Union Stock Yard Transit Co of Chicago v. United States v. 10 8212 13, 1939

• Decision Date: 04 December 1939
• Docket Number: No. 40,40
• Citation: 60 S.Ct. 193,308 U.S. 213,84 L.Ed. 198
• Parties: UNION STOCK YARD & TRANSIT CO. OF CHICAGO v. UNITED STATES et al. Argued Nov. 10—13, 1939
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

308 U.S. 213

60 S.Ct. 193

84 L.Ed. 198

UNION STOCK YARD & TRANSIT CO. OF CHICAGO

v UNITED STATES et al.

No. 40.

Argued Nov. 10—13, 1939.

Decided Dec. 4, 1939.

Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois.

Messrs. Frederick H. Wood, of New York City, and Bryce L. Hamilton, and Guy A. Gladson, both of Chicago, Ill., for appellant.

Messrs. Frank Murphy, Atty. Gen., and Daniel W. Knowlton, of Washington, D.C., for appellees, the United States and Interstate Commerce Commission.

Mr. Lee J. Quasey, of Chicago, Ill., for appellee National Live Stock Marketing Ass'n.

Mr. Douglas F. Smith, of Chicago, Ill., for appellees Railroad Companies.

Mr. Justice STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.

The principal question for decision upon this appeal is whether, in the services performed by appellant in loading and unloading livestock at its stockyards in Chicago, and specified by its tariffs filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, it is a common carrier subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, 24 Stat. 379, as amended in 1920, 41 Stat. 474, 49 U.S.C., §§ 1—27, 49 U.S.C.A. §§ 1—27.

The case comes here on appeal from the final decree of a district court of three judges,¹ dismissing appellant's suit to set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, which directed the cancellation of appellant's supplemental schedule proposing cancellation of its rate schedules previously filed with the Commission. Cancellation of Livestock Services, 227 I.C.C. 716. Appellant here, as below, assails the Commission's order on the ground that in performing the scheduled services appellant is not within the jurisdiction of the Commission as defined by the Interstate Commerce Act.

As appears in the Commission's report, appellant was incorporated in 1865 with authority to build and operate a railroad and a stockyard, and with power of eminent domain. Acting under its charter it constructed a stockyard in Chicago and approximately three hundred miles of railroad tracks, consisting of a main line connecting with the trunk lines entering Chicago and switches to various industries located adjacent to its tracks.

Prior to 1912 it had tried various methods of operating its tracks and stockyards. At that time it did not control any of its railroad properties other than platforms and facilities for loading and unloading at its yard. The Chicago Junction Railway Co., which, with appellant, was controlled by a single holding company, operated the railroad under a fifty-year lease, paying to appellant as rental two-thirds of its net profits. In that year the United States brought suit to restrain appellant and the Junction Company from further operations in interstate commerce until they filed tariffs as required by § 6 of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 6. The litigation resulted in the decision of this Court that both were common carriers subject to the Act. United States v. Union Stock Yards & Transit Co., 226 U.S. 286, 33 S.Ct. 83, 57 L.Ed. 226. Appellant then filed a rate schedule with the Commission specifying its charges for loading and unloading all rail-borne livestock, and continued its practice of performing services in loading and unloading from and to its livestock pens for the trunk line railroads, charging them the scheduled rates for the service.

In the following year the Junction Company lease was cancelled and a new one executed, under which appellant leased in perpetuity all of its railroad facilities, except those used for loading and unloading livestock, at an annual rental of $600,000 in lieu of a share of the profits. This was followed in 1917 by an attempt by the stockyard to charge shippers an additional amount for the loading and unloading service which resulted in a reparation award by the Commission, sustained in Adams v. Mills, 286 U.S. 397, 52 S.Ct. 589, 76 L.Ed. 1184. In the same year appellant sought to cancel its tariffs on the ground that by reason of the change in the lease it was no longer a common carrier. This contention was rejected by the Commission. Livestock Loading and Unloading Charges, 52 I.C.C. 209; 58 I.C.C. 164.

In 1922 the Junction Company, with the approval of the Commission, Chicago Junction Case, 71 I.C.C. 631, 150 I.C.C. 32, sublet the road for ninety-nine years, with a renewal option, to the Chicago River & Indiana Railroad Co., whose capital stock was acquired by the New York Central Railroad Company. A renewed attempt by the stockyard to cancel its tariffs failed in 1935. Livestock Loaded and Unloaded, 213 I.C.C. 330, and its 1937 repetition resulted in the like order of the Commission, which is the subject of the present suit.

