Interstate Commerce Commission v. Lehigh Val R. Co.

• Decision Date: 11 May 1896
• Citation: 74 F. 784
• Parties: INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION v. LEHIGH VALLEY R. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

74 F. 784

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION v. LEHIGH VALLEY R. CO.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

May 11, 1896

Simon Sterne and Robert Ralston, for complainants.

John G Johnson, for defendant.

ACHESON Circuit Judge.

On October 19, 1888, Coxe Bros. & Co., of Drifton, Luzerne county, Pa., miners and shippers of anthracite coal, filed a complaint with the interstate commerce commission against the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, charging that company with specified violations of the provisions of the act of congress approved February 4, 1887, entitled 'An act to regulate commerce.' The proceeding before the commission resulted in a finding by the commission that the rates and charges established by the defendant, and then in force over and upon its lines of railroad, for the transportation of anthracite coal from the locality known as the 'Lehigh Anthracite Coal Region,' in the state of Pennsylvania, to Perth Amboy, in the state of New Jersey, were unreasonable and unjust; and on March 13, 1891, the commission made and issued an order in the following terms:

'It is ordered and adjudged that the defendant, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, do, from and after the 20th day of April A.D. 1891, wholly cease and desist from charging any greater compensation for the transportation of divers known kinds and sizes of anthracite coal, delivered to it by complainants and other shippers for carriage from shipping points on its lines of railroad at or near the coal mines and collieries of complainants in the mining locality known as the 'Lehigh Anthracite Coal Region,' to wit, from Drifton, Eckley Gowen, Tomhicken, Deringer, and Stockton, all in the county of Luzerne and state of Pennsylvania, and Beaver Meadow, in the county of Carbon and state of Pennsylvania, to Perth Amboy, in the state of New Jersey, than the following rates of charge per ton of two thousand, two hundred and forty (2,240) pounds of each or either of said divers known kinds and sizes of anthracite coal, that is to say: One dollar and fifty cents ($1.50) per said ton on the sizes and kinds known as larger or prepared sizes, and also and more specifically known as lump, steamboat, broken, egg, stove, and nut coal one dollar and twenty-five cents ($1.25) per said ton on the size or kind known as pea coal; one dollar and five cents ($1.05) per said ton on the size or kind known as buckwheat coal; one dollar and five cents ($1.05) per said ton on the size or kind of coal known as culm.'

The railroad company having refused and failed to obey this order, the interstate commerce commission applied by petition to this court, sitting in equity, praying for a writ of injunction, or other proper process, to restrain the railroad company from the further violation of such order, and for the enforcement thereof. To this petition the railroad company filed its answer. The answer, among other matters of defense, denies that the rates established and charged by the defendant for the transportation of anthracite coal as aforesaid were unreasonable and unjust; alleges that the rates by it then charged, and since continued by it to be charged, were reasonable and just; and avers that all the findings of fact by the commission which led it to the conclusion that the rates charged by the defendant were unreasonable and unjust were erroneous and against the evidence, and that the reasoning upon which the commission rested its conclusion was fallacious and unsound. The case is now before us upon the pleadings, the report of the commission, the evidence taken by the commission, and additional proofs taken by an examiner appointed by the court. In considering the question of the reasonableness of rates, we will not go beyond one particular matter of fact. The commission found, and in its report states, that the operating cost of carrying a ton of anthracite coal from the Lehigh anthracite regions to Perth Amboy was 85 cents. This conclusion the commission deduced from the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company's annual report for the year ending November 30, 1887. In the report of the commission are the following statements and tables:

'The business; receipts, with sources from which derived; expenses, and on what account incurred,-- for year ending No. 30, 1887, as appears from the annual report of said railroad company, were:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carried One Mile. Gross Rec'ts. Expenses. Net Receipts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Coal, tons ........ 513,889,171 02 $6,165,411 29 $3,431,609 83 $2,733,801 46 Other freight, tons ............ 253,564,921 56 2,430,761 13 1,902,595 93 528,165 20 Passenger, express and mail ......... 44,512,264 10 1,122,883 65 808,190 49 314,693 16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals .......................... $9,719,056 07 $6,142,396 25 $3,576,659 82 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

' * * * From the above reported facts, it appears that the ton-mile receipts, expenses, and profits, or net receipts, for the year 1887, were on:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gross Receipts per Expenses per Ton Net Receipts per Ton per Ton per Mile, Mills. Mile, Mills. per Mile, Mills. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Coal .................... 12.00 6.67 5.32 General freight ......... 9.58 7.50 2.08 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'The operating expenses for the transportation of all freight are 63 per cent. of the reported operating income, while the cost of transporting coal is...