Farley Terminal Co. v. Atchison

In these separate but related actions for damages for breach of contract, Farley Terminal Co., Inc., and Harold Willinger, lessees of TOFC (trailer-on-flatcar) or ""piggyback"" service equipment under separate but substantially identical lease agreements with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company (the Santa Fe), appeal from the district court's granting of summary judgments in favor of the lessor railway. The question presented is whether the Santa Fe's filing of a rate tariff as required by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) - which tariff, when approved, imposed on lessees higher rates for the leasing of TOFC equipment than were provided in the preexisting lease agreements - constitutes an actionable breach of those agreements. We conclude it does not and therefore affirm. Briefly, the facts are these: In its decision in Ex parte 230, Substituted Service - Charges and Practices of For-Hire Carriers and Freight Forwarders (Piggyback Service), 322 I.C.C. 301 (1964), the ICC promulgated regulations requiring that each railroad providing TOFC service in interstate commerce publish, post, and file tariffs containing all rates and charges for the leasing of its TOFC equipment. See 322 I.C.C. at 415; 49 C.F.R. § 500.7 (1964), redesignated 49 C.F.R. § 1090.7 (1967).1 Early in 1967, Farley and Willinger executed separate lease agreements with the Santa Fe whereby each agreed to lease trailers and flatcars from the railway on an availability basis, at rates specified in the agreements. During the following months, each was charged at those rates. However, in July, 1967, the ICC served an order on the Santa Fe and other railroads which provided TOFC service, requiring them to comply with the regulations promulgated in Ex parte 230 by filing appropriate tariffs before August 18, 1967. After obtaining a ninety-day extension, the railroads, including the Santa Fe, filed Trans-Continental Freight Bureau Freight Tariff 2-F, Supplement 41, Section 1, Item 4900-E. This tariff, which established higher rates for the leasing of TOFC equipment than were provided in the preexisting leases, became effective November 17, 1967, after the ICC approved it. Lessees were thereafter charged at the new, higher rates. They brought these actions to recover the difference between the charges they paid under the tariff and those they would have paid under their respective agreements. The district court granted summary judgments in favor of the Santa Fe and these appeals followed.