Emmons Coal Mining Co. v. Norfolk & W. Ry. Co., 272 U.S. 709 (1927)

Emmons Coal Mining Co. v.

Norfolk & Western Railway Company
No. 70

Argued December 10, 1926
Decided January 3, 1927
272 U.S. 709

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

Syllabus

A tariff governing demurrage at a coal-loading port provided that a car should be considered released when a vessel registered for the cargo or fuel supply of which the coal was part, or when the car was unloaded prior to such registry, that, to avoid delay of switching out and delivering on shipper order in actual sequence of their arrival cars containing the same grade of coal,

the dates on which cars should have been released will be substituted for those on which equivalent tonnage was actually delivered, and detention will be computed on the basis of such substituted dates,

and that the date when a shipment was transferred by written order and acceptance to another party should be the date of release of the car as to the original consignee, and subsequent detention should be charged to new consignee without free time allowance. Held, that a decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission should be followed which construed these provisions as applicable when, pursuant to a pooling and exchange arrangement among several shippers, the loaded cars of one shipper were delivered on the order of another, like cars of the former being retained for the latter and detention chargeable to the latter being computed from the notice of arrival of his own coal to time of delivery on his order of the substituted tonnage. P. 712.

3 F.2d 525 affirmed.

Error to a judgment of the circuit court of appeals which affirmed a judgment of the district court (287 F. 168) in favor of the railway in its action to recover demurrage charges from the coal company and its surety, the Fidelity & Casualty Company of New York.