Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway Co. v. United States

Citations

• 55 Ct. Cl. 507
• 53 Ct. Cl. 258

Syllabus

<p>Judgment was rendered in favor of the defendants in the court below. On appeal the judgment was affirmed, and the Supreme Court decided:</p> <p>The act of March 3, 1873, c. 231, 17 Stat., 558, in appropriating “ for increase of compensation for the transportation of mails on railroad routes,” directed the Postmaster General to readjust such compensation thereafter to be paid “ upon the conditions and at the rates hereinafter mentioned,” thereupon providing that the pay per mile per annum “ shall not exceed ” certain specified sums graded according to average we'ghts of mails carried per day, and further that “ the average weight * * * be acertained, in- every case, by the actual weighing of the mails for such a number of successive working days, not less than thirty by act of March 3, 1905, c. 1480, 33 Stat., 1082, 1088, increased to ninety, at such times * * * not less frequently than once in every four years, and the result * * * be stated and verified in such form and manner, as the Postmaster General may direct.”</p> <p>TIeM: (1) The rates specified are the maxima; and the act leaves it discretionary with the Postmaster General to fix lower rates in contracting with railroads.</p> <p>(2) The aim of the we'ghing provision is to obtain the daily average for the year; the “ working days ” and the weighing days (whether including Sundays or not), are identical; and inasmuch as the mileage of seven-day routes now greatly exceed that of six-day routes the Postmaster General, in the exercise of his discretion over rates, may adopt a general rule, to use in all cases the whole- number of days of the weighing period, Sundays included, as a divisor for obtaining the average weight, instead of omitting Sundays from the divisor, as was done when the six-day routes predominated.</p> <p>The statute prescribes that the aggregate weight for the weighing period shall be divided by the number of “ working days ”— meaning week days — included in the period; but this is director