Central Trust Co. of Illinois v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.
| Decision Date | 09 April 1912 |
| Parties | CENTRAL TRUST COMPANY OF ILLINOIS, Trustee in Bankruptcy for the AGAR PACKING COMPANY, Bankrupt, Appellant, v. THE CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY, Appellee |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Polk District Court.--HON. JAMES A. HOWE, Judge.
ACTION originally brought by the Agar Packing Company to recover treble damages from defendant for unlawful discrimination in freight rates and other violations of our statutes with reference to the duties of common carriers. The Packing Company having been adjudged a bankrupt, its trustee was substituted as plaintiff, and it is now prosecuting the action. Upon issues duly joined the case came on for trial to a jury, and at the conclusion of plaintiff's testimony the trial court, on motion of defendant, directed a verdict for defendant, and plaintiff appeals.--Reversed in part.--Affirmed in part.
Affirmed in part, and reversed in part.
Guernsey Parker & Miller, for appellant.
J. L Parrish, Robert J. Bannister and J. H. Johnson, for appellee.
OPINION
To avoid confusion, we shall call the plaintiff and appellant the "Packing Company," and the defendant and appellees, the "Railway Company." The action is brought to recover treble damages from the railway company by reason of its demanding, charging, collecting, and receiving from the packing company, in the form of charges for freight in the transportation of hogs, a greater compensation than it required from other persons for like and contemporaneous service, to the prejudice and disadvantage of the packing company. It claimed:
That during the period between the 1st day of May, 1901, and the 7th day of July, 1906, the plaintiff purchased seven thousand seven hundred and thirty-six cars of hogs and shipped the same over the railroad of the defendant to the city of Des Moines, to be converted into manufactured products at its packing house in said city. That the station from which each of said shipments was made, the weight of each such shipment and the freight rate per hundred pounds in cents exacted by the defendant on account of each such shipment, and the amount paid as freight by the plaintiff on each of the shipments in question are all shown in 'Exhibit A,' attached to the petition and made a part thereof, and that the total amount of freight so paid during said period was the sum of $ 116,943. That during the period from May 1, A. D. 1901, until about March 15, A. D. 1903, one Frank Dodson, and from on or about March 15, 1903, until on or about July 20, A. D. 1905, a firm known as Compton & McRae were engaged in buying hogs in the territory in which the stations named in said Exhibit A are located, in competition with the plaintiff, for shipment to Valley Junction, a station on the line of defendant's railroad five miles west of the city of Des Moines, and that said Frank Dodson and Compton & McRae were so purchasing hogs during the period aforesaid, in competition with the plaintiff, at the stations in question, in the same markets in which the plaintiff was making its purchases and at the same times that the plaintiff was making its purchases in said markets. That all shipments made of hogs purchased by plaintiff from points on the line of the defendant's railroad north and west of Des Moines, to Des Moines, were transported through Valley Junction over the same route over which shipments of hogs from the stations last referred to, to Valley Junction, for Frank Dodson and Compton & McRae, were carried; the latter shipments terminating at Valley Junction, while the former continued to Des Moines. That the said hogs so purchased by said Frank Dodson and Compton & McRae and shipped to Valley Junction were resold by them to purchasers thereof doing business at places other than the city of Des Moines. That after said stock had been resold said Frank Dodson and Compton & McRae were accustomed to reship the same to the purchasers thereof, over the defendant's railroad and its connections, where the point of destination was beyond the lines of defendant's railroad. That the defendant entered into and maintained, during the said period aforesaid, a secret agreement whereby, by the use of various devices, it remitted and rebated to them the entire freight on the hogs so purchased by said Frank Dodson and Compton & McRae, and shipped by them to said Valley Junction, and at the same time and during the same period the defendant required the plaintiff to pay the full tariff rates on its shipments made at the same times, from the same stations, and over the same lines.
