Standard Oil Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line R. (6 F.2d 911, 1925)

MEEKINS, District Judge

This is an action brought by the Standard Oil Company, a corporation of New Jersey, hereinafter called complainant against Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, a corporation of Virginia and a corporation of North Carolina, and Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, a corporation of Virginia and a corporation of North Carolina, hereinafter called defendants.

The complainant, a corporation engaged in the sale and distribution of gasoline and refined oils in North Carolina and other states, seeks a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from assessing other than their intrastate rates for the transportation of these products by railroad from Wilmington, N. C., to points in the state of North Carolina over intrastate routes- The sole question involved is whether this traffic is interstate or intrastate in character. There are two suits pending involving the same issue, which by agreement were consolidated and tried together.

Complainant refines gasoline and oils at its refineries at Charleston, S. C., Baton Rouge, La., Baltimore, Md., and other places, and carries the products in its own tank vessels to Wilmington and other ports along the Atlantic seaboard. At Wilmington it maintains an elaborate plant for the transfer of these commodities from the vessels, for the storage thereof, and for selling them to customers throughout the state of North Carolina. The Wilmington plant, which is located approximately one-third of a mile from the Cape Eear river, consists mainly of six large storage tanks, four for gasoline and two for refined oil, with an aggregate eapa