EMERGENCY COAL ACT to issue in transportation of coal or other fuel orders for priorities in car service, embargoes and other suitable measures in favor of or against any carrier, including vessels suitable for transportation of coal on the inland waters of the United States which for such purpose shall be subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, or region, municipality, community, or person, copartnership, or corporation, and to take any other necessary and appropriate steps for the priority in transportation and for the equitable distribution of coal or other fuel so as best to meet the emergency and to promote the general welfare, and to prevent upon the part of any person, partnership, association, or corporation the purchase or sale of coal or other fuel at prices unjustly or unreasonably high. This Act shall not be construed as repealing any of the powers heretofore granted by law to the Interstate Commerce Commission but shall be construed as conferring supplementary and additional powers to said Commission and as an amendment to Section 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act, and subject to the limitations and definitions of commerce controlled by said Act, and all powers given said Interstate Commerce Commission shall be applicable in the execution of this Act. SEC. 3. Because of such emergency and to assure an adequate supply and an equitable distribution of coal and other fuel, and to facilitate the movement thereof between the several States and with foreign countries, to supply the Army and Navy, the Government of the United States and its several departments, and carriers engaged in interstate commerce with the same during such emergency, and for other purposes, and for the further purpose of assisting in carrying into effect. the orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission made under existing law or under Section 2 hereof, there is hereby created and established an agency of the United States to be known as Fuel Federal Distributor, whose appointment shall be made and compensation fixed by the President of the United States. Said distributor shall perform his duties under the direction of the President. SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the Federal Fuel Distributor to ascertain (a) Whether there exists within the United States or any part thereof, a shortage of coal or other fuel and the extent of such shortage; (b) The fields of production of coal and other fuel and the principal markets to which such production is or may be transported and distributed and the means and methods of distribution; (c) The prices normally and usually charged for such coal and other fuel and whether current prices, considering the costs of production and distribution, are just and reasonable; and (d) The nature and location of the consumers; what persons, copartnerships, corporations, regions, municipalities, or communities should, under the acts to regulate commerce administered by the Interstate Commerce Commission, including the Transportation Act, 1920, in time of shortage of coal and other fuel, or the transportation thereof, receive priority in transportation and distribution, and the degree thereof, and any other facts relating to the production, transportation, and distribution of coal and other fuel; and when so ascertained the Federal Fuel Distributor shall make appropriate recommendations pertaining thereto to the Interstate Commerce Commission from time to time either on his own motion or upon the request of the Commission, to the end that an equitable distribution of coal and other fuel may be secured so as best to meet the emergency and promote the general welfare. All facts and data within the possession of the Federal Fuel Distributor shall be at all times accessible and furnished to the Interstate Commerce Commission upon its request. The Interstate Commerce Commission is hereby authorized and directed to receive and consider the recommendation of the Federal Fuel Distributor, based upon his reports upon the foregoing subjects, and any other information which it may secure in any manner authorized by law. SEC. 5 The Federal Fuel Distributor may make such rules, regulations and orders as he may deem necessary to carry out the duties imposed upon him by this Act and may cooperate with any department or agency of the Government, any State, Territory, district or possession, or department, agency, or political subdivision thereof, or any person or persons, and may avail himself of the advice and assistance of any department, commission, or board of the Government, and may appoint or create any agent or agency to facilitate the power and authority herein conferred upon him; and he shall have the power to appoint, remove and fix the compensation of such assistants and employees, not in conflict with existing laws, and make such expenditures for rent, printing, telegrams, telephones, furniture, stationery, office equipment, travel, and other operating expenses as shall be necessary for the due and effective administration of this Act. All facts, data, and records relating to the production, supply, distribution, and transportation of coal and other fuel in the possession of any commission, board, agency, or department of the Government shall at all times be available to the Federal Fuel Distributor and the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the person having custody of such facts, data and records shall furnish the same promptly to the Federal Fuel Distributor of his duly authorized agent or to the Commission on request therefor. SEC. 6. That whenever the President shall be of the opinion that the national emergency hereby declared has passed, he shall by proclamation