US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

1. Whether a shipment of goods is interstate, and is therefore subject to the rates provided by the carrier's interstate tariff, depends upon the essential character of the movement, and this character is not necessarily determined by the contract between shipper and carrier. P. 260 U. S. 169.

2. Neither through billing, uninterrupted movement, continuous possession by the carrier, nor unbroken bulk is an essential of interstate shipment, though these are common incidents of through shipment, and their presence or absence may be important evidence of the intention with which a shipment was made, when that question is in issue. P. 260 U. S. 171.

3. Where the shipper bills his goods from one state to a point in another, paying the interstate rate, and, after receiving delivery of the loaded cars at the latter point, reships them within a few days to another point in the second state on local bills, paying the local freight rate, intending throughout to move them to this destination from the point of origin and interrupting the movement only that he may take advantage of a difference in his favor between the through rate and the sum of those paid, his intention, thus carried out, determines, as a matter of law, the essential nature of the entire movement as a movement in interstate commerce. P. 260 U. S. 171.

4. In such a case, the through interstate rate is the only lawful rate, and the misuse of the intermediate rates unjustly depletes the carrier's revenues and opens the door to discrimination, contrary to the Act to Regulate Commerce. P. 260 U. S. 172.

272 F.6d 5 reversed.

Error to a judgment of the circuit court of appeals which affirmed a judgment of the district court adverse to the railroad company in its action to recover the chanrobles.com-red

Page 260 U. S. 167

difference between the amount due on interstate shipment of lumber measured by the through interstate tariff, and a less amount paid under a combination of interstate and local rates. See 272 F.6d 5, 249 F.9d 3.