Peter C. Reiter, et al. v. Langdon M. Cooper, Trustee for Carolina Motor Express, Inc., et al. (507 U.S. 258)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 8, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 507 U.S. 258 · 113 S. Ct. 1213
- Decided
- March 8, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents the question whether, when a shipper defends against a motor common carrier’s suit to collect tariff rates with the claim that the tariff rates were unreasonable, the court should proceed immediately to judgment on the carrier’s complaint without waiting for the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to rule on the reasonableness issue. I In many ways, this is a sequel to our decision in Maislin Industries, U. S., Inc. v. Primary Steel, Inc., 497 U. S. 116 (1990). The facts of the two cases follow a pattern that has been replicated many times in the era of “deregulation" following enactment of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, 94 Stat. 793: A motor carrier negotiates with a shipper rates less than the tariff rates that the Interstate Commerce Act (ICA), 49 U. S. C. § 10701 et seq., requires the carrier to “publish and file” with the ICC, 49 U. S. C. § 10762. After the shipments are delivered and paid for (sometimes years after), the carrier goes bankrupt and its trustee in bankruptcy sues the shipper to recover the difference between the negotiated rates and the tariff rates. Shippers’ standard defenses against such “undercharge” actions have been (1) that the carrier’s attempt to collect more than the agreed-upon rates is 'an “unreasonable practice” proscribed by the Act, see § 10701(a), and (2) that the tariff…
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