Interstate Commerce Commission v. Northeastern R. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 April 1896
• Parties: INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION v. NORTHEASTERN R. CO. et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

74 F. 70

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION v. NORTHEASTERN R. CO. et al.

United States Circuit Court, D. South Carolina.

April 30, 1896

Wm Perry Murphy, U.S. Atty., Asher D. Cohen, and Geo. S. Legare for complainant.

H. W Massey and Smythe, Lee & Frost, for defendants.

SIMONTON Circuit Judge.

This case comes up upon a motion to dismiss the bill. The Truck Farmers' Association, of Charleston, and others engaged in the same line of business filed their complaints with the interstate commerce commission against the railroad companies named in the caption. The complaints were that the charge of freight on vegetables and other truck between Charleston and New York and other Northern markets was unreasonable, and so unlawful. The commission, having given due notice to the carriers complained of, entered into a long, laborious, and careful examination of the charges, and, after deliberation upon the voluminous testimony produced before them, filed in writing their findings of fact and their conclusions thereon. They formulated their conclusions in the following final judgment and order:

'Ordered and adjudged that the defendants (naming them), and each of them, do, within ten days after service of this order, wholly cease and desist and thenceforth abstain from charging or receiving any greater compensation in the aggregate for the transportation from Charleston, in the state of South Carolina, to Jersey City, in the state of New Jersey, of the following named and described commodities, whether shipped to New York, N.Y., and delivered to consignees at Jersey City, or shipped to Jersey City, than is hereinafter set forth as follows, to wit: (1) Six cents per quart, $1.92 per crate of 32 quarts, or $3.84 per 100 pounds, as the total charge for the transportation of, including cost of refrigeration en route, and all services incident to such transportation of, strawberries from Charleston aforesaid to Jersey City aforesaid. (2) Fifty-nine and one-half cents per standard barrel or barrel crate for the transportation of apples, onions, turnips, squash, or cymling, or egg plant, from Charleston aforesaid to Jersey City aforesaid. (3) A rate or sum for the transportation of cabbages shipped in standard barrels or barrel crates from Charleston aforesaid to Jersey City aforesaid, or New York, N.Y., which is three-fourths of the rate or sum contemporaneously charged by defendants on potatoes shipped in standard barrels or barrel crates between said points. It is further ordered that said defendants be, and they severally are hereby, required to readjust their rates for the transportation of the commodities hereinabove specified from Charleston aforesaid to Philadelphia, Pa., Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C., so as to bring them in conformity with the law when compared with rates to Jersey City or New York, which will be put into effect by said defendants under the terms of this order. And it is further ordered that the report and opinion of the commission on file herein be, and is hereby, made a part of this order, and that a notice embodying this order be sent forthwith to each of the defendants, together with a copy of said report and opinion, in conformity with the provisions of the fifteenth section of the act to regulate commerce, and that a copy of said report and opinion and of this order be also served upon the Southern Railway Company, successor of the defendants the Richmond & Danvill Railroad Company, and F. W. Huidekoper and Reuben Foster, the receivers thereof, and upon the South Carolina & Georgia Railroad Company, successor of the defendants the South Carolina Railway Company and D. H. Chamberlain, the receiver thereof.'

Thereupon the railroad companies prayed a rehearing of the matter, and after consideration of the application and the argument in support thereof, the rehearing was denied. To the original complaints and investigation the receiver of the South Carolina Railway Company and the receivers of the Richmond & Danvill Railroad Company were parties. Pending the investigation and the judgment of the commissioners, the receivers of each of these roads were discharged as such receiver. The property in their hands was sold. The South Carolina & Georgia Railroad Company became the owner of the property of the South Carolina Railway, and the Southern Railway Company that of the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company. Both of these corporations, purchasers, united in and signed the petition for rehearing. The several railroad corporations having been served with proceedings of the commission, and with its final order, judgment, and decree, the interstate commerce commission filed this bill of complaint. The bill recites, in substance, the above, and then adds: (2) That the defendants have willfully failed and neglected to obey and conform to the requirements of said interstate commerce commission as set forth in the original order of said commission,-- Exhibit E, hereto, as amended by...