266
Opinion of the Court
We disagree. The filed rate doctrine embodies the principle that a shipper cannot avoid payment of the tariff rate by invoking common-law claims and defenses such as ignorance, estoppel, or prior agreement to a different rate. See Texas & Pacific R. Co. v. Mugg, 202 U. S. 242, 245 (1906); Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Maxwell, 237 U. S. 94, 98 (1915); Pittsburgh, C., C. & S. L. R. Co. v. Fink, 250 U. S. 577, 581- 582 (1919). It assuredly does not preclude avoidance of the tariff rate, however, through claims and defenses that are specifically accorded by the ICA itself. We can agree with respondents that this latter category does not include any "unreasonable rate defense," derived from the general ICA requirement (now codified in § 10701(a)) that a carrier's rates be "reasonable." See T. I. M. E. Inc. v. United States, 359 U. S. 464, 468-472 (1959). But we cannot agree that the filed rate doctrine precludes shippers from asserting (by way of claim or counterclaim) the reparations rights explicitly conferred by § 11705(b)(3).
Contrary to respondents' contention, the preclusive effect of the filed rate doctrine over reparations counterclaims is not established by our opinion in Crancer v. Lowden, 315 U. S. 631 (1942). There, shippers sued by a rail carrier for payment of tariff rates challenged them as unreasonable, and sought to stay the collection action until the ICC had an opportunity to rule on that issue. The District Court denied the stay and entered judgment for the carrier. But unlike the present petitioners, the shippers in Crancer had no counterclaim; they had already instituted an administrative reparations proceeding (as the ICA allowed for rail carriage) before they were sued in district court, see Reply Brief for Petitioners 13 and Brief for Respondents 18, in Crancer v. Lowden, O. T. 1941, No. 505, which precluded filing a reparations claim in district court. See 49 U. S. C. § 9 (1946 ed.). Moreover, all that Crancer held was that "there was no abuse of discretion by the trial judge," since the equities balanced against waiting for the ICC's determination. 315
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