Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. United States (330 U.S. 248)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 3, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 330 U.S. 248 · 67 S. Ct. 747
- Docket
- No. 400
- Argued
- January 13, 1947
- Decided
- March 3, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black, Justice Rutledge, Justice Murphy
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a companion case to United States v. Powell and United States v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., decided this day, ante, p. 238. This case, like those, involves the construction of the provision of § 321 (a) of the Transportation Act of 1940 which entitles “military or naval property of the United States moving for military or naval and not for civil use” to land-grant rates. Petitioner was a land-grant road, 13 Stat. 365, 370, and for years carried government property at land-grant rates. 43 Stat. 477, 486, 10 U. S. C. § 1375. It qualified to receive the higher rates authorized by § 321 (a) of the Transportation Act of 1940 by the timely filing of the required release of land-grant claims pursuant to § 321 (b) of the Act. The shipments in controversy were made over petitioner’s railroad on government bills of lading in 1941, 1942, and 1943. They were admittedly government property at the time of carriage. Petitioner submitted its bills to the Government at the published commercial tariff rates. The United States, claiming that under § 321 (a) of the Transportation Act each shipment was entitled to move at land-grant rates, deducted the difference between the commercial rates and the land-grant rates. Petitioner thereupon brought this suit under the Tucker Act to recover the deducted sums. The District Court entered…
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