MR. JUSTICE BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Chicago Junction Railway and the Chicago River and Indiana Railroad are terminal railroads located
On April 10, 1923, this suit was brought in the federal court for the Northern District of Illinois against the United States, the Commission, the New York Central, the terminal railroads and the stockholders thereof.
The order did not provide for the issue of a certificate of public convenience and necessity. It did not disclose whether it was issued under paragraph 18 of § 1 or under paragraph 2 of § 5. An application, by the carriers who are plaintiffs herein, that this be specified was denied by the Commission without opinion. In this Court counsel for all the defendants stated that the order was entered solely under paragraph 2 of § 5. We have, therefore, no occasion to consider the incidents of applications under paragraph 18 of § 1, or rights thereunder. Several reasons are urged why the order should be held void. The defendants, besides asserting its validity, insist that the plaintiffs have no interest which entitled them to assail the order; and that there are, also, other obstacles to the maintenance of this suit.
First. Plaintiffs contend that the order is void because there was no evidence to support the finding that the acquisition of control of the terminal railroads by the New York Central "will be in the public interest." The bill charges, in clear and definite terms, that this finding was wholly unsupported by evidence. We must take that fact as admitted for the purposes of this appeal. The allegation
Whether this order can be described properly as legislative, may be doubted. It is clear that legislative character alone would not preclude judicial review. Rate orders are clearly legislative. Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., 211 U.S. 210, 226. Nor would the further fact that the order is permissive preclude review, if by that term is meant an order which, in contradistinction to one compelling performance, authorizes a carrier to do some act otherwise prohibited. Orders entered under the Act of June 18, 1910, c. 309, 36 Stat. 539, 547, amending § 4 of the Interstate Commerce Act, are of this character. That section prohibits carriers from charging more "for a shorter than for a longer distance over the same line or route in the same direction" without obtaining authority from the Commission. A suit will lie to set aside an order granting such authority, and to enjoin action by the carrier thereunder.
It is further contended that paragraph 2 of § 5 confers a power purely discretionary, and that, for this reason, the order entered cannot be set aside by a court merely on the ground that the action taken was based on facts erroneously assumed, or of which there was no evidence.
Second. The defendants contend that the plaintiffs have not the legal interest necessary to entitle them to challenge the order. That they have in fact a vital interest is admitted. They are the competitors of the New York Central. Practically all the tonnage originated at or destined to points on these terminal railroads is competitive, in that the same can be hauled either over the lines of the New York Central or over those of the plaintiffs. Prior to the date of the order, and while the terminal railroads were uncontrolled by any trunk line carrier, they were all served impartially and without discrimination; and they competed for the traffic on equal terms. The order substitutes for neutral control of the terminal railroads, monopoly of control in the New York Central; and, is so doing, necessarily gives to it substantial advantage over all its competitors and subjects the latter to serious disadvantage and prejudice. The main purpose of the acquisition by the New York Central was to secure a large share of the Chicago business. By means of the preferential position incident to the control of these terminal railroads, it planned to obtain traffic theretofore enjoyed by its competitors. Because such was the purpose of the New York Central control, and would necessarily be its effect, these plaintiffs intervened before the Commission. That their apprehensions were well founded is shown by the results. The plaintiffs are no longer permitted to compete with the New York Central on equal terms. A large volume of traffic has been diverted from their lines to those of the New York Central. The diversion of traffic has already subjected the plaintiffs to irreparable injury. The loss sustained exceeds $10,000,000. Continued control by the New York Central will subject them to an annual loss in net earnings of approximately that amount. If, as suggested in Interstate Commerce Commission v.
This loss is not the incident of more effective competition. Compare Edward Hines Trustees v. United States, 263 U.S. 143, 148. It is injury inflicted by denying to the plaintiffs equality of treatment. To such treatment carriers are, under the Interstate Commerce Act, as fully entitled as any shipper. Pennsylvania Co. v. United States, 236 U.S. 351. It is true that, before Transportation Act, 1920, the Interstate Commerce Act would not have prohibited the owners of the terminal railroads from selling them to the New York Central. Nor would it have prohibited the latter company from making the purchase. And, by reason of a provision then contained in § 3 of the Interstate Commerce Act, the purchase might have enabled the New York Central to exclude all other carriers from use of the terminals. Compare Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co. v. United States, 242 U.S. 60; Manufacturers Ry. Co. v. United States, 246 U.S. 457, 482. But Transportation Act, 1920 repealed that provision in § 3; it made provision for securing joint use of terminals; and it prohibited any acquisition of a railroad by a carrier, unless authorized by the Commission. By reason of this legislation, the plaintiffs, being competitors of the New York Central and users of the terminal railroads theretofore neutral, have a special interest in the proposal to transfer the control to that company.
