270
Opinion of the Court
the reasonable-rate issue must be obtained before filing the civil action. Since the limitations period for filing actions under § 11705(b)(3) begins running at the time of delivery of the shipment, rather than at the time the ICC enters an order, compare §§ 11706(c)(2) and (g) with § 11706(e), the period could expire before the ICC acted. We are not disposed to find an implicit prior-agency-determination requirement that would have such consequences.
IV
Since we have concluded that petitioners' unreasonable-rate claims are subject to the ordinary rules governing counterclaims, the judgment below must be reversed. Neither the Court of Appeals nor the District Court made the "express determination" required under Rule 54(b) for entry of a separate judgment on respondents' claims, and we cannot say categorically that it would be an abuse of discretion either to grant or to deny separate judgment. In the ordinary case, where a carrier is solvent and has promptly initiated suit, the equities favor separate judgment on the principal claim: referral of the unreasonable-rate issue could produce substantial delay, and tariff rates not disapproved by the ICC are legal rates, binding on both the shipper and the carrier. See Keogh v. Chicago & Northwestern R. Co., 260 U. S. 156, 163 (1922); Arizona Grocery Co. v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 284 U. S. 370, 384 (1932); Lowden v. Simonds-Shields-Lonsdale Grain Co., 306 U. S. 516, 520 (1939). The equities change, however, when the suing carrier is in bankruptcy. Indeed, we have previously held that even a "threat of insolvency" of the party seeking separate judgment is a factor weighing against it. See Curtiss-Wright, 446 U. S., at 12. Even so, we cannot say that insolvency is an absolute bar. Conceivably, a district court could determine that other equities favor separate judgment—for example, a threat that the shipper may become insolvent, which Rule 62(h) would allow a court to protect against by
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