United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Cincinnati, N.O. and Tex. Pac. Ry. Co. v. ICC, 162 U.S. 184 (1896)

Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway

Company v. Interstate Commerce Commission

Nos. 394, 473

Argued January 30-31, 1896

Decided March 80, 1896

162 U.S. 184

APPEALS FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

Syllabus

When a state railroad company whose road lies within the limits of the state enters into the carriage of foreign freight by agreeing to receive the goods by virtue of foreign through bills of lading and to participate in through rates and charges, it thereby becomes part of a continuous line not made by a consolidation with the foreign companies, but by an arrangement for the continuous carriage or shipment from one state to another, and thus becomes amenable to the federal act in respect to such interstate commerce, and, having thus subjected itself to the control of the Interstate Commerce Commission, it cannot limit that control in respect to foreign traffic to certain points on its road to the exclusion of other points.

When goods shipped under a through bill of lading, or in any other way indicating a common control, management, or arrangement from a point in one state to a point in another state are received in transit by a state common carrier, such carrier, if a railroad company, must be deemed to have subjected its road to an arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment within the meaning of the Act to Regulate Commerce.