Security Services, Inc. v. Kmart Corp., 511 U.S. 431, 25 (1994)

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Cite as: 511 U. S. 431 (1994)

Ginsburg, J., dissenting

"as a remedy for the carrier's failure to comply with § 10762's directive to file the negotiated rate with the ICC." 497 U. S., at 131. We rejected that rationale because "§ 10761 requires the carrier to collect the filed rate." Ibid. Under the reasoning the Court applies today, however, it appears that the Commission merely chose the wrong remedy: It should have promulgated a rule declaring a filed tariff "void as a matter of law" upon negotiation of a different rate, thereby rendering the filed rate unenforceable. Section 10761 and the filed rate doctrine would not stand in the way, in the Court's view, because the carrier would have no effective rate on file. See ante, at 439-443. In my view, the Court's reasoning will permit the Commission to turn the filed rate doctrine on its head.

For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.

Justice Ginsburg, dissenting.

The filed rate doctrine is an integral part of the Interstate Commerce Act. See 49 U. S. C. § 10761(a) (a "carrier may not charge or receive a different compensation . . . than the rate specified in [its] tariff"). At least since 1915, this Court has held that the doctrine entitles a carrier to collect the rate on file with the Interstate Commerce Commission (Commission or ICC), despite a contract, negotiated between shipper and carrier, setting a lower price. See Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Maxwell, 237 U. S. 94, 97 (1915). The main rule to which we have adhered requires enforcement of the filed rate unless the Commission either rejects the tariff because of a formal or substantive defect, before the rate takes effect, 49 U. S. C. § 10762(e), or prospectively invalidates a tariff after initiating an investigation and finding the filed rate unreasonable. § 10704(b)(1). See Keogh v. Chicago & Northwestern R. Co., 260 U. S. 156, 163 (1922) ("The legal rights of shipper as against carrier in respect to a rate are measured by the published tariff. Unless and until suspended or set aside, this rate is made, for all purposes,

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