444
Thomas, J., dissenting
IV
When a carrier relies on a mileage guide filed by another carrier or agent, under ICC regulations the carrier must participate in the guide by maintaining a power of attorney; when a carrier fails to maintain its power of attorney and its participation is canceled by its former agent's filing of an appropriate tariff, the carrier's tariff is void. Trustees in bankruptcy and debtors-in-possession may rely on the filed rate doctrine to collect for undercharges, Maislin Industries, U. S., Inc. v. Primary Steel, Inc., 497 U. S. 116 (1990), but they may not collect for undercharges based on filed, but void, rates. The decision of the Court of Appeals is accordingly
Affirmed.
Justice Stevens, concurring.
Although I remain convinced that the Court stumbled badly in Maislin Industries, U. S., Inc. v. Primary Steel, Inc., 497 U. S. 116 (1990), when it rejected the sensible construction of the Interstate Commerce Act that had been adopted by six Courts of Appeals and the agency responsible for the Act's enforcement, see id., at 139 (dissenting opinion), I agree with the Court's disposition of this case. I write only to note that both this case and Maislin involve a carrier in bankruptcy seeking to enforce a "filed" rate that was higher than the one it negotiated with the shipper; in neither case was there any allegation or evidence that a carrier had violated the "core purposes of the Act" by charging discriminatory rates. See ante, at 438; 497 U. S., at 130.
Justice Thomas, dissenting.
The Court today concludes that the Interstate Commerce Commission has the authority to promulgate regulations under which a carrier's duly filed and effective tariff automatically becomes "void" without "any agency action at all," ante, at 442, if the carrier at some time after filing fails to
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