a greater or less compensation for the transportation of persons or property, or for any services in connection therewith, between any points as to which a joint rate, fare, or charge is named thereon, than is specified in the schedule filed with the commission in force at the time; authorizes, in addition to the penalties prescribed for neglect or refusal to file or publish rates, fares, and charges, a writ of mandamus to be issued by any circuit court of the United States in the judicial district wherein the principal office of the carrier is situated, or wherein such offense may be committed, and, if such carrier be a foreign corporation, in the judicial circuit wherein it accepts traffic and has an agent to perform such service, to compel compliance with the above provisions of the section relating to schedules of rates, fares, and charges, such writ to issue in the name of the people of the United States, at the relation of the commissioners appointed under the provisions of the act, and the failure to comply with its requirements being punishable as and for a contempt; and empowers the commissioners, as complainants, to apply, in any such circuit court of the United States, for a writ of injunction against the carrier to restrain it from receiving or transporting property among the several states and territories of the United States, or between the United States and adjacent foreign countries, or between ports of transshipment and of entry and the several states and territories of the United States, as mentioned in the first section of the act, until the carrier shall have complied with the provisions last referred to. Section 6.

So a common carrier subject to the provisions of the act is forbidden to enter into any combination, contract, or agreement, expressed or implied, to prevent, by change of time schedule, carriage in different cars, or by other means or devices, the carriage of freights from being continuous from the place of shipment to the place of destination; and no break of bulk, stoppage, or interruption made by such common carrier shall prevent the carriage of freights from being, and being treated, as one continuous carriage from the place of shipment to the place of destination, unless such break, stoppage, or interruption was made in good faith for some necessary purpose, and without any intent to avoid or unnecessarily interrupt such continuous carriage, or to evade any...