United States v. Stephen Brothers Line

JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge:

Now in its sixth decade the Shipping Act of 1916 affords the basis for the first and only suit for severe civil penalties brought by the Government for failure of a water carrier in foreign commerce to file appropriate tariffs. A second count asserted like penalties under the Intercoastal Shipping Act, a later 1933 enactment. The Government lost both counts, the foreign commerce claim at the close of the Government’s evidence, the second at the conclusion of the carrier’s case. The big issue 1 as to each was whether the carrier’s activity was that of a common…