declare the same, and thereupon, except as to prosections for offenses, this Act shall no longer be in force or effect, and in no event shall it continue in force and effect for longer than twelve months from the passage thereof. SEC. 7. Every person or corporation who shall knowingly make any false representation to the Interstate Commerce Commission or the Federal Fuel Distributor, or to any person acting in their behalf or the behalf of either of them, respecting the price at which coal or other fuel has been, is being, or is to be sold or bought, the inquiry being made for the purposes of this Act, or whoever having obtained coal or other fuel through a priority order or direction shall dispose of the same for purposes other than those for which said priority order or direction was issued without the consent of the Interstate Commerce Commission, shall be deemed guilty if a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $20,000: Provided, That any person or any officer or director of any corporation subject to the provisions of this Act, or the Interstate Commerce Act and the Acts amendatory thereof, or any receiver, trustee, lessee, agent or person acting for or employed by any such corporation, who shall be convicted as aforesaid, shall, in addition to the fine herein provided for, be liable to imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term not exceeding two years, in the discretion of the court. Every violation of this section may be prosecuted in any court of the United States having jurisdiction of crimes within the district in which such violation is committed, or through which the transportation is conducted, or in which the car service is performed, or in which concession or discrimination is granted, or given, or solicited, or accepted, or received; and whenever the offense is begun in one jurisdiction and completed in another it may be dealt with, inquired of, tried, determined, and punished in either jurisdiction in the same manner as if the offense had been actually and wholly committed therein. SEC. 8. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum of $250,000, available until expended, for the purposes of this Act, including payment of personal services in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, and all expenses incident to organizing the work of the President's fuel distribution committee, and not exceeding $50,000 thereof, shall be available for reimbursement and payment upon specific approval of the President of expenses incurred since May 15, 1922, in connection with the work of the President's fuel distribution committee organized for the purpose of helping to meet the emergency existing in the matter of fuel. RULES OF PRACTICE BEFORE THE COMMISSION I. RULES OF PRACTICE BEFORE THE INTERSTATE COM- Public sessions of the Commission or Divisions thereof for hearing evidence or PUBLIC SES oral arguments or for public conferences, and hearings before examiners, will be HEARINGS. held as set upon notice by the Commission, subject to change upon such notice as may be practicable. SIONS AND II. PARTIES. (a) The parties to proceedings before the Commission are complainants, defendants, interveners, protestants, respondents, applicants, and petitioners, according to the nature of the proceeding and their relation thereto. Any party may appear and be heard in person or by attorney. (b) In complaint cases the parties who complain to the Commission of anything done or omitted to be done in violation of the provisions of the act to regulate commerce, as amended, otherwise known as the interstate commerce act, and in these rules referred to as the act, by any common carrier subject to the act are those designated in section 13 thereof, and are styled complainants. The common carriers so complained of, and their receivers or operating trustees, if any, are styled defendants. Two or more complainants may join in one complaint if their respective causes of action are against the same defendant or defendants and involve substantially the same violation of the act and a like state of facts. (c) If complaint is made in respect of through transportation by continuous carriage or shipment, all carriers subject to the act participating therein should be made defendants. (d) If complaint is made of rates, fares, charges, regulations, or practices of more than one carrier, all carriers against which an order is sought should be made defendants. (e) If complaint is made of a classification or any provision thereof, it will ordinarily suffice to make defendants the carriers operating one or more through routes between representative points of origin and destination. (f) The receiver or trustee operating the line of a defendant must also be made defendant. (g) In investigation proceedings the carriers designated therein are styled respondents. (h) In investigation and suspension proceedings those upon whose protests the proceeding was instituted are styled protestants, and the carriers whose tariffs are under suspension are styled respondents. (i) In applications for relief from or under any provision of the act the carriers by whom or on whose behalf the application is made are styled applicants. (j) Others seeking relief are styled petitioners. (k) Petitioners permitted to intervene as hereinafter provided are styled interveners. 