CHICAGO, M., ST. P. & PR CO. v. United States

• Decision Date: 13 June 1934
• Docket Number: No. 13726.,13726.
• Citation: 8 F. Supp. 970
• Parties: CHICAGO, M., ST. P. & P. R. CO. v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

8 F. Supp. 970

CHICAGO, M., ST. P. & P. R. CO. v. UNITED STATES.

No. 13726.

District Court, N. D. Illinois, E. D.

June 13, 1934.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

O. W. Dynes, M. L. Bluhm, and C. L. Taylor, all of Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.

Dwight Green, U. S. Dist. Atty., Gallagher, Rinaker, Wilkinson & Hall, Winston, Strawn and Shaw, J. T. Quisenberry, E. A. Smith, and Walter McFarland, all of Chicago, Ill., Daniel W. Knowlton and J. Stanley Payne, both of Washington, D. C., and W. E. Beebe and Essington & McKibbin, all of Chicago, Ill.

Before EVANS, Circuit Judge, and BARNES and HOLLY, District Judges.

PER CURIAM.

On the 14th day of February, A. D. 1934, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company filed its bill of complaint herein praying that a preliminary or interlocutory order or injunction be entered restraining and suspending the enforcement, operation, and execution of an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission by Division 2, dated the 8th day of November, A. D. 1933, Investigation and Suspension Docket No. 3843 canceling certain proposed tariffs on bituminous coal filed with the Commission by the plaintiff and that defendant, United States of America, its officers and agents, be enjoined and restrained from enforcing said order until the final determination of this case and that upon final hearing herein a decree be entered perpetually enjoining, suspending, annulling, and setting aside the enforcement, operation, and execution of said order.

Following the filing of the bill of complaint, the Commission postponed the effective date of said order until April 23, 1934. On March 7, 1934, the Commission reopened said proceedings for oral argument and consideration and on the 8th day of April, the Commission made and filed its report with its findings of fact and conclusions thereon and ordered that the order theretofore entered on the 8th of November, 1933, be affirmed. These subsequent proceedings by the Commission were brought to the attention of the court by a supplement to the original bill herein. Answers have been filed by the original defendant and interveners, briefs and argument submitted, and the cause submitted to the court for final determination.

On the 22d day of November, 1933, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company, plaintiff, filed tariffs with the Interstate Commerce Commission to become effective on the 23d day of December, 1932, which fixed rates of $1.70 per ton on bituminous coal from mines on its railroad in Clinton District, located in Vermillion and Vigo counties in the state of Indiana to various destinations located on its railroad in Northern Illinois, including Rockford and Freeport, and also fixed rates of $1.75 per ton on bituminous coal from mines on its railroad in the Linton district, located in Vigo, Sullivan, Greene, and Clay counties in the state of Indiana, to each of said destinations in Northern Illinois, said rates of $1.70 and $1.75 per ton, respectively, constituting reductions of 10 cents per ton under the rates theretofore in effect from said Clinton and Linton districts in Indiana to eight of the said destinations, reductions of 4 cents per ton to five of the destinations, and 17 cents per ton to the remaining destinations, including Rockford and Freeport; that prior to the effective date of said tariffs certain associations representing coal producing interests in Illinois and certain railroads serving coal mines in Illinois and the Illinois Commerce Commission filed protests with the Commission against the said tariffs and asked the Commission to institute a proceeding inquiring into the lawfulness of the proposed rates and tariffs; that on the 22d day of December, 1932, the Commission entered its order suspending the operation of said proposed tariffs until the 23d day of July, 1933, and has since entered an order canceling such tariffs.

It appears from the evidence taken before the Commission that for many years prior to the 20th day of August, 1930, plaintiff was engaged in the transportation of bituminous coal from the mines in said mining districts in Indiana to destinations in Illinois, including Rockford and Freeport, and that the rates applicable for movement of said coal from said Clinton district in Indiana to Rockford, Ill., from the 1st day of April, 1913, to the 20th day of August, 1930, were the same as rates from the so-called Springfield group in Illinois to Rockford, Ill. It also appears that in a certain proceeding pending before the Illinois Commerce Commission said commission by an order which became effective on the 20th day of August, 1930, reduced the rates on bituminous coal moving intrastate from the origin mines in Illinois to Rockford and Freeport, 17 cents per ton. Subsequently in a proceeding before the Interstate Commission under section 13 of the Interstate Commerce Act (49 USCA § 13) in which it was urged that the rates required by the Illinois Commerce Commission to be assessed as maxima for the transportation of coal from mines in that said district to Rockford and Freeport, Ill., were unlawful and caused undue and unreasonable advantage, preference, and prejudice as between persons or localities in intrastate commerce on the one hand, and interstate commerce on the other hand, and as unjustly and unreasonably discriminating against interstate commerce, a hearing was had before the Interstate Commerce Commission and said Commission (Intrastate Rates on Bituminous Coal Between Points in Illinois, 182 I. C. C. 537) refused to require the said Illinois intrastate rates to be increased. It found in that case that the rates fixed by the Illinois Commerce Commission for the hauling of bituminous coal to Rockford and Freeport should not be found unlawful under section 13 of the act until and unless the interstate rates from the Indiana groups (including the Brazil-Clinton and Linton-Sullivan groups) to the same destinations were increased to a level more nearly commensurate with the general level of the rates on coal in this territory. Page 564 of 182 I. C. C.

In the hearing under consideration in this case on the proposed rates of the Milwaukee, while it was admitted that its present rates are below a reasonable maximum, there was no evidence presented that such rates were below a reasonable minimum nor that they were noncompensatory. The Commission based its final order solely upon findings that "the proposed rates, if permitted, to become effective would lead to a...