United States et al. v. Pacific Coast Wholesalers' Association et al. (338 U.S. 689)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 6, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 689 · 70 S. Ct. 411
- Decided
- February 6, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 8–0
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. The appellee, Pacific Coast Wholesalers’ Association, was formed by seven Los Angeles auto parts dealers in 1935; incorporated under California law as a nonprofit corporation in 1943; and had forty-one members and issued freight bills exceeding one million dollars in annual value in 1945. The issue presented is whether this association, with respect to the shipments here involved, is subject to regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission as a freight forwarder or stands in exempt status under §402 (c)(1) of the Interstate Commerce Act. This section reads as follows: “The provisions of this part shall not be construed to apply (1) to the operations of a shipper, or a group or association of shippers, in consolidating or distributing freight for themselves or for the members thereof, on a nonprofit basis, for the purpose of securing the benefits of carload, truckload, or other volume rates, . . . ,” The Interstate Commerce Commission, in 1945, considered the status of the appellee in its first decision in this matter. At that time, it concluded that “It has been established in this proceeding that the traffic handled is for members of the association, that the association was founded and has been operated, in good faith, for the purpose of effecting savings in freight charges for its members by securing the benefits of carload, truckload, or other volume rates,…
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