Citations
- 209 F. Supp. 744
Full opinion text
AUSTIN, District Judge.
This is a suit by Mechling Barge Lines, Inc., a common carrier, and several grain elevator operators served by barges, to set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The order continued in existence a reduced rail rate for corn and corn products transported on the New York Central Belt Line. The Chicago Board of Trade was permitted to intervene as a plaintiff and the New York Central Railroad and several grain elevator operators on its Belt Line were permitted to intervene as defendants.
The Belt Line west of Kankakee, Illinois, roughly parallels the Illinois River on which the barges operate. The barge lines and elevators served by them are in competition with the Belt Line and elevators served by it for the business of transporting corn from northern and central Illinois to destinations on the eastern seaboard. Some farmers sell their corn to elevators for transportation by barge to an east-west railroad and others sell theirs to elevators for transportation by the north-south Belt Line to a connecting east-west railroad or to merchants in Chicago. The transportation rates are of course very important in the competition.
Prior to the published New Kankakee all-rail combination rate, the through one-factor rates for grain and grain products from Streator on the Kankakee Belt Line to New York were 72.5^ per cwt.; the Chicago combination from stations on the Kankakee Belt Line consisted of a local rate of 23^ to Chicago, plus the 49.5jé reshipping rate east, or 72.5¡é per cwt.; the Kankakee combination rate from stations on its Belt Line to Kankakee and reshipping to the east was also composed of the same rate factors. Thus, the through one-factor rates, the Chicago combination and the Kankakee combination, were all equal.
The proposed new Kankakee combination reduced the rate on corn and corn products from stations on the Kankakee Belt Line to 6(é on corn milled-in-transit for the purpose of meeting the barge competition on the Illinois River, plus a reshipping rate of 49.5{S beyond Kankakee to the east. The local, or 6