Frederick Ellis v. Interstate Commerce Commission

Decision Date10 May 1915
Docket NumberNo. 712,712
Citation237 U.S. 434,35 S.Ct. 645,59 L.Ed. 1036
PartiesFREDERICK W. ELLIS, Appt., v. INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Messrs. Frank B. Kellogg, Cordenio A. Severance, Robert E. Olds, Alfred R. Urion, and Charles J. Faulkner, Jr., for appellant.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 435-436 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Edward W. Hines and Joseph W. Folk for appellee.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 437-442 intentionally omitted] Assistant Attorney General Underwood for the United States.

Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from an order of the district court, made upon a petition of the appellee, the Interstate Commerce Commission, filed under the act to regulate commerce, § 12. The order directs the appellant to answer certain questions propounded and to produce certain documents called for by the appellee. There is no doubt that this appeal lies. The order is not like one made to a witness before an examiner or on the stand in the course of a proceeding inter alios in court. Alexander v. United States, 201 U. S. 117, 50 L. ed. 686, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 356. It is the end of a proceeding begun against the witness. Interstate Commerce Commission v. Baird, 194 U. S. 25, 48 L. ed. 860, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 563. Therefore we pass at once to the statement of the case.

The Interstate Commerce Commission, reciting that it appeared from complaint on file that the allowances paid for the use of private cars, the practices governing the handling and icing of such cars, and the minimum carload weights applicable to the commodities shipped therein, on the part of carriers subject to the act to regulate commerce, violated that act in various ways, ordered that a proceeding of investigation be instituted by the Commission of its own motion to determine whether such allowances, practices, or minimum carload weights were in violation of the act as alleged, with a view to issuing such orders as might be necessary to correct discriminations and make applicable reasonable weights. It ordered that carriers by railroad subject to the act be made parties respondent, and, later, that all persons and corporations owning or operating cars and other vehicles and instrumentalities and facilities of shipment or carriage of property in interstate commerce be made parties also. In the proceedings thus ordered the questions propounded were put to the appellant, the vice president and general manager of the Armour Car Lines.

The Armour Car Lines is a New Jersey corporation that owns, manufactures, and maintains refrigerator, tank, and box cars, and that lets these cars to the railroad or to shippers. It also owns and operates icing stations on various lines of railway, and from these ices and re-ices the cars, when set by the railroads at the icing plant, by filling the bunkers from the top, after which the railroads remove the cars. The railroads pay a certain rate per ton, and charge the shipper according to tariffs on file with the Commission. Finally it furnishes cars for the shipment of perishable fruits, etc., and keeps them iced, the railroads paying for the same. It has no control over motive power or over the movement of the cars that it furnishes as above, and in short, notwithstanding some argument to the contrary, is not a common carrier subject to the act. It is true that the definition of transportation in § 1 of the act includes such instrumentalities as the Armour Car Lines lets to the railroads. But the definition is a preliminary to a requirement that the carriers shall furnish them upon reasonable request not that the owners and builders shall be regarded as carriers, contrary to the truth. The control of the Commission over private cars, etc., is to be effected by its control over the railroads that are subject to the act. The railroads may be made answerable for what they hire from the Armour Car Lines, if they would not be otherwise, but that does not affect the nature of the Armour Car Lines itself. The petition of the Interstate Commerce Commission to compel an answer to its questions hardly goes on any such ground.

The ground of the petition is that it became the duty of the Commission to ascertain whether Armour & Company, an Illinois corporation shipping packing-house products in commerce among the states, was controlling Armour Car Lines and using it as a device to obtain concessions from the published rates of transportation, and whether Armour Car Lines was receiving for its refrigerating services unreasonable compensation that inured to the benefit of Armour & Company, all in violation of §§ 1, 2, 3, and 15 of the act.

If the price paid to the Armour Car Lines was made the cover for a rebate to Armour & Company or if better cars were given to Armour & Company than to others, or if, in short, the act was violated, the railroads are responsible on proof of the fact. But the only relation that is subject to the Commission is that between the railroads and the shippers. It does not matter to the responsibility of the roads...

To continue reading

Request your trial
105 cases
  • Perkins v. Endicott Johnson Corporation, 218.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)
    • May 6, 1942
    ...administrative proceeding; there, seemingly, an interlocutory appeal may lie before commitment for contempt. Ellis v. I. C. C., 1915, 237 U.S. 434, 445, 35 S.Ct. 645, 59 L.Ed. 1036; Harriman v. I. C. C., 1908, 211 U.S. 407, 29 S.Ct. 115, 53 L.Ed. 253.12 But as the appellants in these cases ......
  • Texas Ry Co v. United States 11 8212 13, 1932
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • May 29, 1933
    ...288, 55 L.Ed. 283; Interstate Commerce Comm. v. Diffenbaugh, 222 U.S. 42, 46, 32 S.Ct. 22, 56 L.Ed. 83; Ellis v. Interstate Commerce Comm., 237 U.S. 434, 445, 35 S.Ct. 645, 59 L.Ed. 1036; United States v. Illinois Central R.R., 263 U.S. 515, 524, 44 S.Ct. 189, 68 L.Ed. 417; At- chison, T. &......
  • Penfield Co of California v. Securities Exchange Commission
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • March 31, 1947
    ...38 L.Ed. 1047; Harriman v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 211 U.S. 407, 29 S.Ct. 115, 53 L.Ed. 253; Ellis v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 237 U.S. 434, 35 S.Ct. 645, 59 L.Ed. 1036; Smith v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 245 U.S. 33, 38 S.Ct. 30, 62 L.Ed. 135; Federal Trade Commission ......
  • F. T. C. v. Texaco, Inc.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)
    • June 13, 1977
    ...district court granting or denying an agency's petition for enforcement of a subpoena is final and appealable. Ellis v. ICC, 237 U.S. 434, 442, 35 S.Ct. 645, 59 L.Ed. 1036 (1915); Int'l Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. EEOC, 398 F.2d 248, 251 (3d Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1021,......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT