St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Mcnabb

• Decision Date: 21 November 1916
• Docket Number: Case Number: 7172
• Citation: 162 P. 811,63 Okla. 87,1916 OK 977
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court
• Parties: ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. McNABB.

1916 OK 977

162 P. 811

63 Okla. 87

ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. McNABB.

Case Number: 7172

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: November 21, 1916

Syllabus

¶0 1. Carriers--Rates--Interstate Commerce--Contract of Shipment--Validity.

By reason of section 6 of the Interstate Commerce Act Feb. 4. 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 380, as amended by act approved June 29, 1906, c. 3591, sec. 2, 34 Stat. 586 (U. S. Comp. St. 1909, p. 1153), a contract with a railroad company to carry interstate freight at a rate less than or different from that prescribed by the published schedule rates filed with and approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission and in force at the time of shipment is void.

2. Same--Invalid Rate--Lien.

In such case, the carrier has a lien upon said freight for the amount of the legal charges, and the shipper is not entitled to recover the goods or damages for their detention upon the payment or tender of any sum less than the schedule rates.

3. Evidence -- Secondary Evidence -- Interstate Shipment--Rate--Schedules.

The published schedule rates filed with and approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission are the heat evidence of the tariff in force fixing the legal rates upon a shipment between certain points, and evidence as to statements made by the carrier's agent is inadmissible to establish the correct rate.

Error from County Court. Sequoyah County; J. G. McCombs, Judge.

Action by R. C. McNabb against the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed and remanded.

Thomas B. Pryor and W. L. Curtis, for plaintiff in error.

HARDY, J.

¶1 R. C. McNabb commenced this action against the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company to recover possession of certain property of the value of $ 200 and for damages for the wrong ful detention thereof in the sum of $ 25. The trial in the county court resulted in verdict for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

¶2 The litigation grows out of this state of facts: Plaintiff moved from Denning, Ark., to Vian, Okla., and at the time of moving chartered a car and loaded it at Denning with household goods. He was told by the agent at Denning that the rate thereon from Denning to Vian would be 22 1/2 cents per hundred pounds for a car with a minimum capacity of 20,000 pounds, which amounted to $ 45. When the car reached Vian, the agent at that place demanded 30 cents per hundred instead of 22 1/2 cents, which amounted to $ 15 more than the amount charged at Denning. Plaintiff refused to pay this amount, and brought this action.

¶3 By section 6 of the Interstate Commerce Act as amended by Act of Congress June 29, 1906, 34 Stat. L. 586 (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1909, p. 1153), every common carrier is required to print and keep open to public inspection schedules showing all the rates, fares, and charges for transportation between different points on its own route and points on the route of other carriers when a joint rate ires been established, which schedules are required to be printed and to plainly state the classification of freight in force and separately state all charges which the Interstate Commerce Commission may require, etc., and it prohibits said carrier from charging, demanding, collecting, or receiving a greater or less or different compensation for such transportation of property or any service in connection therewith, or from refunding or remitting in any manner or by any device any portion of the rates, fares and charges so specified; and said act also makes a willful failure upon the part of any carrier to comply therewith a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $ 1,000 nor more than $ 20,000 for each offense; and also declares that it shall be unlawful for any person, persons, or corporation to offer, grant, or give, or solicit, accept, or receive any rebate, concession, or discrimination in respect to the transportation of any property in interstate commerce by any common carrier, subject to the provisions of said act, and prescribes a like penalty for such offense.

¶4 Plaintiff in error contends that under this act it was its duty, when said shipment reached Vian, Okla., to demand and collect the lawful charge for the transportation of such property, as fixed by the tariffs prepared under this act, and that it was entitled to a lien upon said property and to retain the possession thereof until the payment of said amount. This contention is correct.

¶5 In A., T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Bell et al., 31 Okla. 238, 120 P. 987, 38 L. R. A. (N. S.) 351, the shipper entered into a contract with the agent of the Kansas City Southern Railway Company at Horatio, Ark., for a rate on sheep from Horatio to Ponca City, Okla., during the month of October, 1906, of $ 90 per car, double-decked cars, or two single-decked cars to be 12,000 pounds. Relying upon this agreement, the shipper on the 13th of October, 1906, purchased 14 cars of sheep and shipped them to Ponca City, and on the 21st of October purchased two more cars which were shipped to the same destination. Said shipments were made in single- decked cars and consigned by plaintiffs to themselves, charges to be collected at destination, and the shipments were routed over the Kansas City Southern Railway to Pittsburg, Kan., and there delivered to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, by which company they were transported to Ponca City and delivered to the shipper. After delivery of the sheep, the agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company demanded of them a certain sum of money as freight charges on the cars shipped and $ 5 as feed charges on the last two cars, which the shipper refused to pay upon the ground that they had entered into a contract with the agent of the Kansas City Southern Railway to transport said sheep and deliver same at Ponca City for a certain sum, which amount the shipper tendered to the agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, who refused to accept the same. Action thereupon was instituted to recover the amount claimed to be due under the published tariff, and this court held that by reason of section 6 of the Interstate Commerce Act as amended by act approved June 29, 1906, the contract with the agent at Horatio, Ark., was void, and that the delivering carrier, who had paid to the initial carrier its freight charges in accordance with its tariff on file regulating such rates, was entitled upon delivery of the shipments to the consignee to collect and receive the freight charges so paid and its freight charges in accordance with its tariff on file.

¶6 In St. L. & S. F. R. Co. v. Mounts, 44 Okla. 359, 144 P. 1036, this court said:

"A schedule of freight rates duly filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, which has not been suspended nor disapproved, fixes and determines the legal rates that must be charged for interstate shipments."

¶7 In G., C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Hefley, 158 U.S. 98, 15 S. Ct. 802, 39 L. Ed. 910, plaintiff sued to recover damages for the refusal by the carrier to deliver goods consigned to him after tender of payment of the stipulated charges named in the bill of lading. The goods, a lot of furniture, had been delivered to the carrier at St. Louis, for transportation to Cameron, Tex., at a stipulated rate specified in the bill of lading of 69 cents per hundred pounds, the total charges amounting to $ 82; whereas, the published schedule rate at the time was 84 cents, and the charges should have been $ 100. The Supreme Court of the United States, in an opinion by Mr. Justice Brewer, held that plaintiff was not entitled to recover because the Interstate Commerce Act superseded the Texas statute which prohibited a common carrier from charging or collecting from the owner or consignee of freight a greater sum than that specified in the bill of lading.

¶8 The Supreme Court, in the case of T. & P. R. Co. v. Mugg & Dryden, 202 U.S. 242, 26 S. Ct. 628, 50 L. Ed. 1011, quoted with approval from the decision of the Supreme Court of Alabama in So. R. Co. v. Harrison, 119 Ala. 539, 24 So. 552, 43 L. R. A. 385, 72 Am. St. Rep. 936, the following language with reference to the effect of the decision in the Hefley Case:

"The clear effect of the decision was to declare that one who has obtained from a common carrier transportation of goods from one state to another at a rate, specified in the bill of lading, less than the published schedule rates filed with and approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and in force at the time, whether or not he knew that the rate obtained was less than the schedule rate, is not entitled to recover the goods, or damages for their detention, upon the tender of payment of the amount of charges named in the bill of lading, or of any aura less than the schedule charges; in other words, that whatever may be the

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