Southern Pacific Co. v. Frye & Bruhn, Inc.

Citations

• 82 Wash. 9

Syllabus

<p>Carriers — Interstate Commerce — Regulation — Contracts — Validity — Burden of Proof. Notwithstanding that an interstate carrier is bound to collect the lawful published tariff rate, regardless of erroneous quotations by agents, and that contracts for shipments impliedly include the terms of the act to regulate commerce, an agreement by an interstate carrier to make a certain freight rate on interstate shipments is presumptively valid, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, and the burden is upon the company to show its invalidity as contrary to its published schedule of rates filed with the interstate commerce commission.</p> <p>Same — Interstate Commerce — Contracts—By Agents — Ratification. The agreement of an interstate railroad agent to protect a double deck rate on shipments of sheep if single deck cars, scheduled at a higher rate, were accepted in lieu of the double deck cars ordered by the shipper, is ratified and cannot be questioned by the railroad company, if the published tariff authorized the contract, where the company actually protected the rate by making, upon demand, a refund of the excess rate, paid under protest at the time of the shipment.</p> <p>Carriers — Interstate Rates — Published Tariffs — Construction. Under a railway freight tariff, published and filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, reciting that shipments of sheep, when loaded in double deck cars, will be charged 170 per cent of the rate provided for single deck cars, but if the company cannot furnish double deck equipment, and shipments move in single deck cars, the rates provided for the latter will be charged, the company is not entitled to collect on the basis of single deck cars on a shipment made in that class, where the shipper ordered the shipment in double deck cars and it was possible for the company to provide the latter class of cars.</p> <p>Same — Rates—Ability to Furnish Cabs — Evidence—Sufficiency. In such a case, the evidence fails to establish that the