W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Co. v. Louisville & N. R.

SIMONS, Circuit Judge.

The controversy is between shippers of lumber and carriers in respect to construction of a rule in freight tariffs commonly known as the combination rule. An understanding of the point in dispute requires exposition of its 'historical setting.

From the principal sources of lumber supply in the south and southwest to the centers of consuming territory in the north are many rail routes served by numerous carriers. Shipments of lumber move either at through rates or at combination rates from points of origin to their destination. The through rate is what its name implies,…