United States v. Lowden

Decision Date04 December 1939
Docket NumberNo. 343,343
PartiesUNITED STATES et al. v. LOWDEN et al
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

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

Messrs. Frank Murphy, Atty. Gen., and James C. Wilson, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen., for appellants.

Mr. W. F. Peter, of Chicago, Ill., for appellees.

[Argument of Counsel from page 226 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.

This appeal raises the question whether the Interstate Commerce Commission, in approving and authorizing a lease of a railroad by one railroad company to another, under § 5(4)(b) of the Interstate Commerce Act as amended, 48 Stat. 217, 49 U.S.C. § 5(4)(b), 49 U.S.C.A. § 5(4)(b) enacted in substance as § 407(5)(6) of the Transportation Act of 1920, 41 Stat. 481, has authority to prescribe as a condition of its order, that certain employees of the lessor shall receive partial compensation for the loss which they may suffer, by reason of their discharge or transfer as a result of the lease.

Appellees are trustees of the Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Company and of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, both in bankruptcy for purposes of reorganization under § 77 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 205. They applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for authority under § 5(4)(b) to lease the railroad and properties of the Gulf Company to themselves as trustees of the Pacific Company at an annual rental equal to the net operating income of the leased property. On the application, which was twice heard by the Commission, evidence was submitted from which the Commission found that the Gulf Company, whose entire capital stock is owned by the Pacific Company, is owner of six hundred and thirty-two miles of railroad in Texas which it operates separately from the 8,138 miles of railroad of the Pacific Company; that the purpose of the proposed lease was to combine the operation of the two lines in order to effect savings in operating costs through the elimination of the Texas accounting offices of the Gulf Company.

The Commission found that the lease would not impose upon the public any change in conditions affecting train operation; that it would have no effect on rates or routes and would result in no change of service to the public. It found that the elimination of the Texas accounting offices would result in an annual saving of $100,000, six or seven thousand dollars of which would accrue to the Gulf Company and the remainder to the Pacific Company, to be effected through the ultimate dismissal of forty-nine of the Gulf accounting employees and the transfer of twenty others to the Chicago offices of the Pacific Company. The Commission also found that the welfare of the employees affected by the elimination of the accounting office is one of the matters of public interest which the Commission must consider in proceedings under § 5(4)(b).

It accordingly authorized the lease upon the conditions which it found to be just and reasonable: that for a period not exceeding five years each retained employee should be compensated for any reduction in salary so long as he is unable, in the exercise of his seniority rights under existing rules and practices to obtain a position with compensation equal to his compensation at the date of the lease; that dismissed employees unable to obtain equivalent employment be paid partial compensation for the loss of their employment in specified amounts and for specified periods depending on the length of their service, and that the transferred employees be paid their traveling and moving expenses including losses incurred through being forced to sell their homes. The maximum cost of compliance with the conditions, it was found, would be $290,000 spread over a period of five years, during which the savings effected by the lease would be not less than $500,000. The Commission found that the proposed lease, with the specified conditions 'will be in harmony with and in furtherance of our plan for the consolidation of railroad properties and will promote the public interest.'

In the present suit, brought by appellees, the district court of three judges (Urgent Deficiencies Act of October 22, 1913, 38 Stat. 208, 219, 220, 28 U.S.C. §§ 45, 47a, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 45, 47a, granted the relief sought, and decreed that the conditions of the Commission's order be set aside and that the Commission be enjoined from enforcing them. The case comes here on appeal under § 238 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 345, 28 U.S.C.A. § 345.

Appellees contend, as the district court held, that the Commission was without the authority of any act of Congress to attach the prescribed conditions to its order. Consequently, they argue that the courts may appropriately set them aside as of no effect, leaving the remainder of the order to stand as the Commission's unqualified approval of the lease, although the Commission gave no indication that it would have authorized the lease without the conditions.

Section 5(4)(a) provides that 'it shall be lawful, with the approval * * * of the Commission, as provided in subdivision (b), for two or more carriers to consolidate or merge their properties * * * or for any carrier * * * to * * * lease * * * the properties * * * of another * * *' Subdivision (b) provides that the Commission on application by the carrier or carriers concerned may, after hearing, authorize such a consolidation or lease, and directs that 'if after such hearing the Commission finds that, subject to such terms and conditions and such modifications as it shall find to be just and reasonable, the proposed consolidation * * * (or) lease * * * will be in harmony with and in furtherance of the plan for the consolidation of railway properties established pursuant to paragraph (3), and will promote the public interest, it may enter an order approving such consolidation * * * (or) lease * * * upon the terms and conditions and with the modifications so found to be just and reasonable.' 49 U.S.C.A. § 5(4)(a, b).

