Central Truck Lines, Inc. v. Railroad Commission

• Decision Date: 01 March 1935
• Parties: CENTRAL TRUCK LINES, Inc., et al. v. RAILROAD COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

160 So. 26

118 Fla. 555

CENTRAL TRUCK LINES, Inc., et al. v. RAILROAD COMMISSION et al.

Florida Supreme Court

March 1, 1935

En Banc.

Petition by Central Truck Lines, Incorporated, and others for a writ of certiorari to review certain orders of the Railroad Commission granting certain operating privileges to the St Johns River Line Company, the holder of a certificate of public convenience and necessity.

Order of Railroad Commission quashed.

COUNSEL Milam, McIlvaine & Milam, Stanton Walker, J. L Doggett, Robert H. Anderson, and Russell L. Frink, all of Jacksonville, and W. J. Oven, of Tallahassee, for relators.

T. T Turnbull, of Tallahassee, for Railroad Commission.

Edith M. James and Walter F. Rogers, both of Jacksonville, for St. Johns River Line Co.

OPINION

DAVIS Justice.

This is an original proceeding in certiorari to have quashed and set aside certain orders of the Railroad Commission of the state of Florida relating to the operating privileges of St. Johns River Line Company, the holder of a certificate of public convenience and necessity for common carrier transportation service by truck under the provisions of sections 1335(1) to 1335(30), C. G. L. 1934 Supp. chapter 14764, Acts 1931, General Laws of Florida.

The service involved is a combination of water and truck transportation which, by its orders under attack in this proceeding, it is charged that the Railroad Commission has unlawfully permitted to be enlarged by the St. Johns River Line Company to include all South Florida points at depressed water rates, whereas it is contended that the commission had theretofore limited such depressed water rate service for application solely to points within the St. Johns River Valley territory, including Ocala, Leesburg, Mount Dora, Astor, Eustis, Tavares, Sanford, Orlando, De Land, and Daytona Beach. The controversy originated in the purchase by the interested owners of St. Johns River Company of certain stock and franchises, including an outstanding common carrier by truck certificate of convenience and necessity originally granted to and held by McLeod Lines, Inc.; the purpose being a consolidation of two services. The transfer of the McLeod Lines' certificate of convenience and necessity to St. Johns River Company was authorized by the Railroad Commission after due notice tl all interested parties and after a hearing held pursuant to the statute.

The opinions and order of the commission brought up on the writ of certiorari issued in this case show that for many years before the enactment of chapter 13700, Acts 1929 (which act was the first Florida statute giving the Railroad Commission jurisdiction over motor vehicle transportation in the state of Florida), the St. Johns River Company had conducted motor vehicle operations as complementary to an established boat service it had long been operating over the St. Johns river from Jacksonville to Sanford.

Said St. Johns River Company was, as provided by the statute, granted a certificate of public convenience and necessity to continue its existing motor service as a matter of right, and, in the course of time, it extended its operations thereunder to various points in the state of Florida as hereinbefore mentioned; its approved schedule of freight rates for such service being 10 per cent. lower than the prescribed rates and charges required to be assessed and collected by rail carriers or motor vehicle common carriers between the water rate points. The 10 per cent. lower differential in rates for said company was approved by the commission by reason of its performance of part of the haul by water which it could only accomplish by means of the slow operation of freight boats on the river, a factor that necessarily delayed the ultimate delivery of freight shipped by the boat line far beyond the time required to transport and deliver the same shipment when carried entirely by rail by or motor carrier without the intervention of the St. Johns Company's boat service.

The business of St. John Company having grown to such an extent that it felt that expansion of its service was warranted by the prospects of additional traffic likely to make such expansion profitable, said company, with the authorization of the Railroad Commission, proceeded to acquire by purchase the franchise, properties, and certificate of public convenience and necessity that had theretofore been granted to a separate motortruck carrier known as McLeod Lines, Inc. The McLeod Lines, Inc., certificates of public convenience and necessity it thus acquired had been originally granted to said McLeod Lines, Inc., as a matter of right under the statute, and under its provisions said McLeod Lines, Inc., was authorized to operate a local motor carrier common carriage freight service between Orlando and Tampa under existing schedules.

