Kansas City Southern Ry. Co. v. United States, 282 U.S. 760 (1931)
Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. United States
No. 517
Argued January 16, 1931
Decided February 25, 1931
282 U.S. 760
APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI
Syllabus
1. The pendency in a district court of a suit by carriers under the Urgent Deficiencies Act of October 22, 1913 (U.S.C. Title 28, § 43) to set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission does not prevent the district court of another district from entertaining jurisdiction of a it for the same relief brought, in accordance with the venue provisions of the Act, by other carriers entitled to attack the order. P. 762.
2. When such a suit has been brought in one venue, carriers entitled to attack the order in another venue may intervene in that suit. U.S.C. Title 28, § 45a. P. 763.
3. When two such suits to set aside the same order have been brought in different venues, the district court in the later suit is to exercise a sound discretion in determining whether to proceed or to await the outcome of the earlier one, to the end that there shall not be a multiplicity of suits without substantial reason. P. 763.
4. Sound discretion was not abused in the present case by proceeding to judgment, since the pendency of the earlier suit was not raised until the defendants set up the decree therein as an affirmative defense in this one, several months after this suit was begun and on the day of final hearing. P. 764.
5. A common carrier dealing with transportation that is subject to the Interstate Commerce Act cannot escape its statutory obligations by calling itself a private carrier as to such transportation, and this applies to transactions with other carriers. P. 764.
6. Order of the Interstate Commerce Commission directing carriers to desist from transporting free the private, or office, cars of other carriers, sustained on the authority of Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. United States, ante, p. 740. P. 764.
7. Objection that the Commission’s order regulates movements of office cars in intrastate commerce rejected because not made in the bill and because no reason for construing the order as intended to embrace transportation not within the purview of the Interstate Commerce Act is disclosed by the record. P. 765.
Affirmed.
Appeal from a decree of the district court, of three judges, dismissing a bill to set aside, in part, two orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The court below delivered a per curiam opinion which seems not to have been reported.