Union Stock Yard & Transit Co. v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
308 U.S. 213 · 1939
Citation profile
32 federal appellate · 3 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 80 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2003 · most notably United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. (1940), Weade v. Dichmann, Wright & Pugh, Inc. (1949)
32 federal appellate · 3 district · 8 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Southern Pacific Terminal Company v. Interstate Commerce Commission · Sanford's Estate v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · United States v. California · Boston & Maine Railroad v. Hooker · Ellis v. Interstate Commerce Commission
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 80 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The statute, it is true, does not purport to say when one who is a railroad carrier because engaged in furnishing railroad terminal facilities and services, is to be deemed a ‘common carrier.’ But that question was put at rest in United States v. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, 249 U.S. 296 , 39 S.Ct. 283 , 63 L.Ed. 613 , 6 A.L.R. 527 . There a local terminal company rendering terminal services as the agent of numerous rail carriers, was held to be engaged in a public or common calling, and hence to be a common carrier within the meaning of the Hours of Service Act, 34 Stat. 1415 , 45 U.S.C.A. § 61 et seq., which is applicable to any common carrier by railroad engaged in interstate commerce. Cf. Southern Pacific Terminal Co. v. Interstate Commerce Comm’n, 219 U.S. 498 , 31 S.Ct. 279 , 55 L.Ed. 310 ; United States v. California, 297 U.S. 175, 181 , 56 S.Ct. 421, 422 , 80 L.Ed. 567 ; United States v. Sioux City Stock Yards Co., C.C.Iowa, 162 F. 556 , 39 S.Ct. 286 , 63 L.Ed. 613 , 6 A.L.R. 527 . “It is not important, as appellant seems to think, that, as an incident to the service it renders to shippers and to the line-haul carriers, it acts as agent of the latter. The character of the service, in its relation to the public, determines whether the calling is a public one, and a common carrier does not cease to be such merely because in rendering service to the public it acts as the agent of another. United States v. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, supra, 249 U.S. 307 , ”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Without the aid of these statutes the transportation of livestock by rail was held to begin with its delivery to the carrier for loading onto its cars, and to end only after unloading for delivery or tender to the consignee at the place of destination. Covington Stock-Yards Co. v. Keith, 139 U. S. 128 , 136. The same rule has been repeatedly applied since the statute was adopted. Erie R. Co. v. Shuart, 250 U. S. 465 , 468; Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. United States, 295 U. S. 193 , 198, and cases cited; Denver Union Stock Yard Co. v. United States, 304 U. S. 470 ; 2 Hutchison, Carriers, 3d ed. § 510.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The term 'transportation’ as used in this chapter shall include ... all instrumentalities and facilities of shipment or carriage, irrespective of ownership or of any contract, express or implied, for the use thereof and all services in connection with the receipt, delivery, elevation, and transfer in transit, . . . storage, and handling of property transported . . .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.