El Paso & S. W. R. Co. v. Phelps-Dodge Mercantile Co.

Involving similar facts and almost identical questions-of-law,-these-three- appeals have been prosecuted for the purpose of having this court review judgments rendered in actions at law in which the appellants were defendants and the appellees were plaintiffs.

Because of such similarities, our observations' herein, unless otherwise indicated, will apply equally to all three cases.

During the period between April 30, 1923, and June 1, 1928, the appellee in No. 7341, a New York corporation engaged in business in Arizona, received at Bisbee, Douglas, and Clifton, Ariz., 61 carload shipments of sugar, which had moved from various points of origin in California, and upon which freight charges were assessed by the appellant carriers at the contemporaneous commodity rates. The shipments to Bisbee and Douglas were all delivered on or before September 12, 1925, while those to Clifton moved at intervals during the entire period above mentioned.

On September 3, 1925,, the appellee in No. 7341 filed a complaint with the Interstate Commerce Commission, hereinafter referred to as the “Commission,” in which it was alleged that the appellants’ rates on sugar, in carloads, from California…