Boyd v. Arkansas Motor Freight Lines, 5-180

• Decision Date: 09 November 1953
• Docket Number: No. 5-180,5-180
• Citation: 262 S.W.2d 282,222 Ark. 599
• Parties: , 3 P.U.R.3d 482 BOYD v. ARKANSAS MOTOR FREIGHT LINES, Inc., et al.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 282

262 S.W.2d 282

222 Ark. 599, 3 P.U.R.3d 482

BOYD v. ARKANSAS MOTOR FREIGHT LINES, Inc., et al.

No. 5-180.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Nov. 9, 1953.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 14, 1953.

Chas. C. Wine, Texarkana, for appellant.

Ned Stewart, Texarkana, Stanley P. Clay, Joplin, Mo., Leroy Hallman, Dallas, Tex., William J. Smith, Little Rock, and Thomas Harper, Ft. Smith, for appellees.

GRIFFIN SMITH, Chief Justice.

Public Service Commission issued its certificate of convenience and necessity to S. C. Boyd, enlarging his intrastate rights. Circuit court reversed and we affirm its judgment.

For eleven months prior to the commission's action Boyd had operated intrastate as Texarkana-Nashville Motor Freight Lines, carrying general commodities from Texarkana to Hope, and from Texarkana to Nashville and Lockesburg. Certain government consignments are the objects of competitive efforts. Explosives, or the ingredients or materials requisite to the manufactured product, move from DeSoto, Kansas, to the Shumaker Ordnance Plant near Camden, Ark. A witness supporting Boyd's application testified that recent shipments involved eleven million pounds, but the routing was through Texas and Louisiana, with mileage substantially in excess of what the haul would be if DeQueen should be used as a gateway.

The only witness who verified Boyd's contentions touching service necessities was M. J. Sears, president of Luper Transportation Company of Tulsa. He estimated that with routing of the supplies through DeQueen a saving of $135 for a round trip would be effectuated. But Sears' idea was to interchange business with Boyd. He was permitted to testify that protesting carriers would not sustain loss if the certificate should be issued--this for the reason that the government's policy was to apportion or equalize transportation patronage among the qualified truck lines. The witness was morally certain of this result because his company kept a representative in Washington whose business it was to relay information. This agent had formerly been 'connected with the defense department'.

Boyd petitioned for the right to utilize Highway No. 71 from Lockesburg to DeQueen where the interchange with Sears' company (Luper Transportation) would take place. From DeQueen the routes would be 71 to Lockesburg, 24 to Nashville, 4 to Hope, 67 to Prescott, 24 to Camden and 79 to the ordnance plant. A highway map shows this to be approximately 120 miles, not including the distance from Camden to the government plant.

DeSota, Kansas, is about 45 miles southwest of Kansas City. It is not shown that Sears' company has authority to transport explosives between those points. But the witness, Sears, insisted that if intrastate rights should be extended to Boyd, Luper Transportation, by connection with Boyd at DeQueen, would have a more direct route to Camden, thus eliminating three or four other operators who presently participate in the business. He assumed that Arkansas Motors came down its certificated route--a relatively direct course south from Kansas City over 71 into this state, then to Camden.

The evidence clearly shows that Luper's interest in the intrastate certificate was equal to if not greater than Boyd's. Sears intended to lease his company's trailers to Boyd when interstate shipments reached DeQueen. There would be no exchange of facilities--a practice common among carriers. To use Sears' own language in regard to Boyd, 'I expect him to make a little money out of it'.

There was no testimony that shipments of explosives originated at DeQueen or at any point along the routes mentioned...