The plaintiffs may challenge the order because they are parties to it. The Judicial Code, § 212 (originally the Commerce Court Act, June 18, 1910, c. 309, 36 Stat. 542,) declares that any party to a proceeding before the Commission may, as of right, become a party to "any suit wherein is involved the validity of such order." The section does not in terms provide that such party may institute
Third. It is contended that this bill was properly dismissed for want of jurisdiction, at least as to the terminal companies and their stockholders other than the New York Central, because the plaintiffs have joined with the suit to set aside the order, a suit to restore the status quo. The objection is not that the bill is multifarious, or that it is otherwise in conflict with established equity practice. The argument is that the United States is a necessary party; that, against it, suit can be brought only when Congress gives consent; that the suit was brought necessarily and solely under the Act of October 22, 1913, c. 32, 38 Stat. 219, 220; and that the consent so given does not extend to a suit in which it is sought to set aside both the order and rights acquired by private persons thereunder. There is nothing in the legislation to indicate that Congress intended such a limitation of the scope of the relief
The contention that the suit is barred by laches is clearly unfounded. The situation of none of the defendants appears to have been affected by the brief lapse of time. Compare United States v. Southern Pacific Co., 259 U.S. 214, 240; Southern Pacific Co. v. Bogert, 250 U.S. 483, 488.
Reversed.
I think the injuries alleged to have been sustained by complainants are not such as to afford the basis for a legal remedy. Complainants are interested only in the sense that the acquisition of the rights here in question by their competitor will enable the latter to absorb a larger share of the business. That is not enough to constitute a remediable interest.
Before Transportation Act, 1920, the New York Central would have been free to acquire these terminals without the consent of the Commission. If it had done so, its gain of business with the resulting loss to complainants would have been the same; but it would be inadmissible to assert that complainants might have maintained a suit to annual or enjoin the acquisition on the ground of that injury. "The effort of a carrier to obtain more business . . . proceeds from the motive of self-interest which is recognized as legitimate." United States v. Illinois Central R.R. Co., 263 U.S. 515, 523. See Johnson v. Hitchcock, 15 Johns. (N.Y.) 185.
It is claimed, however, that Transportation Act, 1920, so alters the rule as to give a right of action to complainants where none existed before. I am unable to perceive any sound basis for the conclusion. That act, so far as this question is concerned, requires the carrier, as a pre-requisite to an acquisition of the character here under consideration, to secure the authorization of the Commission, which that body may grant if "it will be in the public interest." The mere effect of such acquisition upon the business of competing lines is no more to be considered since the Act of 1920 than it was prior to the passage thereof. It is the public, not private, interest which is to be considered.
The complainants have no standing to vindicate the rights of the public, but only to protect and enforce their
If it were conceded that the acquisition of the terminals by the New York Central was in the public interest, I suppose it would not be contended that complainants had any standing to interfere on the ground that their opportunities for obtaining business had been impaired. And, since they are without legal right to intervene to redress a public grievance, the contrary fact that the acquisition will not be in the public interest cannot avail them. Their complaint must stand or fall upon the nature of their own grievance. A private injury for which the law
The decision of the Court here proceeds upon the theory that the injury complained of is a denial of equality of treatment in the use of the terminals; but I do not understand this to be the gravamen of the bill. The complaint is of inequality of opportunity to get business — not of opportunity to use the terminals. Complainants' access to the use and enjoyment of the terminal facilities acquired by the New York Central, remains the same in respect of any business they may obtain. Interstate Commerce Act, § 3-(3), (4), as amended by Transportation Act, 1920, c. 91, 41 Stat. 479. The Commission granted the authorization only upon condition that the neutrality of the terminals in their handling of traffic should be preserved.
I am authorized to say that MR. JUSTICE McREYNOLDS and MR. JUSTICE SANFORD concur in this dissent.
FootNotes
Leave to intervene can be granted only to one entitled under the act to complain to the Commission. The right to complain was broadly bestowed by Congress. Act of February 4, 1887, c. 104, § 13, 24 Stat. 379, 383, as amended June 18, 1910, c. 309, § 11, 36 Stat. 539, 550, 557. From its inception, the Commission has construed liberally this right to complain. See Boston & Albany R.R. Co. v. Boston & Lowell R.R. Co., 1 I.C.C. 158, 173, 174; In re Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Ry. Co., 2 I.C.C. 231, 235.
See also Nashville Grain Exchange v. United States, 191 Fed. 37; Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 194 Fed. 449; Merchants' & Manufacturers' Traffic Association v. United States, 231 Fed. 292; McLean Lumber Co. v. United States, 237 Fed. 460; City of New York v. United States, 272 Fed. 768, 769; Village of Hubbard v. United States, 278 Fed. 754, 759; Tennessee v. United States, 284 Fed. 371, s.c., Nashville, etc. Ry. v. Tennessee, 262 U.S. 318; Detroit & M. Ry. Co. v. Boyne City. G. & A.R. Co., 286 Fed. 540, 548.
In Edward Hines Trustees v. United States, 263 U.S. 143, 147, 148, the bill was dismissed because it failed to disclose any interest in the plaintiff. Cases like Railroad Co. v. Ellerman, 105 U.S. 166, which are not brought under the Interstate Commerce Act, have no bearing on the question here presented. The contention that under the principle applied in Muskrat v. United States, 219 U.S. 346, Congress was without power to confer upon persons situated like the plaintiffs the right to challenge in the courts the validity of the order is unsound.
"2. The present neutrality of handling traffic inbound and outbound by the Junction and River Road organization shall be continued so as to permit equal opportunity for service to and from all trunk lines reaching Junction rails, without discrimination as to routing or movement of traffic which is competitive with the traffic of the Central, and without discrimination against such competitive traffic in the arrangement of schedules."
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