ICC "Tap Line Case": The Use of Passes by Tap Line Officers.

Abstracted from "Tap Line Case", published in Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 23 I.C.C. 277, 23 I.C.C. 549, and in Decisions of the United States Supreme Court, 234 U.S. 1.

Part 1, Decided April 23, 1912
1. Introduction and summary of opinions.
2. Discriminations resulting from allowances.
3. What is a tap line? Tap lines generally described.
4. General principle controlling the controversy.
5. Each case must stand on its own facts.
6. The log movement to the mill.
7. Use of passes by tap-line officers.
8. The individual cases described.
9. Cases.
10. Supplemental report.

Part 2, Decided May 14, 1912
1. Supplemental Report of the Commission.
2. Cases.
3. Irregular practices of tap lines.

USE OF PASSES BY TAP-LINE OFFICERS. With scarcely an exception the officers of the tap line are officers of the lumber company in the interest of which it is owned and operated. Throughout the record it was frankly admitted that they make use of the privilege of free transportation extended to them by the trunk lines even when traveling on the business of the lumber company and in the capacity of an officer of the lumber company. In one case " car and party " passes are shown to have been used. This is another of the advantages to industries that own short lines serving their plants, and which they have caused to be incorporated as common carriers. The use of such free transportation we regard as altogether improper and unlawful, even though the holder may be an officer of a tap line that we have found to be a common carrier. The affairs of the proprietary lumber company are so interwoven with the affairs of the tap line as to make it impossible to admit the right under the law of an officer of a tap line to use free transportation.

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