Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Summerfield, Postmaster General, et al. (347 U.S. 74)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 1, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 347 U.S. 74 · 74 S. Ct. 350
- Docket
- No. 223
- Argued
- December 9, 1953
- Decided
- February 1, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1953
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Warren, Justice Black, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Clark, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Burton, Justice Reed, Justice Minton, Justice R. H. Jackson
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. Delta Air Lines, petitioner in No. 223, is the successor by merger to Chicago and Southern Air Lines (C & S). C & S was an air carrier which conducted both domestic and foreign operations prior to the merger. The present case involves subsidy mail pay for its foreign operations from 1946 through 1950. In 1948 the Board, on applications made by C & S in 1944 and 1945, fixed a prospective annual subsidy for its domestic operations beginning January 1, 1948, which the Board estimated would yield a net return after taxes of 7.4 percent on that part of its investment allocable to those operations. 9 C. A. B. 786. The following three years — 1948, 1949, and 1950 — the rates in operation produced a subsidy of more than $654,000 in excess of a 7.4-percent return. In 1946 C & S applied for subsidy mail pay on its Latin-American routes. On October 18, 1951, the Board issued its opinion and order. Rates were fixed retroactively from November 1, 1946, to December 15, 1950, and prospectively from December 16, 1950. The subsidy awarded was designed to give the carrier a 7-percent return, on the property allocable to foreign operations, after taxes for the past period, and 10 percent for the future. 14 C. A. B. 681. In fixing the subsidy for the past period, the Board refused to offset against the carrier’s need for foreign operations…
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