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[264 U.S. 403, 405] Messrs. Arthur C. Spencer and Charles E. Cochran, both of Portland, Or., and John F. Finerty, of Washington, D. C., for James C. Davis, Agent.
Messrs. Charles E. Cochran and Arthur C. Spencer, both of Portland, Or., for San Francisco & P. S. S. Co.
[264 U.S. 403, 409] Messrs. F. G. Dorety and Reuben J. Hagman, both of St. Paul, Minn., for Great Northern Ry. Co.
Mr. James G. Wilson, of Portland, Or., for A. J. Parrington and Portland Seed Co.
[264 U.S. 403, 413] Mr. Frederick M. Miner, of Minneapolis, Minn., for McCaull-Dinsmore co.
Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.
The courts below affirmed judgment for the plaintiffs in four separate actions brought to recover alleged overcharges on freight said to have been demanded by the respective carriers in violation of the long and short haul clause (Fourth Section, Interstate Commerce Act, c. 104, 4, 24 Stat. 379, 380; 36 Stat. 539, 547, c. 309; 41 Stat. 456, 480, c. 91 [ Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, 8566]), which declares:
The Transportation Act 1920 added:
All the cases involve the same fundamental question of law. The essential charge is that the carrier demanded and received greater compensation for transporting freight for a shorter distance than its published rate for transporting like property for a longer distance over the same route and in the same direction.
It will suffice to state the salient facts and issues disclosed by record No. 114-Davis, Agent, v. Portland Seed Company. They are typical.
Pecos is in western Texas, 160 miles south of Roswell, N. M. A line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway system joins these points and extends northward to Denver, Colo., where it connects with the Union Pacific system, which leads into the northwest. January 4, 1919, the carrier received a car of alfalfa seed at Roswell for transportation to Walla Walla, Wash., by way of Denver. Three weeks later respondent Portland Seed Company received this car at destination and paid [264 U.S. 403, 415] freight charges reckoned at $2.44 per 100 pounds-the scheduled rate from Roswell. During all of January, 1919, the initial carrier's published schedule specified $1,515 per 100 pounds as the rate for transporting alfalfa seed from Pecos to Walla Walla, through Roswell and Denver, and no application had been made to the Interstate Commerce Commission for permission to charge less for the longer than for the shorter haul. The seed company demanded judgment for the excess above the Pecos rate, as an overcharge illegally exacted and recoverable as money had and received.
The insistence is that under the long and short haul clause the lower published rate from Pecos became the maximum which the carrier could charge for the shipment from Roswell, notwithstanding the higher published rate therefor; that the sum charged above the Pecos rate amounted to an illegal exaction, recoverable without other proof of actual damage and without regard to the intrinsic reasonableness of either rate.
Relying on Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. International Coal Co.,
Counsel insist that under section 4 it was unlawful to charge compensation above the published Pecos rate for the
[264 U.S. 403, 416]
transportation from Roswell to Walla Walla. Therefore, the published Roswell rate being unlawful, nonexistent indeed, the Pecos rate became the only one in force. United States v. Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co.,
The opinion does not discuss the carrier's liability to shippers who had paid higher rates for the shorter hauls. No doubt similar relief would have been granted by the Commission, if the situation here revealed had been brought before it.
Respondent has not asked an injunction against illegal rates. It seeks to secure something for itself without proof of pecuniary loss consequent upon the unlawful act. A similar effort failed in Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. International Coal Co., supra. The International Company shipped 40,000 tons of coal from the Clearfield district, paying full schedule rates. The carrier had allowed other shippers from and to the same places at the same time rebates ranging from 5 to 35 cents per ton. Without alleging or proving pecuniary injury resulting [264 U.S. 403, 418] to itself from this unlawful action, the company sought to recover like concessions upon all its shipments. Through Mr. Justice Lamar, this court said:
Southern Pacific Co. v. Darnell-Taenzer Co.,
Section 6 of the Commerce Act directs:
What liability did the carrier incur by publishing a rate from Pecos lower than the scheduled one from Roswell without the Commission's permission, and thereafter imposing and collecting the higher rate upon the shipment to Walla Walla?
Construing the words of section 4 literally, it is argued that unless some property moved over the longer distance at the lower rate before greater compensation was charged for transporting like property over a shorter one, there was no violation of law. We cannot accept this view. It does not accord proper weight to imperative requirements concerning publication of rates and subsequent observance of them. The Commission holds, for example, that although the schedule contains a plain clerical error, nevertheless no other charge may be demanded and the shipper may recover any excess. Lamb-Fish Lumber Co. v. Y. & M. V. R. R. Co., 42 Interst. Com. Com'n R. 470.
The record shows, we think, that the carrier violated the statute by publishing the lower rate for the longer haul without permission and, prima facie at least, incurred the penalties of section 10. Also it became 'liable to the person or persons injured thereby for the full amount of damages sustained in consequence of ... such violation,' together with reasonable counsel fees, as provided by section 8. But mere publication of the forbidden lower rate did not wholly efface the higher intermediate one from the schedule and substitute for all purposes the [264 U.S. 403, 425] lower one, as a supplement might have done, without regard to the reasonableness or unreasonableness of either.
With special knowledge of rate schedules and relying on Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. International Coal Company, the Interstate Commerce Commission for 10 years has required proof of financial loss as a prerequisite to reparation for infractions of the fourth section. The rule is firmly established. Congress has not shown disapproval. The Transportation Act of 1920 (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, 10071 1/4 et seq .), with evident purpose to conserve the carriers' revenues, added the following to the proviso which gives power to exempt from the long and short haul clause:
The rule adopted by the Commission follows the logic of the opinion relied upon and can be readily applied. The contrary view would not harmonize with other provisions of the act, and, put into practice, would produce unfortunate consequences.
The statute requires rigid observance of the tariff, without regard to the inherent lawfulness of the rates specified. It commanded adherence to the published rate from Roswell; section 6 forbade any other charge. Observance of the lower rate from Pecos, put in without authorization, might have been forbidden, as pointed out in United States v. Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co., supra; but it would be going too far to hold, as respondent insists, that the unauthorized publication established the lower rate as the maximum permissible charge from the intermediate point- the only rate therefrom which could be demanded.
If a lower rate published without authority becomes the maximum which may be charged from any intermediate [264 U.S. 403, 426] point, mistakes in schedules (and they are inevitable) may become disastrous. Suppose the rate from an obscure point in Maine to San Franciso via Boston, New York, and Chicago should be printed at $15.00, instead of $150, and the error remain undiscovered for many months, could all who had paid more than $15.00 for passage along that route recover the excess without proof of pecuniary loss?
After the challenged judgments were entered, Kansas City Southern Ry. v. Wolf,
The judgments below are reversed. The causes will be remanded, with appropriate instructions for further proceedings.
Mr. Justice BRANDEIS dissents.
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Citation: 264 U.S. 403
No. 114
Argued: February 20, 1924
Decided: April 07, 1924
Court: United States Supreme Court
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