Mississippi Valley Barge Line Co v. United States

• Decision Date: 30 April 1934
• Docket Number: No. 807,807
• Parties: MISSISSIPPI VALLEY BARGE LINE CO. v. UNITED STATES et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

292 U.S. 282

54 S.Ct. 692

78 L.Ed. 1260

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY BARGE LINE CO.

v UNITED STATES et al.

No. 807.

Argued April 5, 1934.

Decided April 30, 1934.

Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Missouri, Eastern Division.

Messrs. James R. Van Slyke and Truman Post Young, both of St. Louis, Mo., for appellant.

The Attorney General and Mr. J. Stanley Payne, of Washington, D.C., for appellees the United States and Interstate Commerce Commission.

Mr. Elmer A. Smith, of Chicago, Ill., for appellees Illinois Cent. R. Co. and others.

Mr. Justice CARDOZO delivered the opinion of the Court.

The appellant, Mississippi Valley Barge Line Company, is a common carrier by water, operating towboats and barges on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. It derives a large part of its earnings from the transportation of sugar, which it carries from New Orleans to Cincinnati and St. Louis and intermediate ports. It is in active competition with rail carriers serving the same ports and inland points beyond.

In 1932, the Illinois Central Railroad Company and other carriers by rail filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission proposed schedules of reduced rates on sugar from New Orleans to northern points, the rates to become effective October 1 of that year. The aim of the reduction was to meet the competition of the appellant and other carriers by water who had been able by reason of low and unregulated rates to divert to themselves a large part of the traffic in sugar that till then had moved by rail. The railway companies perceived that they were threatened with still heavier losses in the future unless something was done by a reduction of their own charges to recover the business that was slipping from their grasp. Indeed the change had gone so far that already they were hauling practically no sugar within the field of competition. In 1932 the barge movement amounted to over 500,000 tons, about ten times as much as moved all-rail from Louisiana to the north. Of the water borne traffic, by far the greater part was carried by the Federal Barge Line, which has acquiesced in the new schedules, perfering to let the rail carriers fix the rate level. The residue has been carried, part of it by this appellant, part by the American Barge Company, and part by tramp or contract operators. During the year 1932, one railway company, the Illinois Central, lost about half a million dollars by traffic thus diverted. The new schedules that were filed in the attempt to retrieve these losses proposed two different sets of rates, one based upon a minimum weight of 60,000 pounds per car, and the other upon a minimum weight of 80,000 pounds per car. To illustrate their effect, the old rate between New Orleans and Chicago had been 56 cents per 100 pounds; the new one was 30 cents per 100 pounds for the 80,000 minimum and 39 cents per 100 pounds for the 60,000 minimum. Between New Orleans and St. Louis the old rate of 52 cents became 28 cents and 34 cents.

Protests against these changes having been filed by the appellant and others, the Interstate Commerce Commission proceeded to an investigation under section 15(7) of the Interstate Commerce Act (49 USCA § 15(7), and in the meantime ordered that the schedules be suspended. There were full hearings of the parties in interest, with testimony and argument. On July 3, 1933, the Commission found by its report that the respondents (the interveners in the court below) had justified the proposed rates with the 60,000 pound minimum. It found that they had not justified the proposed rates with the 80,000 pound minimum, but that they had justified rates 4 cents higher. 'So far as the 80,000 pound minimum is concerned,' the Commission said, 'this means all-rail rates from New Orleans of 34 cents to Chicago and 32 cents to St. Louis.' Sugar Cases of 1933, 195 I.C.C. 127. The rail carriers accepted this proposal, and an amended order of the Commission gave approval to the schedules so revised.

Under the Urgent Deficiencies Act (October 22, 1913, c. 32, 38 Stat. 208, 220, 28 U.S.C. §§ 47, 48 (28 USCA §§ 47, 48)), the Mississippi Valley Barge Line Company filed a bill to enjoin and set aside the order of the Commission, joining the United States and the Commission as defendants. A number of rail carriers who had been respondents in the proceeding were allowed to intervene. After the filing of answers the suit was heard by a District Court of three judges in accordance with the statute. 28 U.S.C. § 47 (28 USCA § 47). None of the evidence received by the Commission was placed before the court. All that the court had, aside from the report and orders, was a group of affidavits by the complainant's officers, which were in substance to the effect that the water carriers would be unable to compete with the carriers by rail if the schedules were to stand approved. These affidavits were received without objection as to their form, but subject to the objection that they were inadmissible in so far as they were inconsistent with what had been found in the report. The court dismissed the bill, holding that the findings of the report were conclusive as to the facts, and that they were sufficient on their face to uphold the lowered rates. 4 F.Supp. 745. An appeal to this court followed. Judicial Code, § 210, 28 U.S.C. § 47a (28 USCA § 47a).

The settled rule is that the findings of the Commission may not be assailed upon appeal in the absence of the evidence upon which they were made. Spiller v. A., T. & S.F.R. Co., 253 U.S. 117, 125, 40 S.Ct. 466, 64 L.Ed. 810; Louisiana & Pine Bluff R. Co. v. United States, 257 U.S. 114, 116, 42 S.Ct. 25, 66 L.Ed. 156; Nashville, C. & St. L.R. Co. v. Tennessee, 262 U.S. 318, 324, 43 S.Ct. 583, 67 L.Ed. 999; Edward Hines Trustees v. United States, 263 U.S. 143, 148, 44 S.Ct. 72, 68 L.Ed. 216; C.I. & L.R. Co. v. United States, 270 U.S. 287, 295, 46 S.Ct. 226, 70 L.Ed. 590. The appellant did not free itself of this restriction by submitting additional evidence in the form of affidavits by its officers. For all that we can know, the evidence received by the Commission overbore these affidavits or stripped them of significance. The findings in the report being thus accepted as true, there is left only the inquiry whether they give support to the conclusion. Quite manifestly they do. The structure of a rate schedule calls in peculiar measure for the use of that enlightened judgment which the commission by training and experience is qualified to form. Florida v. United States, 292 U.S. 1, 54 S.Ct. 603, 78 L.Ed. —-, April 2, 1934. It is not the province of a court to absorb this function to itself. I.C.C. v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 227 U.S. 88, 100, 33 S.Ct. 185, 57 L.Ed. 431; Western Paper Makers' Chemical Co. v. United States, 271 U.S. 268, 271, 46 S.Ct. 500, 71 L.Ed. 941; Virginian R. Co. v. United States, 272 U.S. 658, 663, 47 S.Ct. 222, 71 L.Ed. 463. The judicial func- tion is exhausted when there is found to be a rational basis for the conclusions approved by the administrative body. In this instance the care and patience with which the Commission fulfilled its appointed task are plain, even to the casual reader, upon the face of its report. The rates were not approved as the respondents had submitted them. For the 80,000 pound minimum, they were found to be too low. Not till there had been an increase of 4 cents per 100 pounds did the schedule win approval. There was a sedulous endeavor to guard against a rate war that would end in...