Ferry Co v. United States, CLAIBORNE-ANNAPOLIS

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: McREYNOLDS
• Citation: 76 L.Ed. 808,285 U.S. 382,52 S.Ct. 440
• Parties: FERRY CO. v. UNITED STATES et al
• Docket Number: No. 454,CLAIBORNE-ANNAPOLIS,454
• Decision Date: 11 April 1932

285 U.S. 382 52 S.Ct. 440 76 L.Ed. 808 CLAIBORNE-ANNAPOLIS FERRY CO.

v.

UNITED STATES et al.

No. 454. Argued Feb. 18, 1932. Decided April 11, 1932.

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Messrs. Philip B. Perlman, of Baltimore, Md., and Jesse I. Miller and George E. Edelin, both of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 383-385 intentionally omitted]

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The Attorney General and Mr. John Lord O'Brian, Asst. to Atty. Gen., for appellees the United States and the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Mr. Jonathan C. Gibson, of Washington, D. C., for appellee Chesapeake Beach Ry. Co.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Chesapeake Beach Railway Company, incorporated under Maryland laws and carrier by railroad subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, operates a line twenty-nine miles long which commences in the District of Columbia and passes southeastward through Maryland to Chesapeake Beach, twenty miles south of Annapolis. Connec-

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tions are made and freight interchanged with the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad. The charter empowers it to build and operate a railroad, etc., to construct docks, piers, bridges, and retaining walls along the bay shore and to 'own and employ steamboats or other vessels to connect the said railroads with other points by water communication.'

December 26, 1929, proceeding under section 1, pars. 18, 19, 20, Interstate Commerce Act, as amended by Transportation Act 1920, § 402, 49 U. S. C. § 1(18-20) (49 USCA § 1(18-20), the railway company petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to grant a certificate declaring 'that the present or future public convenience and necessity require or will require the construction, or operation, or construction and operation,' of the proposed addition or extension to its line. It stated the purpose 'to establish and operate, either directly or through a wholly owned subsidiary, a ferry for the transportation of passengers and property between the terminus of its said line at Chesapeake Beach, across Chesapeake Bay (16 miles), and a point on Trippe's Bay in Dorchester County, Maryland.' And it averred that 'the present and future public convenience and necessity require the establishment of the proposed ferry so as to afford a direct route by rail and water between the City of Washington and surrounding territory and the eastern shore of Maryland and also to provide a direct route for the transportation of automobiles and other vehicies between such points.'

Notice was given to the Governor of Maryland; publication followed; all as required by the statute.

The Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry Company (appellant), Maryland corporation, which operates a ferry from Annapolis across Chesapeake Bay, intervened and opposed the railway's application 'for the reason that the ferry service proposed to be operated by the applicant from

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Chesapeake Beach, Calvert County, Maryland, to a point on Trippe's Bay in Dorchester County, Maryland, will interfere with and hamper the efforts of your petitioner to give adequate service on its present route'-twenty miles further north. It denied that present and future public convenience and necessity requires establishment of the proposed ferry. No other party asked to intervene of offered objection to the requested certificate.

The commission took evidence, heard the parties, made a report, and, August 1, 1930, certified 'that the present and future public convenience and necessity require the establishment by the Chesapeake Beach Railway Company of ferry service across Chesapeake Bay, in Calvert and Dorchester Counties, Md., as set forth in the application and said report.'

The ferry company asked modification of the report, order, and certificate 'in such manner as the Commission may deem best to remove any doubt that the permission granted the applicant is only for an extension of railroad and not for the establishment of a general ferry service.' Among other things, the petition therefor stated: 'Your petitioner does not question the authority or the wisdom of this Honorable Commission in granting to the applicant a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity if the Commission construes the application of the Chesapeake Beach Railway Company in this case to be an application for a certificate authorizing an extension of its railroad. That, although the jurisdiction of this Honorable Commission in this case is limited in law to the grant of authority to the applicant to extend its line of railroad across the Chesapeake Bay by means of vessels, the Report, Order and Certificate filed in this case on their face would seem to indicate that the Commission has attempted to grant to the applicant authority to operate a general ferry across the Chesapeake Bay between the points known as Chesa-

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peake Beach, Calvert County, Maryland, and Trippe's Bay, Dorchester County, Maryland. While your petitioner does not suggest that this Honorable Commission has granted or attempted to grant to the applicant such a certificate, which could be granted only by...