Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Northern Pacific Term. Co.
| Decision Date | 30 June 1953 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 1686. |
| Citation | 128 F. Supp. 475 |
| Parties | MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., Incorporated, Plaintiff, v. The NORTHERN PACIFIC TERMINAL COMPANY OF OREGON, Great Northern Railway Company, Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Co., Northern Pacific Railway Company, Union Pacific Railroad Company, Southern Pacific Company, Railway Express Agency, Incorporated, F. D. Hartwick, doing business as Nehalem Valley Motor Freight, Gustave Robertson, doing business as Robertson Freight Lines, L. C. Hall, doing business as L. C. Hall's Truck Line, Walter Haney, doing business as Haney Truck Lines, L. M. Slocum, doing business as Independent Motor Transport, Albert C. Pounder, doing business as Pounder Truck Service, A. D. Bourbonnais & Herman Schwab, doing business as S & M Truck Line, O. L. Moore, doing business as Sherwood Truck Service, Jesse U. Stout, doing business as Spokane-Pacific Line, T. M. Stewart, doing business as Stewart Truck Line, Emil Jossy, C. R. Jossy & Chester O. Knowlton, doing business as Tillamook-Portland Auto Freight, Frank Bentley & M. M. Hix, doing business as Woodburn Truck Line, L. H. Wright, doing business as Wright Truck Line, J. W. McCracken & E. E. McCracken, doing business as McCracken Bros. Motor Freight, C. R. & Cullen Y. Baker, doing business as Baker Truck Lines, Arthur W. Lee & George V. Eastes, doing business as Lee & Eastes Auto Freight, H. F. & A. J. Martin, doing business as Martin Transfer Company, O. H. Weeks & R. R. Weeks, doing business as Weeks Company Transfer, Earl T. Whiting, doing business as Whiting Truck Service, E. H. Cooper, doing business as Whiting Truck Service, Lenus F. Boys, doing business as Woodland Truck Line, Bend-Portland Truck Service, Inc., Columbia Truck Express, The Dalles Freight Line, Inc., Pacific Seaboard Motor Lines, Inc., Pacific Truck Express, Pierce Auto Freight Lines, Inc., Portland, Astoria, Seaside Auto Freight, Inc., Portland-Pendleton Motor Transport Company, Rand Truck Line, Inc., Reddaway's Truck Line, Silver Wheel Motor Freight, Inc., Smart's Auto Freight Co., Inc., Oregon Express, Oregon-Nevada-California Fast Freight, Inc., System Freight Service, Chaney Freight Line, Inc., Garrett Freight-Lines, Inc., Consolidated Freightways, Inc., Pacific Highway Transport, Interstate Freight Lines, Inc., United Truck Lines, Inc., Battle Ground Truck Service, Cater Motor Freight System, Inc., North Bank Truck Line, Inc., Sunrise Trail, Inc., O. & W. Transit Company, Portland-Seattle Auto Freight, Inc., Inland Motor Freight, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Oregon |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Stuart S. Ball, John A. Barr, David L. Dickson, William L. Niemann, Chicago, Ill., and Stephen Parker, Portland, Or., for Montgomery Ward & Co.
Roy F. Shields, Joseph Berkshire, Portland, Or., Dean H. Eastman, Seattle, Wash., for Northern Pacific Terminal Co. of Oregon.
Charles A. Hart, Portland, Or., Clark A. Eckart, Seattle, Wash., for Great Northern Railway Co.
Charles A. Hart, Fletcher Rockwood, Portland, Or., Dean H. Eastman, Clark A. Eckart, Seattle, Wash., for Spokane, Portland & Seattle Ry. Co.
Charles A. Hart, Portland, Or., Dean H. Eastman, Seattle, Wash., for Northern Pac. Ry. Co.
Roy F. Shields, Joseph G. Berkshire, Portland, Or., for Union Pac. R. Co.
Clarence J. Young, Portland, Or., for Southern Pac. Co.
Borden Wood, Grant T. Anderson, Portland, Or., for Railway Express Agency.
John M. Hickson, Portland, Or., for F. D. Hartwick and others.
C. O. Fenlason, Portland, Or., for Gustave Robertson.
William P. Ellis, Portland, Or., for Albert C. Pounder and others.
Leonard D. Alley, Portland, Or., for Emil Jossy and others.
C. E. Holbrook and Donald A. Schafer, Portland, Or., for Consolidated Freightways, Inc.
This opinion will concern itself with long dead events. The passions and emotional stresses which brought these about have lost their flame. In the interest of the public and the nation, it may be assumed that never again will the employer, the unions and the carriers be enmeshed in such a train of events. These circumstances must be reviewed to determine only whether there is legal responsibility for the situation and, if so, whether damages shall be allowed against the carriers jointly or against any one of them alone. It is the essence of the judicial process to perform such a function dispassionately under the law.1
The great difficulty is to bring the facts into any compass of succinct statement. The attorneys in the case accomplished a monumental work, after conferences extending over years, by bringing to the Court for signature a pre-trial order wherein all except a minute part of the evidentiary facts were agreed upon within some thirty-six hundred pages.2 As a result, the evidence in the case was taken in nine trial days. Inasmuch as informed estimates of the length of trial were stated as from eighteen months to two years, the lightening of the judicial load is apparent. When it is appreciated that the result was accomplished by examinations, tabulation and calculation of tariffs, connecting rates, history of shipments, plotting of mercantile and carrier operations, investigations into labor relations and the history of particular incidents, besides innumerable other factors, the magnitude of the task begins to take form. Many years of arduous work by the leading counsel for the carriers and the company in taking depositions, fixing statements of fact which all counsel could agree upon, and then making changes required to make them acceptable to opposing counsel required devotion hardly conceivable. The issues of law and fact which remain to be settled are included in the order, as well as the contentions which each of the respective parties make thereto.
