Little Rock & M.R. Co. v. St. Louis, I.M. & S. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 20 March 1890
• Citation: 41 F. 559
• Parties: LITTLE ROCK & M. R. CO. v. ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Arkansas

41 F. 559

LITTLE ROCK & M. R. CO. v. ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. et al.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Arkansas.

March 20, 1890

Syllabus by the Court

A court of equity has no power, either at common law or under the interstate commerce act, to compel a railroad company to enter into a contract with another company for a joint through rate and joint through routing of freight and passengers.

The material allegations in the plaintiff's bill are that--

'The Little Rock & Memphis Railroad Company is engaged in operating the railroad between the cities of Memphis, in the state of Tennessee, and Little Rock, in the state of Arkansas. That its traffic consisted principally in the transportation of through passengers and freight from points east of the Mississippi river, bound to western and southern points, in the states of Arkansas, Texas, and elsewhere, and in the reverse direction. The St. Louis, Iron Mountain &amp Southern Railway Company, a corporation created by the laws of Arkansas, and an inhabitant of said district, operates a railroad from the city of St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, passing through the city of Little Rock, to the city of Texarkana, on the boundary between the states of Arkansas and Texas, where it makes connection with extensive systems of railroads in Texas. The defendant the Hot Springs Railroad Company is engaged in operating a railroad in the state of Arkansas from Malvern, on the line of the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, to Hot Springs. Said Hot Springs Railroad Company is a corporation created by the laws of Arkansas, and is an inhabitant of said district. Said St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway is one of the largest feeders of the road operated by your orator, contributing during the half year ending June 30, 1888, 3,387 passengers of whom 1,591, or nearly half, came upon through tickets over the Little Rock & Memphis Railroad and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, with a traffic substantially equal in the opposite direction. The said St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway is by far the most important connection of your orator, the exchange of passengers with it during the six months ending June 30, 1888, amounting to 11,139. In May, 1888, the St.

Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway opened a branch road from Bald Knob, in the state of Arkansas, to Memphis, in the state of Tennessee, running parallel with your orator's line, and built for the express purpose of competing with it. It is 15 miles longer than your orator's line, and its facilities for accommodating through traffic at Memphis are much inferior to those of your orator's. For these reasons, notwithstanding the opening of the Bald Knob branch, the traffic of your orator remained substantially unchanged as long as it had equal facilities afforded by defendants, the traveling public preferring it to its adversary. For the purpose of breaking down the legitimately acquired business of your orator, and crushing a rival, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company has directed all the railroads connecting with it to call in all through tickets reading over the Little Rock & Memphis Railroad, and thence over the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, leaving on sale only the through tickets over the Bald Knob branch; and the Hot Springs Railroad Company, conspiring with it to injure your orator, has signified its assent to this direction, and has actually withdrawn the tickets over your orator's line in connection with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, and refuses to sell the same, though requested by your orator to do so, but still continues to sell tickets over the Bald Knob branch of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. The object of this is to force the traveling public to purchase tickets exclusively over the Bald Knob branch, or else to pay higher local rates, and be subjected to the annoyance of repeated purchase of tickets and rechecking of baggage; and, unless something is done for the protection of your orator, all through traffic will be diverted over the Bald Knob branch, to the great inconvenience of the public, and great and unjust pecuniary loss to your orator. Wherefore your orator prays that the said defendants may be required to answer this bill, but not under oath; and that a mandatory injunction may issue from this court commending said defendant, the Hot Springs Railroad Company, and its agents, to sell, to all applicants going on its road to Memphis and to points beyond, tickets over the road of your orator on the same terms, and at the same price, as it charges to passengers who get tickets over said Bald Knob branch, and to check baggage with the same.'

The defendant the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company filed the affidavits of its general and assistant general passenger and ticket agents, to be read on the hearing of the motion for a preliminary injunction. These affidavits admit that tickets reading via the Little Rock & Memphis Railroad, in connection with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, have been withdrawn from sale, but deny that this was done for the purpose of breaking down the plaintiff's road, and say it was done for the purpose of legitimately building up the passenger traffic over the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, and its Bald Knob branch to Memphis. The assistant freight and ticket agent states that--

'The arrangement at present existing between the railroads forming a through route and rate from Hot Springs to Memphis, and points east of there, exists by reason of a contract or agreement between the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company and railroads east of Memphis. By way of illustration, the through-route agreement now in existence between Malvern, where the St. Louis, Iron Mountain &amp Southern Railway connects with the Hot Springs Railroad and Norfolk, is as follows: The St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, which has a line of its own from Malvern to Memphis, has, by agreement with the Memphis & Charleston R.R. Co., and the East Tenn., Va. & G.R.R. Co. and its eastern connections to Norfolk, arranged for a through rate and route, and for a pro rata division of revenue derived therefrom. In making this arrangement, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, having a line of its own from Malvern to Memphis, had no occasion to and did not include the Little Rock & Memphis R.R. in such agreement. I have read that portion of the brief of J. S. Blair in the case of L.R. & M.R.R. Co. v. E.T., V. & G. R.R. Co. and St. L., I.M. & S. Ry. Co., 3 Int.St.Com.R. 1. The statements made by him on pages 4 and 5 of said brief is a correct explanation of the manner in which agreements for through routes and a through rate between two or more distinct railway companies are made, and I adopt as a part of this affidavit so much of the language employed by Mr. Blair as follows, to-wit: 'The issuing by one road of tickets to be used beyond its own terminus is, for various reasons, a matter of agreement between the...