That on or about the 20th day of July, A. D. 1905, the said Compton & McRae ceased doing business at said Valley Junction, and thereupon one J. S. Compton, as agent for John P. Squires & Company, which, as plaintiff is advised and believes, is one of the subsidiary corporations of Swift & Co., engaged in the business of buying hogs at the said Valley Junction, and continued so to do until on or about the 7th day of July, A. D. 1906. That during the said period the said Compton was engaged in buying hogs in the territory in which the stations named in said Exhibit A are located, in competition with the plaintiff, for shipment to said Valley Junction, and that the said J. S. Compton during the period when he was engaged in the said business at said Valley Junction was so purchasing hogs in competition with the plaintiff at the stations in question, in the same markets in which the plaintiff was making its purchases, and at the times that the plaintiff was making such purchases in said markets. That all shipments made of hogs purchased by the plaintiff from points on the line of defendant's railroad north or west of Des Moines, to Des Moines, were transported through Valley Junction over the same route over which shipments of hogs from the stations last referred to, to Valley Junction, purchased by said J. S. Compton, agent as aforesaid, were carried; the latter shipments terminating at Valley Junction. That the said hogs so purchased by the said J. S. Compton, agent, and shipped to Valley Junction, were some of them shipped by him to the said J. P. Squires & Co. in Boston, Mass., and were some of them shipped by him to other places for sale, or resold by him and shipped by him to the purchasers thereof from said Valley Junction; such shipment in each instance being made over the lines of railroad of the defendant and the lines of its connections, where the destination of the shipment in question was beyond the lines of the defendant. That the defendant entered into and maintained, during the period aforesaid, a secret agreement whereby, by the use of various devices, it remitted and rebated the entire freight on hogs so purchased by the said J. S. Compton, as such agent, and shipped by him to said Valley Junction; and at the same time and during the same period the defendant required the plaintiff to pay the full tariff rates on all of its shipments made during the said period, from the same stations and over the same lines, to the city of Des Moines. That the secret rates and rebates given by the defendant company to the said Frank Dodson, Compton & McRae, and to the said J. S. Compton, agent as aforesaid, were concealed by the defendant from the plaintiff during the entire period, and plaintiff did not learn of such agreement until some time in the fall of the year A. D. 1905, and that during the period that said secret rates and rebates were so given the defendant at all times asserted to the plaintiff and pretended and maintained that it was not giving any rebates to the said Frank Dodson or to the said Compton & McRae or to the said J. S. Compton, agent, or to any other shipper shipping in competition with the plaintiff and asserted and pretended and maintained that it was not in any manner making any concessions from its tariff rates to the said Frank Dodson or to the said Compton & McRae or to said J. S. Compton, agent, or to any other shipper shipping in competition with the plaintiff.
That the defendant never published any tariff establishing the rates given by the defendant to the said Frank Dodson and to the said Compton & McRae and to the said J. S. Compton agent, and, as the plaintiff is advised and believes, never gave the said rates to any person other than the said Frank Dodson, Compton & McRae, and J. S. Compton, agent. That the privileges and rebates granted by the defendant to the said competitors of plaintiff constituted and were a violation of the provisions of sections 2124 and 2125 of the Code of Iowa and by giving the same the defendant demanded, collected, and received from the plaintiff a greater compensation for the services rendered by the defendant to the plaintiff in the transportation of property than it charged, demanded, collected, and received from the said Frank Dodson, Compton & McRae, and J. S. Compton, agent, hereinbefore referred to, for a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic, and thereby unjustly discriminated against this plaintiff. That the acts and doings of the defendant hereinbefore set out constitute and were a giving of preference and advantage to the said Frank Dodson, Compton & McRae, and the J. S. Compton, agent, and subjected the plaintiff to prejudice and disadvantage, in violation of the statutes of the state of Iowa. That the acts and doings of the defendant in the premises constituted and were a discrimination against the city of Des Moines, where the industry of the plaintiff is and was at the times herein mentioned, located, and subjected the said city to prejudice and disadvantage, in that it discriminated against and embarrassed the plaintiff...
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