175 Ind. 630 | Ind. | 1911
Certain shippers at Bloomington, Indiana, filed with the Railroad Commission of Indiana their petition against appellant and the Indianapolis Southern Railway Company, in which it was alleged that there is a physical connection between the lines of respondents in that city, and praying for an order requiring them to publish and file with the commission just and reasonable rates for switching carload traffic between their lines and all the industries of the city, and that they be required to apply said rates for two years to the movement of all traffic destined on either line at Bloomington from points in Indiana. On May 25, 1909, the petition was heard by the commission, and it entered a finding and order, in which it found respondents’ switching tariffs unreasonable and discriminatory, as alleged in the petition, and ordered respondents to issue, publish and file with the commission switching tariffs for the city of Bloomington of $3 a car load for the movement of all commodities, which order was to be in effect for two years, commencing June 11, 1909. The order was to apply to the movement of all commodities in carloads from respondents’ interchange track in the city to the several points of loading and unloading of the several industries located along the tracks and sidings of respondents, as indicated in their tariffs, and the order was also to apply for such time to the movement of such traffic from all such industries, etc., to such interchange track.
To this complaint the commission filed an answer of general denial. There was a trial, special findings and conclusions of law thereon by the court and judgment for defendant, from which this appeal is prosecuted. The errors assigned are based on the action of the court in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial, and on each of its conclusions of law stated. Among the many facts found, the following are the most important: Appellant for many years before the bringing of the suit, owned and operated a line of steam railroad extending from Michigan City through Bloomington to New Albany, also one from Hammond to Indianapolis, one from Orleans to French Lick Springs, one from Bedford to Linton, and one from Wallace Junction to Linton, all in Indiana; that seventy-five per cent of appellant’s traffic moves in interstate commerce; that appellant’s
The direct evidence on this subject was confined to two of appellant’s witnesses — C. T. McHugh, trainmaster, and A. K. Helton, appellant’s station agent at Bloomington. The former testified that “we have all we can do, with our present facilities, to take care of our own business. * * * The conditions are badly congested.” Helton testified that appellant’s facilities at Bloomington are not sufficient to handle the business of appellant, and have not been for three or four years; but he further testified that appellant did not use the tracks — the “private tracks” — named in the tariff for storing purposes, and said: “We do not intend to disturb these tracks.” The lack of facilities complained of by appellant was track room.
In the next place, appellee maintains that appellant cannot complain because the evidence and the court’s findings disclose that there are fifteen sidings and spur-tracks, of all kinds, connected with appellant’s main line at Bloomington; that ten of these tracks are used for the accommodation of the industries located thereon; that the five remaining tracks, in railroad parlance, are designated as “public tracks,” and are used, in whole or in part, for the receipt and delivery of carload traffic, from and to parties having no place of business on the company’s line, for holding empty or loaded cars, being handled in the switching service, and as leads to its local freight house, where parcel freight is received and discharged from cars; that the only congestion existing, if any, relates to these five public tracks, and appellant’s remedy, if any, is under §5206 Burns 1908, Acts 1907 p. 434, §4. The second proviso of said section is as follows: “Provided, that the Railroad Commission of Indiana, after a full hearing of all parties interested, may relieve any such carrier from so switching carload freight at terminal points, which is to be delivered upon its public, delivery tracks at such terminal when it appears that the facilities of such carrier at such point are only sufficient to care for the business originating and terminating on its line at such point.” (Our italics.) Injunctions will not be granted where there is an adequate legal remedy. Where the commission has power to grant relief, application therefor must be made to it. Southern Ind. R. Co. v. Railroad Com., etc. (1909), 172 Ind.
