Chicago & A.R. Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission

• Citation: 173 F. 930
• Decision Date: 29 June 1908
• Docket Number: 29,116.,29,115
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
• Parties: CHICAGO & A.R. CO. v. INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION. ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO. v. SAME.

173 F. 930

CHICAGO & A.R. CO. v. INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION.

ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO. v. SAME.

Nos. 29,115, 29,116.

United States Circuit Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

June 29, 1908

Winston Payne, Strawn & Shaw, for complainant Chicago & A. R. Co.

J. M Dickinson and W. S. Kenyon, for complainant Illinois Cent. R. Co.

L. A Shaver, for defendant.

These causes are substantially alike and were submitted together for final decree upon bill and answer.

Complainants are interstate common carriers. Along the line of each in Illinois are mining districts within which the operators are dependent upon one or the other of these carriers to get to market their product in excess of local consumption.

Following are the classes of cars involved: (1) Coal cars owned by complainants and used by them in hauling coal for shippers generally; (2) private cars owned by coal mining companies or by their customers and used in conveying coal from the mines to the customers; (3) fuel cars owned by foreign railroads and used on complainants' roads in hauling coal from the mines to the delivery points for the foreign railroads; (4) fuel cars owned by complainants and used by them in carrying coal from the mines to their own coal chutes. Complainants purchase no coal except for their own use.

The greater part of the year there is more equipment at hand than there is coal to haul. But during the winter months a car shortage generally occurs.

Prior to April 13, 1908, complainants were accustomed to deal with a shortage of coal cars in this way: They rated each mine according to the relation its average producing capacity bore to the average producing capacity of the district in which it was located, and they distributed to each mine its pro rata share of the available equipment of class 1, above enumerated; but they did not count or in any way take into consideration the available equipment of classes 2, 3, and 4.

On April 13, 1908, the Interstate Commerce Commission, in a proceeding duly pending, made the following order:

'It is ordered that the defendants, the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company of Illinois, and the Illinois Central Railroad Company, be, and they severally are hereby notified and required, on or before the 1st day of July, 1908, to cease and desist, and during a period of at least two years thereafter to abstain, from maintaining and enforcing the present practice or regulation of failing or refusing to make any account of foreign railway fuel cars, or of leased or so-called private cars, or of their own fuel cars in the distribution of coal cars for, or affecting, interstate shipments of coal among the various coal operators along their lines.

'It is further ordered that said defendants be, and they severally are hereby, notified and required to establish, on or before said 1st day of July, 1908, and during a period of at least two years thereafter to maintain and enforce, a practice or regulation taking into consideration system cars, foreign railway fuel cars, leased or so-called private cars, and cars used for their own several fuel supplies in determining the distribution of coal cars among the various coal operators along their lines for, or as affecting, interstate shipments of coal; and if the number of foreign railway fuel cars, or leased or so-called private cars, or carrier's own fuel cars, or any or all of the, is less than the percentage or proportion of the mine to which such cars are consigned, leased, or assigned, then such mine must be given all the foreign railway fuel cars consigned to it, and all the cars owned or leased by it, and all the carrier's own fuel cars assigned to it, and a sufficient number of system cars to make up its proportion; but if the number of foreign railway fuel cars consigned to it, and the leased or so-called private cars delivered to it, and the carrier's own fuel cars assigned to it, is greater than its proportion, all such cars so consigned or assigned to it, or leased by it, must be delivered to it, and the available system cars must be divided among the other said coal operators on the basis of a changed percentage, because of the elimination of the mine or mines to which the foreign railway fuel cars, carrier's own fuel cars, or so-called private cars have been assigned; that is, the lessee of certain of said so-called private cars, and the consignee of foreign railway fuel cars, and the one to whom carrier's own fuel cars are assigned, must be given full and exclusive use of them, but must not be given, in addition thereto, a division of the system cars, except when its supply of the so-called private cars and of foreign railway fuel cars and of carrier's own fuel cars is less than its proportion of the total of available cars, including system cars,

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