American Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Central Office Telephone, Inc., 524 U.S. 214, 11 (1998)

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224

AMERICAN TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH CO. v. CENTRAL OFFICE TELEPHONE, INC.

Opinion of the Court

force any classifications, regulations, or practices affecting such charges" except those set forth in the tariff, § 203(c).

Unsurprisingly, the cases decided under the ICA make it clear that discriminatory "privileges" come in many guises, and are not limited to discounted rates. "[A] preference or rebate is the necessary result of every violation of [the analog to § 203(c) in the ICA] where the carrier renders or pays for a service not covered by the prescribed tariffs." United States v. Wabash R. Co., 321 U. S. 403, 412-413 (1944). In Chicago & Alton R. Co. v. Kirby, 225 U. S. 155 (1912), we rejected a shipper's breach-of-contract claim against a railroad for failure to ship a carload of race horses by a particularly fast train. We held that the contract was invalid as a matter of law because the carrier's tariffs "did not provide for an expedited service, nor for transportation by any particular train," and therefore the shipper received "an undue advantage . . . that is not one open to others in the same situation." Id., at 163, 165. Similarly, in Davis v. Cornwell, 264 U. S. 560 (1924), we invalidated the carrier's agreement to provide the shipper with a number of railroad cars on a specified day; such a special advantage, we said, "is illegal, when not provided for in the tariff." Id., at 562. See also Kansas City Southern R. Co. v. Carl, supra, at 653; Wight v. United States, 167 U. S. 512, 517-518 (1897); I. Lake, Discrimination by Railroads and Other Public Utilities 310-315 (1947).

III

The Ninth Circuit distinguished the Court's filed rate cases involving claims for special services on the ground that the services at issue there "should have been included in the tariff and made available to all" because "the customer would have been expected to pay a higher rate" for those services. 108 F. 3d, at 989, n. 9. But that is precisely the case here. Indeed, the additional services and guarantees that respondent claims it was entitled to by virtue of Ms. Kisor's representations and petitioner's sales brochures—

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