Section four of what is commonly known as the shippers’ act (Acts 1907 p. 434, §5206 Burns 1908) provides, among other things, that “all carriers * * * shall deliver to any consignee on his private track, or track used by him for loading or unloading, or on their public delivery track, and shall receive from any connecting carrier, at any terminal point in this State, for the purpose of delivery to points located on its line at such terminal, or to points reached over or through its line at such terminals, all carload freight tendered to it by any such connecting line, and shall deliver the Same to the consignee on its private track, or on its tracks.” (Our italics.) It is provided in this section that the commission may relieve such carrier from switching carload freight to be delivered on its public delivery tracks when it appears that its facilities are inadequate. It seems to be appellant’s theory, that while the law requires delivery to be made to consignees on public tracks,
While the statute in precise terms does not authorize the commission to require a carrier to move a car from a connecting line to its public tracks, we have no doubt that such power is vested in the commission by necessary implication. Therefore the commission did not exceed its statutory power in making this order. Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Railroad Com., etc. (1906), 38 Ind. App. 439.
Appellant’s next contention is that the order is void because it purports to interfere with interstate commerce. The order requires a tariff of $3 a carload, for the movement of all commodities in carload lots in the switching service. There is nothing in the order limiting its application to intrastate commerce. Before the shippers’ petition was filed with the commission, appellant had filed with the commission its terminal tariff in connection with the Indianapolis
In the case of Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., supra, the state commission had made an order fixing a rate. The
We think counsel for appellant have misapprehended the effect of the decision in case of Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., supra. It does not follow that because the state commission and the court of appeals of Virginia, under the constitution, in fixing rates, acted in a legislative capacity, the courts of Indiana, in reviewing, where proper, the acts of our commission, exert any other than judicial power. Of course, under our Constitution, our courts may not exercise any legislative function. They cannot fix any rate, and it is not so contemplated by the statute. In determining whether a rate fixed by the commission is reasonable or confiscatory, the courts exercise no different power than they did before the enactment of the statute in controversy. Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Wilson (1892), 132 Ind. 517, 18 L.
/appellant claims that where its freight 'rates oil inbound business are the same as those of its competitor, it has a right to serve the industries located on its public and private tracks at Bloomington, and a right to the earnings for such service; that it is not bound to switch loaded cars from the tracks of the Indianapolis Southern railway consigned to industries on its tracks, but that it has, by reason of the location of such industries, the right to such business, which right is a property one, and cannot be lawfully taken away. It appears from the evidence that there are twenty-eight industries located on the public and private tracks of appellant in the vicinity of Bloomington, and but one industry is similarly located on the tracks of the Indianapolis Southern railway.
Counsel for appellant rely on the case of Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Central Stock-Yards Co. (1909), 212 U. S. 132, 29 Sup. Ct. 246, 53 L. Ed. 441, in support of this proposition. The decree in that case required the railway company to deliver its own loaded cars to the Southern Railway Company at Louisville, to be taken to the Central stockyards on that line for unloading.
The laws of Indiana meet the objections of the United States Supreme Court to the Kentucky constitution. Section four of the shippers’ bill (Acts 1907 p. .434, §5206 Burns 1908) authorizes relief by the commission, when there is a congestion of business on the carrier’s public tracks. As to outbound traffic, carriers are not required to do switching service, if they are able and willing to transport the
The claim of appellant’s counsel that “we have the right to the business of these industries into Bloomington, and that no order can be enforced to take it from us so long as we are prepared to handle it at the same rates, or less than those imposed by our competitors,” might commend itself to appellant’s stockholders, but it is not consistent with the duties that carriers owe to shippers and the general public, and is untenable under the statutes. Southern R. Co. v. Railroad Com., etc. (1908), 42 Ind. App. 90; Southern R. Co. v. Railroad Com., etc. (1909), 172 Ind. 113; Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Railroad Com., etc. (1906), 38 Ind. App. 439; Chamber of Commerce v. Chicago, etc., R. Co. (1909), 15 Interstate Commerce Com. 460; Missouri Pac. R. Co. v. Larrabee Flour Mills Co. (1909), 211 U. S. 612, 29 Sup. Ct. 214; 53 L. Ed. 352. The order of the commission does not, in the particulars claimed by appellant, violate any right guaranteed it by the 14th amendment to the federal Constitution.
There is no error in the record. Judgment affirmed.