By ceasing to operate or control its railroad directly or indirectly appellant has restricted its transportation serv- ice to the loading or unloading of livestock as specified in its tariff. It owns the platforms and chutes which are the necessary and only means of loading and unloading at its yard to and from which the livestock is shipped interstate by rail. For this service it charges the railroads the scheduled rates. Loading and unloading are included in the transportation service rendered by the railroads to shippers, the charge for it to shippers being covered by the line-haul tariffs. The Commission found that appellant's yard is the principal railroad terminal in Chicago for the receipt of livestock in carload lots, and that appellant holds itself out to the public as performing the loading and unloading service and permits it to be performed by no other.

Appellant contends that having divested itself of all control and participation in the operation of its railroad it is no longer within the jurisdiction of the Commission over 'common carriers by railroad', conferred by the Interstate Commerce Act, but is subject to regulation by the Secretary of Agriculture, under the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, 42 Stat. 159, 7 U.S.C., §§ 181 229, 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 181—229.

By § 305 of that Act rates and charges for stockyard services furnished at a stockyard or by a stockyard owner are required to be just and reasonable. And by §§ 309, 310, the Secretary is given authority to regulate such rates. By § 301 stockyard services are defined as 'services or facilities furnished at a stockyard in connection with the receiving, buying and selling * * * marketing, feeding, watering, holding, delivery, shipment, weighing, or handling in commerce, of livestock'. It will be noted that the loading and unloading of livestock are not specifically included in the definition of stockyard services. Further, an important exception to the broad authority of the Secretary is made by § 406, 7 U.S.C.A. § 226, which provides: 'Nothing in this chapter shall affect the power or jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission, nor confer upon the Secretary concurrent power or jurisdiction over any matter within the power or jurisdiction of such Commission'. We accordingly turn to the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act to determine the extent of the exception.

Section 6(1) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 6(1), provides that a common carrier subject to the provisions of the sections presently to be mentioned, where no joint rate is involved, shall file schedules of rates showing 'the separately established rates * * * applied to the through transportation' and requires that the rate schedules shall 'state separately all terminal charges * * * and all other charges which the commission may require, all privileges or facilities granted or allowed and any rules or regulations which in any wise change, affect, or determine any part or the aggregate of such aforesaid rates * * * or the value of the service rendered to the passenger, shipper, or consignee.'

Section 1(1) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1(1), declares: 'The provisions of this part (chapter) shall apply to common carriers engaged in—(a) the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad * * *.' Section 1(3), 49 U.S.C.A. § 1(3), provides that the term railroad shall include '* * * all the road in use by any common carrier operating a railroad * * * all switches, spurs, tracks, terminals, and terminal facilities of every kind used or necessary in the transportation * * * of * * * persons or property * * * including all freight depots, yards, and grounds, used or necessary in the transportation or delivery of any such property.' It defines the term 'transportation' as including 'locomotives, cars, * * * and all instrumentalities and facilities of shipment or carriage, irrespective of ownership or of any contract, express or implied, for the use thereof, and all services in connection with the receipt, delivery, elevation, and transfer in transit * * * and handling of property transported'. Section 15(5), 49 U.S.C.A. § 15(5), provides, 'Transportation wholly by railroad of ordinary livestock in carload lots destined to or received at public stockyards shall include all necessary service of unloading and reloading en route, delivery at public stockyards of inbound shipments into suitable pens, and receipt and loading at such yards of outbound shipments, without extra charge therefor to the shipper, consignee or owner * * *.'

Without the aid of these statutes the transportation of livestock by rail was held to begin with its delivery to the carrier for loading onto its cars, and to end only after unloading for delivery or tender to the consignee at the place of destination. Covington Stock-Yards Co. v. Keith, 139 U.S. 128, 136, 11 S.Ct. 461, 463, 35 L.Ed. 73. The same rule has been repeatedly applied since the statute was adopted. Erie R. Co. v. Shuart, 250 U.S. 465, 468, 39 S.Ct. 519, 520, 63 L.Ed. 1088; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. United States, 295 U.S. 193, 198, 55 S.Ct. 748, 751, 79 L.Ed. 1382 and cases cited; Denver Stock Yards Company v. United States, 304 U.S. 470, 58 S.Ct. 990, 82 L.Ed....