State ex rel. Burr v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad

Citations

• 59 Fla. 612

Syllabus

<p>1. Rule 15A of the Railroad Commissioners of this State merely fixes a rate for switching cars of rough lumber consigned to and arriving at the City of Jacksonville from points in this State to any planing mill in the Jacksonville yards and thence, after lumber is dressed to any point in said yards. This rule does not seek to compel a service.</p> <p>2. The service contemplated by Rule 15A of the Railroad Commissioners of this State, the stopping of a commodity in transit for the purpose of treatment, is in the nature of a special privilege which the carrier may concede, but which the shipper cannot, in the present state of the law, demand as a matter of lawful right.</p> <p>3. The carrier is entitled to compensation, a reasonable profit beyond the mere costs for the extra service rendered and the .privilege extended of stopping cars loaded with lumber at planing mills for treatment and then transporting and delivering them to the place of destination.</p> <p>4. Carriers may not discriminate between markets nor between individuals in the granting of the privilege of milling in transit, and the Railroad Commissioners likewise, in regulating such privileges may not unjustly discriminate.</p> <p>5. It is not essential to the validity of Rule 15A of the Railroad Commissioners that it should prescribe or fix one rate for the service of milling in transit to be rendered in all markets and localities of the State. The circumstances of each road and each market or locality must determine the rates of toll to be properly allowed for this service.</p> <p>6. Whether the service of milling in transit as contemplated by Rule 15A may or may not be enforced as a duty, yet when voluntarily entered upon, it may be regulated and the charges therefor prescribed by the Railroad Commissioners.</p> <p>7. It is settled law that the duties of a common carrier may arise out of usage as well as from statutory enactments, and when once established the obligation of such carriers to perform