Florida East Coast Ry. Co. v. King, 6396-RR

• Citation: 158 So.2d 523
• Decision Date: 11 December 1963
• Docket Number: No. 31892,No. 6396-RR,6396-RR,31892
• Parties: FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Wilbur C. KING et al., Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, Respondents, and Florida Crushed Stone Company et al., Complainants in, before the Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, Intervening Respondents.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Florida

Page 523

158 So.2d 523

FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Wilbur C. KING et al., Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, Respondents, and Florida Crushed Stone Company et al., Complainants in No. 6396-RR, before the Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, Intervening Respondents.

No. 31892.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Dec. 11, 1963.

J. Lewis Hall, L. Grant Peeples and Hall, Hartwell, Peeples & Hall, Tallahassee, for petitioner.

Lewis W. Petteway and James L. Graham, Jr., Tallahassee, for respondent.

D. Fred McMullen, of Ausley, Ausley, McMullen, O'Bryan, Michaels & McGehee, Tallahassee, for Seaboard Air Line R. Co. and Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.; Mallory E. Horne, Tallahassee, and F. C. Hillyer, Jacksonville, for Florida Crushed Stone Co., intervening respondents.

THORNAL, Justice.

By petition for a writ of certiorari we are requested to review an order of the Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, which prescribed a uniform statewide rate for multiple shipments of crushed stone in lots of ten or more cars.

We must determine whether the record before the Commission supports the order under review.

The intervening respondents here, Florida Crushed Stone Co., Florida Limerock Institute and Shands and Baker Inc., were complainants before the Commission. The complainants were engaged in the production and distribution of limerock, limestone and other road building aggregates which move by rail common carrier in carloads throughout Florida. The complainants are producers of these commodities in the so-called Ocala Limerock formation area. Their production points are located generally in north and south central Florida. These points are served primarily by the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroad companies. These railroads will be referred to as A.C.L. and S.A.L. There are other producers of the same or similar commodities located in the Miami area on the lower east coast of Florida. These producers are served by the Florida East Coast Railway, referred to hereafter as F.E.C. The line of this railroad runs generally along the east coast from Miami north of Jacksonville. The lower east coast producers near Miami are also served by the S.A.L. from point of production to West Palm Beach and then, if desired, over the line of the S.A.L. through central Florida and north to Jacksonville. In April 1960, the F.E.C. voluntarily published a rate differential for shipments of crushed stone in lots of ten cars or more from one point of origin to a single destination under one bill of lading to various points along the F.E.C. route. These discounts were allowed for a single line haul. They provided a differential of 15cents below the basic scale rate from Miami to West Palm Beach. Beyond the latter point, the discount differential was graduated for various blocked-out areas along the F.E.C. until it reached a maximum of 34cents per ton on a haul from Miami to Jacksonville. Subsequently, the A.C.L. and S.A.L. placed into effect a fixed rate differential for multiple car shipments between certain production points on their lines and Jacksonville. There was no graduated differential for intervening points. All of these various differentials were for single line haul.

By the complaint filed with the Commission the complainants asserted that the graduated differential allowed by F.E.C. to lower east coast producers created a discrimination in their favor when serving various points on the middle east coast along the line of the F.E.C. The point made was that in the absence of a differential allowable on a joint line haul between A.C.L. and S.A.L. and points on the F.E.C., the complainant shippers were placed at a competitive disadvantage with the producers on the lower east coast who had the benefit of the F.E.C. differential to points along the east coast served only by the F.E.C. The respondent granted the relief sought. By its order No. 3296, it required all of the Florida railroads to add to their 'sand, gravel, and crushed stone tariff,' a provision as follows:

'Multiple-car shipments: When shipments are made in lots of ten or more cars offered at one time from one consignor at one point of origin, billed to one consignee at one destination on one bill of lading, rates shall be 15 cents per ton less than those applicable in this tariff for single-car shipments.'

By its order the Commission found that the costs of transporting multiple car shipments are less than single car shipments of like commodities; that the difference in costs is due mainly to the necessity for fewer shifting operations at origin and destination terminals; that the differential between multiple car rates and single car rates should be a uniform amount in cents per ton and not graduated according to mileage blocks; that the graduated multiple car rates from points along the lower east coast to other points along the F.E.C. and the multiple car rates from a few producing points on the A.C.L. and S.A.L. to Jacksonville without comparable rates from other producing points to all other destinations in the state, result in unjust discriminations in favor of...