Paxon v. Ill. Cent. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 18 June 1881
• Parties: PAXON AND OTHERS v. ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

56 Iowa 427

9 N.W. 334

PAXON AND OTHERS

v.ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Filed June 18, 1881.

Appeal from Delaware district court.

This action was brought under chapter 68 of the Acts of the Fifteenth General Assembly, establishing “reasonable maximum rates and charges for the transportation of freight and passengers on the different railroads of this state.” Trial to the court, judgment for the defendant, and the plaintiffs appeal.C. S. Crosby and Bronson & Leroy, for appellants.

Griffith & Knight, for appellee.

SEEVERS, J.

The petition states that plaintiffs were engaged in purchasing cattle and hogs at Manchester, Iowa, and that defendant operated a railroad from Sioux City, Iowa, through said Manchester, to Chicago, Illinois; that between the eighth day of January and the twenty-first day of February, 1876, plaintiffs shipped at said Manchester four car loads of hogs, to be carried by defendants to Chicago, Illinois, for which the defendant charged and the plaintiffs paid freight at the rate of $56 a car; and that between the tenth day of May and the sixteenth day of September, 1876, the plaintiffs made a like shipment of five car loads of cattle and hogs, for which the defendantcharged and the plaintiffs paid $56 a car freight; “that during all the aforesaid time, from January 8, 1876, to September 10, 1876, one William F. Gannon was engaged in the business of buying and shipping cattle and hogs at Manchester, Iowa, and during a portion of that time, to-wit, from January 8, 1876, to February 21, 1876, he had an arrangement and agreement with the defendant, whereby the defendant agreed to allow said Gannon a rebate or drawback of six dollars per car for all car loads of cattle and hogs shipped by him on said road from said Manchester to Chicago, Illinois, which said rebate or drawback reduced the price of each car load of cattle and hogs so shipped by said Gannon to $50, being six dollars per car less than the defendant charged the plaintiffs for the same services, and said Gannon shipped several car loads of cattle and hogs under said agreement; that on or about the twentieth day of March, 1876, the said defendant made an arrangement and agreement with said W. F. Gannon to allow him a rebate or drawback of $16 on each and every car load of hogs and cattle shipped by him from said Manchester to Chicago aforesaid over the said railroad run and operated by the defendant, which arrangement and agreement were continued from that date to September 16, 1876; that drawbacks or rebatements of $16 per car were made by said defendant to said Gannon, and that by the reason of said drawbacks and rebatements, said Gannon during said time was paying the defendant but $40 per car for each car load of hogs and cattle so shipped by him, and that he shipped several car loads of hogs and cattle under said agreement during said time from Manchester to Chicago; that by reason of the aforesaid rebates and drawbacks allowed by the defendant to said Gannon, they paid the defendant for four car loads of hogs and cattle, shipped as aforesaid over the said road of the defendant, from ...