The problem of the Court is to reduce these multitudinous facts and issues into a reasonably short and understandable opinion.
The facts in barest outline follow:
Wards was engaged in the business of general merchandising through mail order houses and retail stores located at various points in the United States. Its establishment at Portland, Oregon, consisted of a mail order house and a retail store in the same building. The Portland plant was dependent upon common carrier service, local drayage, parcel post, water and other transportation service, before and during the period involved, to carry on the regular course of its business at Portland. This action is brought against line-haul rail carriers, Terminal Company, line-haul motor carriers and Railway Express alone.
Each of the line-haul rail carriers operated an interstate line of railroad extending to Portland. Track connections were maintained with other rail carriers there. Terminal Company, a subsidiary of these line-haul railroads, operated an extensive system of terminal yards and tracks connecting with those of the line carriers. It operated on spur tracks serving various industries and establishments, under contracts of twenty-five years' standing with these carriers, which gave Terminal Company the right to perform switching service for most of the area and all such service for Zone 1 North, which included Wards. Before the period here involved, carload shipments and other bulky articles or large lots were transported across the Portland area by rail and were delivered to or received from Wards through that company on one of three spur industry tracks. Each of these crossed a public street before it ended on Wards' property. The line-haul carriers each included in their respective tariffs rates for service on ingoing and outgoing parcels between the carrier's freight depot and the place of business of the shipper or consignee in an area which included Wards' establishment in Portland. This service, commonly called "pick-up and delivery," provided for acceptance of goods at the shipper's plant and transportation across the Portland area to the facilities for line-haul and also provided for transportation of goods addressed to a consignee across the Portland area and delivery at its place of business. Such tariffs provided that the shipper or consignee, at its option, might receive a fixed fee if it performed these services itself.
Each of the motor carrier defendants was a common carrier of freight by motor vehicle, authorized to transport general commodities to and from Portland, operating under either a permit issued by the Public Utilities Commissioner of Oregon or a certificate issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission, or both.
The motor carrier defendants had been carrying a substantial amount of Wards' goods in line-haul before the occurrences in question here. The burden of pick-up and delivery service, as above described, by Railway Express and by each motor carrier defendant was accepted in their respective tariffs.
Wards' loading facilities were limited. Contracts were in force between one Robertson and Wards for transportation of freight between the line-haul carrier depots and the establishment. Each line-haul rail carrier and most motor carriers had arrangements with Robertson for such pick-up and delivery because of positive notification from Wards that this was desired.
Before December 7, 1940, a labor dispute arose between Wards and a large number of employees at its Portland plant. On that day a strike was called by a clerks' union and a warehousemen's union, both of which were composed of employees of this merchandising concern and were affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. There was a lull until negotiations broke down on December 20, 1940. A picket line, however, was maintained throughout the strike period covering all street entrances, facilities for motor vehicles and openings for switch tracks.
The warehousemen's local above mentioned was connected with the general Teamsters Union. The...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
ICC v. Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad Company, Civ. No. B-74-786.
...971 (9th Cir. 1968); Froehling Supply Co. v. United States, 194 F.2d 637 (7th Cir. 1952); See generally Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Northern Pac. Term. Co., 128 F.Supp. 475 (D.Or.1953). 6 Brotherhood of Railway Clerks v. Florida E. Coast Ry., 384 U.S. 238, 245, 86 S.Ct. 1420, 16 L.Ed.2d 501 (1......
-
Burlington Truck Lines, Inc. v. ICC
...community. Other cases to the same effect are Erie Railroad Co. v. Local 1286, D.C., 117 F.Supp. 157; Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Northern Pacific Terminal Co., D.C., 128 F.Supp. 475, 498; Consolidated Freight Lines, Inc. v. Dept. of Public Service, 200 Wash. 659, 94 P.2d 484, 485; Beck & Greg......
-
Quaker City Motor P. Co. v. INTER-STATE MOTOR FR. SYS.
...187, 24 S.Ct. 231, 48 L.Ed. 397; Bruskas v. Railway Express Agency, 10 Cir., 1949, 172 F.2d 915, 918; Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Northern Pacific Terminal Co., D.C.Or.1953, 128 F.Supp. 475; Burgess Bros. Co. v. Stewart, 1920, 112 Misc. 347, 184 N.Y.S. 199, 205-206; and cases cited in those ca......
-
Aladdin Industries, Inc. v. Associated Transport, Inc.
...suit. Toledo, A. A. & N. M. Ry. Co. v. Pennsylvania Co., C.C., 54 F. 730, 742, 19 L.R.A. 387, 393; Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Northern Pacific Terminal Co., D.C.1953, 128 F.Supp. 475-519; Id., D.C., 128 F.Supp. 520-527; Burlington Transportation Co. v. Hathaway, 234 Iowa 135, 12 N.W.2d 167, 1......