After having thus possessed itself of the McLeod Lines' separate certificate of public convenience and necessity covering the McLeod Lines' local freight service by motortruck from Orlando to Tampa, St. Johns River Company thereupon filed its petition with the Railroad Commission, styled a petition for authority to change the schedule formerly operated by McLeod Lines, Inc., so that it, St. Johns River Company, as the new owner of same, might (so it alleged) give a better service to the patrons in the Tampa territory than it could otherwise perform in that regard by operating the old schedule of McLeod Lines, Inc., as it existed prior to the acquisition of the latter line by said St. Johns River Company.

The Railroad Commission, in dealing with the situation presented to it as arising out of the changed conditions occasioned by the union of the two services under one operating company, first entered two orders.

In the first of said orders (No. 706 dated November 2, 1934) the commission approved the sale and transfer of all rights of the McLeod Lines, Inc., to St. Johns River Company in and to its certificate of public convenience and necessity for its Orlando to Tampa Common carrier truck service, but expressly held, by way of limitation upon the effect of its certificate of approval, that the operative rights of St. Johns River Line and McLeod Lines, Inc., are separate and distinct, and that, although the St. Johns River Company was to become the owner of two (but separate) certificates of convenience and necessity, it should continue to operate the authorized services covered by each as separate services until the further order of the commission.

In the second of its orders (No. 707, dated November 2, 1934) the commission announced its conclusion that any change of schedules looking to a through service and joint rates under a merger of the two certificates of convenience and necessity theretofore previously but separately owned by St. Johns Company and McLeod Lines, Inc., could only be approved by the Railroad Commission upon a statutory showing of public convenience and necessity, and that, no such showing having been made in the case up until that time, the application of McLeod Lines, Inc., to increase its schedules between Orlando and Tampa should be denied, but without prejudice to St. Johns River Company, as the new owner, to make proper application therefor according to law in accordance with the right to do so reserved in the commission's order No. 706.

On December 18, 1934, the Railroad Commission entered its third order by which it granted the application of St. Johns River Company for an additional through schedule between Tampa, Fla., and Sanford, Fla., with authority to interchange with other carriers as applied for in the St. Johns River Company's petition upon which the Railroad Commission had made no other up until that time.

The granting of any such additional privileges as thus allowed by the commission order of December 18, 1934, had been strongly opposed by the other rail and motor carriers serving the Tampa territory, the gist of the objection being that the privilege sought was in substance and reality not a mere alteration of an existing schedule for the promotion of any object recognized by law, but was in its practical operation and effect a projection of a new through service by St. Johns River Company at depressed freight rates into the Tampa trade territory without any authority of law to warrant same.

The Railroad Commission, however, ^[1] overruled all objections and granted the petition for the projected service on the assumption of law and fact that in so doing it was merely discharging a mandatory duty imposed upon it to prescribe a new schedule in lieu of the old one that it found to be unreasonable, and that inasmuch as both St. Johns River Line Company and McLeod Lines, Inc., were holders of certificates of public convenience and necessity that the state had originally granted as a matter of right and later permitted to be united under one operating company, that it was a matter of discretion for the Railroad Commission to permit such change in existing schedules as would speed up the service under the consolidated arrangement. ^[2]

The petitioners in this proceeding constitute the entire organized and regulated rail and motor transportation systems serving peninsular Florida in through carriage, interstate and intrastate, Jacksonville to South Florida points. The specific ground of their complaint against the validity of the Railroad Commission's order of December 18, 1934 (as supported and affirmed by the commission's opinion of January 3, 1935), is that by said order of December 18, 1934, the Railroad Commission has, in violation of the positive terms of chapter 14764, supra, unlawfully granted to the St. Johns River Company, an uncertificated water carrier, what is in contemplation of law a new and original...