United States v. Western Pacific Railroad

The three respondent railroads each sued in the Court of Claims to recover from the United States as shipper the difference between the tariff rates actually paid and those allegedly due on 211 Army shipments of steel aerial bomb cases filled with napalm gel.1 Approximately 200 of the shipments were made over the lines of respondents Bangor and Seaboard in 1944; the remainder were carried by respondent Western Pacific in 1948 and 1950.

Napalm gel is gasoline .which has been thickened by the addition of aluminum soap powder. The mixture is inflammable but not self-igniting. In a completed…