159 F. Supp. 952 | N.D. Ala. | 1957
By this action,
The burden of proof was upon the plaintiff to show that the proposed changed rates were just and reasonable. Section 216(g) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 316(g). The plaintiff relied on statements reflecting that the rates range from 34 cents to $1.20 per mile and that its average operating cost is 27.13 cents per truck.
In Pick-Up and Delivery in Official Territory, 218 I.C.C. 441, the Commission indicated the indefinite character of average system costs in rate making:
“Cost studies based on system average costs are necessarily of limited value in determining transportation costs fairly apportionable to particular kinds of traffic, because of the inevitable conjecture as to whether conditions affecting the average figures similarly come into play in the case of the particular traffic.”
Again, in Commodities in Middle West States, 46 M.C.C. 445, the same point is made by the Commission:
“Average costs for all kinds of traffic are of little value in determining the reasonableness of rates on particular articles.”
The Commission’s report conceded that the same rating may be desirable on the three kinds of tile. The-proposed rates on rubber and plastic tile-are equal to certain of plaintiff’s published rates on asphalt tile in existence-for as much as five years. Such existing-rates on asphalt tile have not been prescribed or expressly approved by the Commission, nor did the plaintiff make-any showing as to the eompensativenessof such rates. The plaintiff insists that a presumption should be indulged that such rates in existence for so long a period are-compensatory. The inferences to be-drawn, if rational, are matters for the-Commission alone.
The plaintiff introduced no detailed cost data. It did not show that the-proposed rates covered even its “out-of-pocket costs.”
. Under Sections 1336, 2284 and 2321 of Title 28 U.S.C. and Section 1009 of Title 5 U.S.C.
. In effect, plaintiff’s proposed rates extend its established rates on asphalt tile from Jackson and New Orleans to all three types of tile, asphalt, rubber and plastic; and generally between all points in the South.
. Chicago & E. I. R. Co. v. United States, D.C.S.D.Ind.1952, 107 F.Supp. 118, 124, 125, affirmed 344 U.S. 917, 73 S.Ct. 346, 97 L.Ed. 707; Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. United States, 1951, 340 U.S. 216, 228, 71 S.Ct. 264, 95 L.Ed. 225.
. New England Divisions Case (Akron, C. & Y. R. Co. v. U. S.), 1923, 261 U.S. 184, 204, 43 S.Ct. 270, 67 L.Ed. 605; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Union Pacific R.R. Co., 1912, 222 U.S. 541, 547, 32 S.Ct. 108, 56 L.Ed. 308.
. Mississippi Valley Barge Line Co. v. United States, 1934, 292 U.S. 282, 286-287, 54 S.Ct. 692, 78 L.Ed. 1260; Roehester Telephone Corp. v. United States, 1939, 307 U.S. 125, 146, 59 S.Ct. 754, 83 L.Ed. 1147; Board of Trade of Kansas, City, Mo. v. United States, 1942, 314 U.S. 534, 546-548, 62 S.Ct. 366, 86 L.Ed. 432.
. New England Divisions Case (Akron, C. & Y. R. Co. v. U. S.), 1923, 261 U.S. 184, 204, 43 S.Ct. 270, 67 L.Ed. 605; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Union Pacific R.R. Co., 1912, 222 U.S. 541, 547, 32 S.Ct. 108, 56 L.Ed. 308.
. See Boston and Blaine Railroad v. United States, D.C.Mass., 153 F.Supp. 952, 957.