Interstate Commerce Commission v. Love
Decision Date | 29 March 1948 |
Docket Number | Civil Action No. 1833. |
Citation | 77 F. Supp. 63 |
Parties | INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION v. LOVE. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
Gregory U. Harmon, of Washington, D. C., Isaac K. Hay, of Atlanta, Ga., and Louis I. Dailey, of Little Rock, Ark., Attys., Bureau of Motor Carriers, Interstate Commerce Commission, Robert Weinstein, U. S. Atty., and N. E. Simoneaux Asst. U. S. Atty., both of New Orleans, La., for plaintiff.
Robert A. Ainsworth, Jr., of New Orleans, La., for defendant.
This suit by the Interstate Commerce Commission is brought under the provisions of Sections 204(a) (6) and 222(b) of Part II of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. §§ 304(a) (6) and 322(b), to permanently enjoin and restrain defendant from transporting property by motor vehicle in Interstate Commerce over the public highways, for compensation, as a common carrier until said defendant has secured a certificate or permit from the Commission and filed tariffs or schedules of rates and policies of insurance, in the amount or amounts prescribed by the rules and regulations of the Commission.
The sole question here presented is whether or not the term "fish (including shell fish)" as used in Section 203(b) (6) of the act embraces fresh headless shrimp, packed in ice, and frozen headless shrimp.
The facts, save in the particulars hereinafter mentioned, were stipulated and may be summarized as follows:
During the period from January 7, 1946, to February 19, 1947, inclusive, the defendant transported in interstate commerce by motor vehicle over and upon public highways, for compensation, divers shipments of fresh headless shrimp, packed in ice, and frozen headless shrimp, from several points in the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Division, to several Eastern points; and whole fish from an Eastern point to a point in Alabama; and potatoes from an Eastern point to a point in Florida. The defendant provided all of said transportation on one motor vehicle unit, consisting of one tractor and one semi-trailer owned by him, which is used exclusively in the transportation of the commodities specified, for compensation.
That at the time said shipments or property were transported by the defendant (1) there was not in force, and there is not now in force, a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the Commission authorizing said transportation and such operations by the defendant as a common carrier by motor vehicle, or a permit issued by the Commission authorizing said defendant to engage in such business as a contract carrier by motor vehicle; (2) there was not published, posted or filed with the Commission and there is not now published, posted or filed with the Commission, any tariffs showing the rates and charges upon which said property was so transported by the defendant as a common carrier by motor vehicle, or any evidence of concurrence by the defendant in, or the acceptance of, any rate or charge of any common carrier by motor vehicle applicable thereto, or any schedule containing minimum rates or charges of the defendant as a contract carrier by motor vehicle applicable thereto.
Defendant has never filed with the Commission any evidence of insurance for the protection of the public as required by the Commission's rules and regulations pertaining thereto, although the defendant did have in effect throughout the period in question, bodily injury and property damage insurance and cargo insurance.
The defendant intends to continue to engage in motor carrier operations of the type and nature herein described, until and unless he is directed by a court of competent jurisdiction to cease and desist therefrom.
The method and procedure for taking, handling, packing and shipping "fresh headless shrimp, packed in ice" are described fully in the stipulation. However, it may be stated here that each boat used in shrimp fishing is manned by a crew of from three to five men and the fishing is done with nets. Before leaving port the boat takes on ten to fifteen tons of crushed ice which is used to refrigerate the shrimp as caught, and the boat usually remains at sea from five to fifteen days before returning to port with its catch. The shrimp, when caught, are promptly washed either by dipping them into the sea in the wash bag or by scattering them on deck and washing them with a pressure hose. If the catch is small and the members of the crew have time that can be spared from their other duties, they break the heads of the shrimp off by hand as soon after the shrimp are caught as possible, usually within a few hours. If the catch is heavy and the crew members are busy with other duties, the heads of the shrimp are not removed at sea. It is estimated that the heads of approximately fifty per cent of the shrimp are removed at sea. In either case, the shrimp are placed in bins below deck, each bin having a capacity of from eight to twelve barrels. There the shrimp and crushed ice are placed in alternate layers with a thick layer of ice on top until the bin is completely filled. When the boat reaches port the shrimp are removed promptly to the packing shed where they are first thoroughly washed after which they are placed on tables and the heads are broken off by hand from those shrimp not beheaded at sea; the headless shrimp are packed with ice in wooden crates in alternating layers of shrimp and crushed ice with a thick layer of ice on top. The wooden crates are then placed with ice in alternate layers in the insulated refrigerated portion of the semi-trailer of the motor vehicle. The headless shrimp packed in ice are thus transported from the packing sheds to the eastern markets; and the total elapsed time from the arrival of the shrimp at the packing shed to completion of the loading on to the trucks varies from a few hours to as much as twenty-four hours.
The method and procedure for taking, handling, packing and shipping "Frozen headless shrimp" is described fully in the stipulation. However, it may be stated briefly here that fresh headless shrimp, packed in ice, as related in the preceding paragraph are transported from the packing sheds to quick freezing plants located at other points in Louisiana on the insulated refrigerated sub-trailers of the motor vehicle units; promptly upon arrival they are washed, inspected and packed in cartons; the headless shrimp are then quick frozen at a temperature of -20° Fahrenheit within approximately forty-eight hours; the cartons of frozen headless shrimp are then stored in cardboard cases in the storage rooms at a temperature of 32° Fahrenheit for periods ranging from a few days to six months, and in exceptional cases for as much as two years; and following removal from storage they are transported in the insulated refrigerated semi-trailers of the motor vehicle units to the eastern markets.
The terms "headless shrimp," "beheaded shrimp," "deheaded shrimp" and "headed shrimp" as used in this proceeding are synonymous and all of said terms refer to, and are used to describe, shrimp from which the heads have been removed by hand, as described above.
The original stipulation reserved to each of the parties the right to introduce both oral and documentary evidence in addition to but not in conflict with the stipulated facts. It further provided that all such evidence should be subject to objection by either party as to competency, relevancy or materiality. Agreeable to the terms of the stipulation, Versaggi, a witness for defendant, testified that for the past sixteen years he has been engaged continuously in the business of a wholesale fish dealer in New York City and he has never seen shrimp merchandised in any other form than beheaded and that he does not believe that it would be possible to merchandise shrimp in the New York market, the largest in the world, if the shrimp were not deheaded.
At the trial it was stipulated and agreed between the parties that if Dr. James Nelson Gowanloch, Chief Biologist of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, were called by the defendant as a witness and duly sworn, he would testify on behalf of defendant that the reasons why shrimp are headed before being shipped to market are as follows, to-wit: (1) Forty per cent of the weight of shrimp "with heads on" is made up of the head; removal, therefore, reduces shipping weight by forty per cent; (2) removal of the heads of shrimp improves the quality of the product (a) when shrimp are not headed, enzymes present in the walls of the alimentary tract of the shrimp by their action cause the anterior end of the meat to become wholly undesirable, flabby and brown; (b) if the shrimp are headed within twelve hours of being caught, the posterior portion of the digestive system (the sand vein) will come away with...
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