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liability was limited to $100. If a shipper declared value in
excess of $100, petitioner collected its base rate plus an EVC of
25 cents per $100 of additional declared value and its liability
equaled the amount of value declared. Thus, the EVC was part of
the rate charged by petitioner, and the rates, including the EVC,
were determined under the tariff. Under both Federal law and the
provisions of the tariff, petitioner was liable for damage to
shippers' packages up to the declared value or $100 if no value
was declared.
Even if petitioner's excess value activity could be
characterized as some form of "insurance" under the various State
laws, Federal law appears to preempt State law with regard to the
liabilities of interstate carriers. The Supreme Court addressed
the preemptive scope of the Carmack Amendment, relating to State
regulation of carrier liability, in Adams Express Co. v.
Croninger, 226 U.S. 491 (1913). There, the Court held:
Almost every detail of the subject is covered so
completely that there can be no rational doubt but that
Congress intended to take possession of the subject and
supersede all state regulation with reference to it.
* * * [Id. at 505-506.]
Later, in Moffit v. Bekins Van Lines Co., 6 F.3d 305 (5th Cir.
1993), the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit addressed the
Carmack Amendment and stated:
a purpose of the Carmack Amendment was to "substitute a
paramount and national law as to the rights and
liabilities of interstate carriers subject to the
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