North Bend Stage Line, Inc. v. Department of Public Works

• Decision Date: 09 April 1931
• Docket Number: 22983.
• Citation: 297 P. 780,162 Wash. 46
• Parties: NORTH BEND STAGE LINE, Inc., v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS et al.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

297 P. 780

162 Wash. 46

NORTH BEND STAGE LINE, Inc., v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS et al.

No. 22983.

Supreme Court of Washington

April 9, 1931

Department 1.

Appeal from Superior Court, Thurston County; John M. Wilson, Judge.

Application by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for passenger and express service by motor vehicles between certain points, protested by the North Bend Stage Line Incorporated. From a judgment of the superior court affirming a decision and order of the Department of Public Works of the State granting a certificate to such railroad the stage line company appeals.

Affirmed.

Poe, Falknor, Falknor & Emory, of Seattle, for appellant.

John H. Dunbar and John C. Hurspool, both of Olympia, and F. M. Dudley, I. S. Crawford, and A. J. Laughon, all of Seattle, for respondents.

PARKER J.

This is an appeal by the North Bend Stage Line, Inc., from a judgment of the superior court for Thurston county affirming a decision and order of the state department of public works granting to the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company a certificate of public convenience and necessity authorizing it to furnish passenger and express service, by motor vehicles, between Everett and Cedar Falls along connecting public highways closely paralleling its branch line of railroad between those places. The stage line is a public carrier of passengers and express, by motor vehicles, under a certificate of public convenience and necessity between Seattle and Easton along the Sunset Highway, a short portion of which is the same as a short portion of the route covered by the certificate here in question granted by the department to the railroad company. The stage line route is approximately an east and west service, while the proposed railroad route service is approximately a north and south service, though their routes are the same over a short distance of each.

The railroad company's main line between Seattle and the East passes through Cedar Falls. The railroad company's branch line in question runs from Cedar Falls northerly to Everett, a distance of some sixty miles. All along this branch line, somewhat closely paralleling it, run improved connecting public highways. The railroad company applied to the department for a certificate of public convenience and necessity authorizing it to furnish passenger and express service by motor vehicles between Everett and Cedar Falls along the highways paralleling the railroad company's branch line; that is, naming the intermediate places in order, here to be noticed, from north to south, by way of Duvall, Stillwater, Pleasant Hill, Fall City, and North Bend. The stage line has been, since some time prior to the making of that application by the railroad company, furnishing passenger and express service under a duly granted certificate of public convenience and necessity between Seattle and Easton along the Sunset Highway; that is, by way of Fall City and North Bend, the distance between those places being approximately eight miles. This is the only portion of the certificate routes of the railroad company and the stage line in conflict, and the territory adjacent thereto is the only territory where there will occur any substantial amount of competition for local traffic between them.

The territory along the highway between Everett and Duvall is already served by the Index Stages, Inc. The territory along the highway between Stillwater and Pleasant Hill is already served by the Washington Motor Coach Company. The territory between Fall City and North Bend is already served by the stage line. There is no other public motor service along the direct connecting highways between Everett and Cedar Falls. The service of the stage line, the Index Stages, Inc., and the Washington Motor Coach Company is largely what may well be termed a suburban service of the cities of Seattle and Everett. Along approximately one-fourth of the direct connecting highways between Everett and Cedar Falls there is no motor passenger and express service; that is, there is no such service between Duvall and Stillwater, between Pleasant Hill and Fall City, or between North Bend and Cedar Falls.

The purpose of the railroad company is to furnish what it asserts to be a more attractive and convenient passenger and express service between Everett and Cedar Falls than it can furnish, without substantial loss in cost of operation, by its present rail service between Everett and Cedar Falls. The railroad company has been furnishing a passenger train service leaving Cedar Falls at 8:40 a. m., arriving at Everett at 10:50 a. m., and leaving Everett at 5 p. m. and arriving at Cedar Falls at 7:10 p. m., these trains connecting with the railroad company's principal east and west trains over its main line at Cedar Falls. The railroad company proposes to abandon this service which it asserts and has shown to be maintained at a much greater cost than the revenues derived therefrom, and substitute therefor the motor service applied for by it, which it proposes to run on substantially the same schedule, and which it has shown will be not only more economical, but more attractive and convenient to the public than its present passenger and express rail service. The railroad company, however, does not propose to abandon its freight rail service, nor wholly its passenger and express rail service; it proposing to run one slower mixed train over its branch line each way daily between Everett and Cedar Falls.

The railroad company's application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity came regularly on for hearing before the department. The stage line, the Index Stages, and the ...