Interstate Commerce Commission v. Transcon Lines, a Corporation Leonard L. Gumport, Chapter 7 Trustee

The Interstate Commerce Commission (the ICC or the Commission) brought suit against Transcon Lines (Transcon) and its trustee in bankruptcy, Leonard Gumport (the Trustee), seeking an injunction against the collection of freight charges in violation of ICC credit regulations or in excess of Transcon’s tariffs filed with the Commission. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants. The ICC appeals.

The case presents several unusual elements: a challenge by the Trustee to the ICC’s credit regulations as subversive of the traditional “filed rate doctrine”; the Trustee’s repudiation of certain of Trans-con’s own filed tariffs; the assertion by the Trustee of authority to collect from Trans-con’s shippers a very large amount of undercharges. We disagree with the reasoning of the district court on these issues and remand to the district court for entry of an injunction against certain of the Trustee’s collection activities. At the same time we affirm the district court’s denial of an injunction against the Trustee’s collection of overdue freight charges.

BACKGROUND

Transcon was once the twelfth largest motor carrier in the United States, with annual revenues of over…