Thompson, Trustee, Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. v. United States et al. (343 U.S. 549)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 2, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 343 U.S. 549 · 72 S. Ct. 978
- Decided
- June 2, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Vinson
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Me. Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court. The sole question before the Court in this case concerns the content of the term “through route” as used in the Interstate Commerce Act. The question arises out of a controversy as to the shipment of grain to market from points in Kansas on the Central Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. From Lenora, Kansas, a typical origin point, grain may be shipped eastward to the Kansas City market over Missouri Pacific lines via Atchison, Kansas, at a rate of 19 cents per hundred pounds. The Missouri Pacific also provides service from Lenora to Omaha, Nebraska, via Atchison, at the rate of 25.5 cents. Midway between Lenora and Atchison, at Concordia, Kansas, the Missouri Pacific connects with a line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad running in a northeasterly direction to Omaha. Concordia is listed by the carriers as a point for interchange of traffic and there is evidence that the Missouri Pacific and the Burlington offer through transportation via Concordia from Lenora to points on the Burlington line short of Omaha. But there is no evidence that any shipment has ever been made from Lenora to Omaha via the Burlington line or that the carriers have ever offered through service over that route, although the haul from Lenora to Omaha via the Burlington is approximately the same length as the haul from Lenora to…
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