'See Appendix, page 350, for special rules of practice governing the procedure to be followed as to causes of action arising out of federal control. II. PARTIES. (Con.) III. COMPLAINTS. RULES OF PRACTICE BEFORE THE COMMISSION (1) Anyone entitled under the act to complain to the Commission may petition for leave to intervene in any pending proceeding prior to or at the time it is called for hearing, but not after except for good cause shown. The petition shall set forth the grounds of the proposed intervention; the position and interest of the petitioner in the proceeding; and, if affirmative relief is sought, should conform to the requirements for a formal complaint. Leave will not be granted except on allegations reasonably pertinent to the issues already presented and which do not unduly broaden them. If leave is granted the petitioner thereby becomes an intervener and a party to the proceeding. When the petition is filed prior to the hearing the petitioner must furnish therewith a sufficient number of copies for service upon all parties to the proceeding and three additional copies for the use of the Commission. When not filed prior to but tendered at the hearing sufficient copies must be provided for distribution as motion papers to the parties represented at the hearing. If leave be granted at the hearing sufficient copies must also be furnished for service and three additional copies for the use of the Commission. It is desirable, especially where affirmative relief is sought, that the petition be filed in season to permit of service on the defendants and to afford them an opportunity to answer before the hearing, thereby making it possible in some instances to grant leave where otherwise it would be denied in fairness to the parties to the proceeding. (a) Complaints may be either informal or formal. (b) Informal complaints may be made by letter or other writing and as received are filed. Matters thus presented are, if their nature warrants it, taken up by correspondence with the carriers affected in an endeavor to bring about satisfaction of the complaint without formal hearing, and are given serial numbers on the informal docket. This informal procedure has been found efficacious in the great majority of cases and is recommended. (c) No form of informal complaint is prescribed, but in substance the letter or other writing must contain the essential elements of a complaint, including name and address of the complainant, the names of the carrier or carriers against which complaint is made, a statement that the act has been violated by the carrier or carriers named, indicating when, where and how, and a request for affirmative relief. It is desirable that the informal complaint be accompanied by copies in sufficient number to enable the Commission to transmit one to each carrier named, and it may be accompanied by supporting papers. Proceedings thus instituted on the informal docket are without prejudice to complainant's right to file and prosecute formal complaint, whereupon the proceedings on the informal docket will be discontinued. (d) Section 16 of the act, as amended by section 424 of the transportation act, 1920, provides that all complaints for the recovery of damages shall be filed with the Commission within two years from the time the cause of action accrues, and not after, unless the carrier, after the expiration of such two years or within 90 days before such expiration, begins an action for recovery of charges in respect of the same service, in which case such period of two years shall be extended to and including 90 days from the time such action by the carrier is begun. In either case the cause of action in respect of a shipment of property shall, for the purposes of said section 16, be deemed to accrue upon delivery or tender of delivery thereof by the carrier, and not after. Section 206, subdivision (f), of the transportation act, 1920, provides that the period of federal control shall not be computed as a part of the periods of limitation in claims for reparation to the Commission for causes of action arising RULES OF PRACTICE BEFORE THE COMMISSION prior to federal control. The period of time within which complaints for recovery of damages shall be filed with the Commission under these statutory provisions, and those cited in Appendix 1, will be referred to in these rules as the statutory period. (e) A complaint for the recovery of damages may be informal, but must be filed within the statutory period, and, if informal, should contain, in addition to the matters above indicated, such data' as will serve to identify with reasonable definiteness the shipments or other transportation services in respect of which recovery is sought, the carriers participating, the kind and amount of injury sustained, when and by whom, and, if any recovery is sought on behalf of others than complainant, a statement of the capacity or authority in or by which complaint is made in their behalf. Notification to the Commission that a complaint may or will be filed later for the recovery of damages is not a filing of complaint within the meaning of the statute. (f) Carriers willing to pay damages for violations of the act should make application in the form prescribed by the Commission for authority to pay. Such applications will be filed on the special docket under serial number, and, if granted, orders to that effect will be entered on the special docket. Such application, when not made upon informal complaint filed with the Commission, must be filed within the statutory period and will be deemed the equivalent of an informal complaint and an answer thereto admitting the matters stated in the application. If a carrier is unable to file such application within the statutory period and the claim is not already protected from the operation of the statute by informal complaint, a statement setting forth the facts may be filed by the carrier within the statutory period. Such statement will be deemed the equivalent of an informal complaint filed on COMPLAINTS. behalf of the shipper and sufficient to stay the operation of the statute. III. (Con.) (g) If an informal complaint