No. 9773. A. A. SMITH COTTON PRODUCT COMPANY v. LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD COMPANY ET AL. Submitted March 5, 1918. Decided October 29, 1918. Rate on uncompressed cotton in bales from New Orleans, La., to Sweetwater, Tenn., found to have been unreasonable. Reparation awarded. Ernie Adamson for complainant. No appearance for defendants. REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. DIVISION 3, COMMISSIONERS HARLAN, HALL, AND ANDERSON. BY DIVISION 3: Complainant is A. A. Smith, engaged in the brokerage business at Atlanta, Ga., under the name of A. A. Smith Cotton Product Company. By complaint filed July 2, 1917, he alleges that the rate of $1.14 per 100 pounds charged by defendants on 25 bales of uncompressed cotton shipped May 9, 1916, from New Orleans, La., to Sweetwater, Tenn., was unreasonable to the extent that it exceeded 50 cents. We are asked to award reparation and to establish a reasonable rate. Rates are stated in cents per 100 pounds. The shipment weighed 11,016 pounds and moved over the Louisville & Nashville Railroad to Decatur, Ala., and thence over the Southern Railway to Sweetwater. Charges were collected in the sum of $125.58 at the joint first-class any-quantity rate of $1.14, legally applicable. Contemporaneously defendants maintained over the route of movement a commodity rate of 50 cents on uncompressed cotton in bales, carrier's privilege to compress, from New Orleans to Athens, Tenn., an intermediate point 14 miles south of Sweetwater, and to Knoxville, Tenn., 41 miles beyond Sweetwater. The aggregate of the intermediate rates to and from Athens was 66 cents. These departures from the provisions of the fourth section were protected by appropriate applications which were not heard with this case. Effective August 1, 1917, defendants provided in their tariffs that the joint through class rates would not apply on cotton and that thereafter, in the absence of specific commodity rates, the lowest combination of intermediates would apply. The 50-cent rate applied at the time of movement over the lines of the defendants and their connections to various other points in the same general territory. Effective December 16, 1917, it was established from New Orleans to Sweetwater over the route of movement. We find that the rate assailed was unreasonable to the extent that it exceeded 50 cents per 100 pounds, carrier's privilege to compress; that complainant made the shipment as described and paid and bore the charges thereon; that he has been damaged to the extent of the difference between the charges paid and those that would have accrued at the rate herein found reasonable; and that he is entitled to reparation in the sum of $70.50, with interest. An order awarding reparation will be entered. As the carriers concerned are now under federal control, and the Director General has not been made a party, no finding or order for the future can be -made effective in the present state of the pleadings. 51 I. C. C. No. 9381. MIDLAND COAL COMPANY v. ST. LOUIS & SAN FRANCISCO RAILROAD COMPANY ET AL. Submitted April 6, 1917. Decided October 2, 1918. Rate charged for the transportation of a carload of coal from Liberal, Mo., to Burlington, Kans., found to have been unreasonable and unduly prejudicial to the extent that it exceeded the rate of $1.10 contemporaneously applied from other mines in the same locality to the same destination. Reparation awarded. William S. McCaull for complainant. H. B. Sperry for Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company. REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. DIVISION 3, COMMISSIONERS HARLAN, HALL, AND ANDERSON. BY DIVISION 3: Complainant is a corporation engaged in wholesale coal business at Kansas City, Mo. By complaint filed September 15, 1916, it alleges that the rate of $1.65 per net ton charged on a carload of coal shipped December 21, 1914, from Liberal, Mo., to Burlington, Kans., was unreasonable and unduly prejudicial to the extent that it exceeded $1.10. Reparation is asked. Rates are stated in amounts per net ton. The shipment, consisting of lump coal, was made as alleged and consigned by the Liberal Coal & Mining Company from its mine on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad near Liberal, Mo., to the Farmers' Produce Company at Burlington, Kans. It weighed 82,380 pounds and moved over the St. Louis & San Francisco to Fort Scott, Kans., and thence to destination over the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway. Charges were collected in the sum of $67.97 at a rate of $1.65. The rate legally applicable was a combination rate of $1.60 composed of rates of 50 cents to Fort Scott and $1.10 beyond. Effective April 1, 1917, defendants established a rate of $1.10 applicable from Liberal to Burlington over the route of movement. This rate is satisfactory to complainant, and the only question remaining for consideration is one of reparation. Defendants are willing to pay the amount claimed, |