Interstate Commerce Commission v. Big Sky Farmers and Ranchers Marketing Cooperative of Montana

This appeal concerns a question of the scope of 49 U.S.C. § 303 (b) (5) — the provision of the Interstate Commerce Act which extends to agricultural “cooperative associations” [12 U.S.C. § 1141j(a)], a limited exemption from the certification requirements of the Act and affords cooperatives the privilege to operate in interstate commerce as motor carriers for compensation without authorization from the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Specifically, it involves the question of the validity of a permanent injunction which prohibits Big Sky from transporting in interstate commerce for and on behalf of the United States, for compensation, a tonnage of commodities in excess of fifteen percent of the total tonnage transported annually by Big Sky. The answer requires a careful consideration of the exemption provision.

49 U.S.C. § 303 (b) (5), prior to its amendment in 1968, exempted from Commission regulation “motor vehicles controlled and operated by a cooperative association, as defined in the Agricultural Marketing Act * * * as amended, or by a federation of such cooperative associations, if such federation possesses no greater powers or purposes than cooperative associations so…