In New York Central Securities Co. v. United States, 287 U.S. 12, 53 S.Ct. 45, 77 L.Ed. 138, we pointed out that the phrase 'public interest' in this section does not refer generally to matters of public concern apart from the public interest in the maintenance of an adequate rail transportation system; that it is used in a more restricted sense defined by reference to the purposes of the Transportation Act of 1920, of which the section is a part and which, as had been recognized in earlier opinions of this Court, sought through the exercise of the new authority given to the Commission to secure a more adequate and efficient transportation system. See New England Divisions Case, 261 U.S. 184, 43 S.Ct. 270, 67 L.Ed. 605; Dayton-Goose Creek Ry. v. United States, 263 U.S. 456, 44 S.Ct. 169, 68 L.Ed. 388, 33 A.L.R. 472; Texas & Pacific Railway Company v. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company, 270 U.S. 266, 277, 46 S.Ct. 263, 266, 70 L.Ed. 578. Thus restricted, the term public interest 'as used in the statute is not a mere general reference to public welfare, but, as shown by the context and purpose of the act, 'has direct relation to adequacy of transportation service, to its essential conditions of economy and efficiency, and to appropriate provision and best use of transportation facilities." State of Texas v. United States, 292 U.S. 522, 531, 54 S.Ct. 819, 824, 78 L.Ed. 1402.

Appellees do not challenge the Commission's contention that the conditions are germane to the transaction involved in the lease because the purpose of the conditions is to mitigate the direct effect of the lease upon the employees. See United States v. Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company, 282 U.S. 311, 324, 339, 340, 51 S.Ct. 159, 162, 75 L.Ed. 359. But they insist that the conditions which the Commission is permitted by this section to attach to its order must also conform to the standard of public interest which the statute sets up to guide the Commission's action. From this premise they argue that the prescribed conditions are unauthorized because unrelated to the public interest in its statutory sense. They maintain that a carrier's employees, as such, are not part of the public whose interest is to be promoted by the lease, and that their interest in keeping their employment without loss of compensation is of private concern and no part of that public interest in the maintenance of an adequate and efficient transportation system which the statute contemplates.

Accepting the premise, as we may for present purposes, without considering the contention of the Commission that the conditions if just and reasonable, need not be related to the other statutory standards, the issue is narrowed to a single question whether we can say, as matter of law, that the granting or withholding of the protection afforded to the employees by the prescribed conditions can have no influence or effect upon the maintenance of an adequate and efficient transportation system which the statute recognizes as a matter of public concern.

Appellees do not attack the sufficiency of the evidence on which the Commission's findings are based, and that evidence was not submitted to the district court for review. Hence we are free to disturb the findings only if we can say that there can be no rational basis for them. Mississippi Valley Barge Line Co. v. United States, 292 U.S. 282, 54 S.Ct. 692, 78 L.Ed. 1260; Swayne & Hoyt, Ltd. v. United States, 300 U.S. 297, 304, 57 S.Ct. 478, 481, 81 L.Ed. 659; Rochester Telephone Corp. v. United States, 307 U.S. 125, 146, 59 S.Ct. 754, 83 L.Ed. 1147. Appellees do not deny that the use of part of the savings resulting from the lease to compensate the employees for the loss which it will occasion, is just and reasonable so far as the interest and relations of employer and employee are concerned; or that the lease...

To continue reading

Request your trial
93 cases
  • Lamoille Valley R. Co. v. I.C.C.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit
    • June 28, 1983
    ...in efficiency is minor, the public interest supports preserving the more efficient route. See United States v. Lowden, 308 U.S. 225, 230, 60 S.Ct. 248, 251, 84 L.Ed. 208 (1939) ("the term public interest ... 'has direct relation to adequacy of transportation service [and] to its essential c......
  • Mandeville Island Farms v. American Crystal Sugar Co
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • May 10, 1948
    ...75 L.Ed. 359, and Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton R. Co., 295 U.S. 330, 55 S.Ct. 758, 79 L.Ed. 1468, with United States v. Lowden, 308 U.S. 225, 60 S.Ct. 248, 84 L.Ed. 208; Hopkins v. United States, 171 U.S. 578, 19 S.Ct. 40, 43 L.Ed. 290, with Stafford v. Wallace, 258 U.S. 495, 42 S.Ct.......
  • Standard Oil Co of California and Standard Stations v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • June 13, 1949
    ...review in New York Central Securities Corp. v. United States, 287 U.S. 12, 24, 53 S.Ct. 45, 48, 77 L.Ed. 138; United States v. Lowden, 308 U.S. 225, 60 S.Ct. 248, 84 L.Ed. 208. 15 Representative Floyd of Arkansas, one of the managers on the part of the House, explained the use of the word '......
  • Federal Power Commission v. Hope Natural Gas Co City of Cleveland v. Same
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • January 3, 1944
    ...Interstate Commerce Commission v. Railway Labor Executives Ass'n, 315 U.S. 373, 62 S.Ct. 717, 86 L.Ed. 904; United States v. Lowden, 308 U.S. 225, 60 S.Ct. 248, 84 L.Ed. 208. Whether the Commission will assert its apparently broad statutory authorization over prices and discriminations is, ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT