Cincinnati, N. O. & T. P. Ry. Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission. Interstate Commerce Commission v. Cincinnati. N. O. & T. P. Ry. Co.

Citations

• 162 U.S. 184
• 40 L. Ed. 935
• 16 S. Ct. 700
• 1896 U.S. LEXIS 2199

Syllabus

<p>When a state railroad company whose road lies within the limits of the state, enters into the carriage of foreign freight by agreeing to receive the goods ijy virtue of foreignthrougli bills of lading, and to participate in through rates and charges, it thereby becomes part1 of a continuous line, not made by a consolidation with the foreign companies, but by an arrangement for the continuous carriage or shipment from one State to another.; and thus becomes amenable to the Federal act in respect to such interstate commerce; and, having thus subjected itself to the control of the Interstate Commerce Commission, it cannot limit that control in respect to foreign traffic to certain points on its road to the exclusion of other points.</p> <p>When goods shipped under a through bill of lading, or in any other way indicating a common control, management or arrangement, from a point in one State to a point in another State are received in transit by a state common carrier, such carrier, if a railroad company, must be deemed to have subjected its road to an arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment within the meaning of the act to regulate commerce.</p> <p>The Interstate Commerce Commission is not empowered either expressly, Or by implication, to fix rates in advance; but, subject to the prohibitions that their charges shall not be unjust or unreasonable, and that they shall not unjustly discriminate, so as to give undue preference or disadvantage to persons or traffic similarly circumstanced, the act to regulate commerce leaves common carriers as they were at the common law, free to make special contracts looking to the increase of their business, to classify their traffic, to adjust and apportion their rates so as to meet the necessities of commerce, and generally to manage their important interests upon the same principles which are regarded as sound, and adopted in other trades and pursuits.</p>