CARRIERS - INTERSTATE COMMERCE - STOCKYARD A COMMON CARRIER

The Union Stock Yard and Transit Company of Chicago performed the services of loading and unloading livestock at its stockyards in Chicago. It neither owned nor controlled any railroad directly or indirectly, but restricted its transportation service to the loading and unloading of livestock as specified in its tariff. It owned the platforms and chutes which were the necessary and only means of loading and unloading at its yard, to and from which the livestock was shipped interstate by rail. For this service it charged the railroads the scheduled rates.

Appellant contended that, having divested itself of all control and participation in the operation of its railroad, it was no longer within the jurisdiction of the commission over "common carriers by railroad" conferred by the Interstate Commerce Act, but was subject to regulation only by the secretary of agriculture under the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921. Held, that the services of loading and unloading livestock rendered appellant a common carrier and subject to the Interstate Commerce Act. Union Stock Yard & Transit Co. of Chicago v. United States, 308 U.S. 213, 60 S. Ct. 193 (1939).