for recovery of damages cannot be disposed of informally, or is denied on the informal docket, or is by complainant withdrawn from further consideration, the parties affected will be so notified in writing by the Commission. In any such case the matter will not be reconsidered unless, within six months after the date of mailing such notice to complainant, it is resubmitted on the informal docket or formal complaint is filed. If so filed the formal complaint will be deemed to relate back to the date of filing informal complaint. If within said six months the matter is not so resubmitted or formal complaint filed, the complainant will be deemed to have abandoned the complaint and no complaint for recovery of damages based on the same cause of action will thereafter be placed on file or considered unless itself filed within the statutory period. (Conference Ruling 508 rescinded.) (h) Formal complaints must conform to the requirements of rule XXI. The names of all parties complainant and defendant must be stated in full without abbreviation, and the address of each complainant, with the name and address of his attorney, if any, must appear. Each formal complaint must be accompanied by copies in sufficient number to enable the Commission to serve one upon each defendant and retain three for its own use. The Commission will serve the complaint upon each defendant by leaving a copy with its designated agent in Washington, D. C., or, if no such agent has been designated, by posting a copy in the office of the secretary of the Commission. Illustrative of pertinent data are, in case of shipments, their dates, origins, destinations, consignors and consignees, dates of delivery or tender of delivery, car numbers and initials, if in carloads, route of movement, if known, commodities transported, weight, charges assessed, at what rate, when and by whom paid, and by whom borne. III. COMPLAINTS. (Con.) RULES OF PRACTICE BEFORE THE COMMISSION (i) Complaints should be so drawn as fully and completely to advise the parties defendant and the Commission wherein the provisions of the act have been, are, or/and will be violated, by a continuance of the acts or omissions complained of, and should set forth briefly and in plain language the facts claimed to constitute such violation and the relief sought. Two or more grounds of complaint involving the same principle, subject, or state of facts may be included in one complaint, but should be separately stated and numbered. The several rates, fares, charges, classifications, regulations, or practices complained of should be set out by specific reference to the tariffs in which they appear whenever that is practicable. (j) In case violation of two or more sections of the act is alleged, the facts claimed to constitute violation of one section should be stated separately from those in respect of any other section or sections, wherever that can be done by reference or otherwise without undue repetition. (k) In case violation of section 1 of the act is alleged, the complaint should show whether the rates, fares, or charges assailed have been increased since January 1, 1910. (1) In case unjust discrimination in violation of section 2 is alleged, the special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device and the manner in which thereby the greater or less compensation complained of has been charged, collected, or received should be specified. (m) In case undue or unreasonable preference or advantage, or undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage, in violation of section 3, is alleged, the particular person, company, firm, corporation, locality or description of traffic affected thereby, and the particular preference or advantage, or prejudice or disadvantage, relied upon as constituting such violation, should be clearly specified. (n) If the complaint brings in issue any rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice, made or imposed by authority of any State, or initiated by the President during the period of Federal control, as causing any undue or unreasonable advantage, preference, or prejudice as between persons or localities in intrastate commerce on the one hand and interstate or foreign commerce on the other hand, or any undue, unreasonable, or unjust discrimination against interstate or foreign commerce, which is forbidden and declared unlawful under section 13 of the act as amended by section 416 of the transportation act, 1920, the complaint should also contain appropriate allegations to present for decision the issue of the justness and reasonableness under section 1 of the rates, fares, charges, classifications, regulations, or practices complained of in so far as applicable to interstate or foreign commerce, and the issue as to what should be the rate, fare, or charge, or the maximum or minimum, or maximum and minimum, thereafter to be charged, and the classification, regulation, or practice thereafter to be observed in order to remove such advantage, preference, prejudice, or discrimination. The facts should be stated with sufficient definiteness to disclose fully the contention made in respect of any tariff provision made or imposed by authority of any State, or initiated by the President during the period of Federal control. The Commission, before proceeding to hear and dispose of such issue, must cause the State or States interested to be notified of the proceeding and must be furnished with copies of the complaint in sufficient number for that purpose. (0) In case violation of section 4 of the act is alleged, the facts as to compensation charged or received, the respects in which the section was thereby violated, and the tariff provisions applicable, should be stated with particularity. |