Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Standard Oil, 275 U.S. 257 (1927)

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Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v.

Standard Oil Company of Kentucky
Nos. 176 and 177

Argued October 4, 1927
Decided November 28, 1927
275 U.S. 257

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

The plaintiff company, engaged in selling oil (viz., gasolene and refined, lubricating, and fuel oils) within the State of Florida, had storage tanks on and near the Florida seaboard in which it kept supplies sufficient to meet the demands of its business for considerable period in advance, and which it replenished from time to time by fresh supplies purchased by it from other companies. The supplies so purchased were furnished by the vendors from places in the State of Louisiana and in Mexico, respectively, transported by them by sea at their own expense from those places to Florida, and delivered by them in bulk to plaintiff by pumping from the ships through plaintiff’s pipelines, either directly into plaintiff’s storage tanks or (in case of the lubricating oil) into tank cars leased by plaintiff in which the oil was moved by rail to its other storage tanks a few miles distant, and deposited therein. Title passed to the plaintiff on delivery, and settlements with its vendors were made on the basis of the amounts so actually delivered to them, at the market price in effect at times of delivery or (in the case of fuel oil) at prices fixed in advance in yearly contracts calling for delivery of specified quantities each month. In the arrangements with the vendors, none of the oil so brought in was designated or intended for any destination in Florida beyond the storage tanks or tank cars into which it was delivered from the ships, and there was neither necessity nor purpose to send any of it through the storage stations to interior points by immediate continuity of movement, although delivery into storage tanks might occur contemporaneously with withdrawal of oil from the same tanks for the purpose of supplying plaintiff’s bulk and service stations, and although sales of fuel oil to customers were largely contracted for by plaintiff in advance of shipment of such oil to plaintiff from point of origin.

Held that rail transportation of the oil from the storage tanks to plaintiff’s customers in Florida, or to plaintiff’s bulk and service stations there from which it was sold to such customers, was intrastate commerce, and subject to intrastate rates. P. 267.

16 F.2d 441 reversed; 13 id. 633 affirmed.

Certiorari, 273 U.S. 691, to a decree of the circuit court of appeals which modified a decree of the district court enjoining the above-named railroad company from charging the oil company in excess of the intrastate rates for transportation of its products between certain points in Florida and adjudging that the oil company recover the amount of such excess charges already collected.