Atchison, T. & SF Ry. Co. v. United States
| Decision Date | 01 August 1938 |
| Docket Number | No. 11062.,11062. |
| Parties | ATCHISON, T. & S. F. RY. CO. et al. v. UNITED STATES ex rel. SONKENGALAMBA CORPORATION. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Dean Wood, of Kansas City, Mo. (Cyrus Crane, George J. Mersereau and John N. Monteith, all of Kansas City, Mo., and Charles H. Woods and Mr. Thomas F. King, both of Chicago, Ill., on the brief), for appellants.
Harry L. Jacobs, of Kansas City, Mo. (Bernard L. Glover, I. J. Ringolsky, William G. Boatright and Ringolsky, Boatright & Jacobs, all of Kansas City, Mo., on the brief), for appellee.
Before STONE, WOODROUGH, and BOOTH, Circuit Judges.
This is a mandamus proceeding authorized by Section 49, Title 49 U.S.C.A., brought by the United States on relation of Sonken-Galamba Corporation against various Railroad Companies and various officers of the Western Weighing and Inspection Bureau. The Bureau is an unincorporated Company whose members are various Railroads and the Bureau's employees. The Bureau is the agent of the defendant Railroads and its services consist mainly in determining whether material tendered for transportation falls within the class which the shipper claims.
The object of the present proceeding is to compel the Railroads to receive and carry certain steel and iron plates at the rate asked for steel and iron scrap.
There is no dispute about the amounts of the two rates, — those on steel and iron plates and those on steel and iron scrap. The latter are much lower.
It appears that a great many of the oil tanks in Oklahoma and adjoining States are being or have been dismantled and the plates which go to make up these tanks are or have been shipped in various directions by the dealers in scrap material.
Up to February, 1937, these plates, derived from dismantled tanks, have been shipped as steel and iron scrap; but in February, 1937, the Railroads, or some of them handling this material, on the advice of the Western Weighing and Inspection Bureau, refused to transport the material except as second-hand steel and iron plates and at the rate for such plates.
The real question involved, therefore, is whether the material so offered for shipment shall be received and shipped at the lower rate for scrap iron and steel, or at the higher rate as second-hand plates.
It is alleged in the petition for writ of mandamus that the refusal to accept and transport said material by the Railroads is founded solely on the wrongful and arbitrary inspection of the respondent Bureau and its employees.
The Court below granted the Writ compelling the Railroads to receive and transport this material as scrap iron and steel; and from the judgment so entered, the appeal is taken.
Two questions present themselves: (1) Whether in determining what the material tendered for transportation is, the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission is exclusive; if not, then (2) was the material thus tendered scrap iron and scrap steel.
Appellee contends that resort to the Commission is necessary only where the tariff provision in question is not plain or clear, or where it is contended that the provision has a peculiar or special meaning other than the ordinary import of the words used, and where evidence must be heard to ascertain such special meaning of the provision.
For a discussion of the question: When is the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission exclusive? — see Great Northern...
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