delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul &' Pacific Railroad Company brought this action in the federal court for Minnesota to recover from the Fullerton Lumber Company freight charges on a carload of coal shipped1 to it. The case was tried without a jury. The defence was payment. It appeared that, upon delivery of the car, the carrier had, as customary, accepted the defendant’s check oh a local bank for the amount of the charges; that it had delayed presenting the cheek for payment; and that meanwhile the bank had failed. The defendant contended that it was relieved from liability because of the carrier’s unjustifiable delay in presenting the check. The trial court ruled that the Interstate Commerce Act requires that a carrier’s charges be paid strictly in currency; and that since the check had not been paid, the defendant was liable even if the carrier’s failure to receive the money was due wholly to its own negligence. Judgment entered for they carrier was affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. 36
1
F. (2d) 180. This Court granted a writ of certiorari.
It has long been settled that payment of a carrier’s charges must be made in money; and that the payment must be cash as distinguished from credit.
1
The purpose
*522
of the requirement is solely to prevent rebates or unjust discrimination and to ensure observance of the tariff rates. Compare
Chicago & North Western Ry. Co.
v.
Lindell,
Whether in the case at bar the defendant is liable depends, hot upon any provision of the Interstate Commerce Act, but upon the rules of law generally applicable to payment by check. These, and other questions which have been argued, need not be considered by us.
Reversed.
Notes
Conference Ruling No. 207 of Interstate Commerce Commission (September 15, 1906);
Louisville & Nashville R. Co.
v.
Mottley,