The case concerned the scope of a 1942 certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission to the defendant motor carrier, which authorized transportation of general commodities from Elkin and Statesville, North Carolina, to points in eleven states and the District of Columbia, and from those points back to North Carolina. The Commission sued to stop the defendant from carrying shipments between New York or Maryland and Georgia or South Carolina that passed through North Carolina points, operations the defendant claimed were permitted by the certificate. After the defendant sought clarification from the Commission, that agency ruled the certificate did not allow such through movements and denied the requested authority. The court enjoined the contested operations, holding that it was bound by the Commission's prior construction of its own certificate and that the certificate's language limited service to movements beginning or ending at the designated base points.
This case involved a challenge by Carolina Scenic Coach Lines to orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission that denied rehearing on the Commission's 1944 grant of a certificate of public convenience and necessity to Smoky Mountain Stages for extending bus passenger service between Clinton, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia. Scenic sought to set aside the denial orders and compel the Commission to consider newly discovered evidence of an alternative route via Orangeburg and Durham that could serve similar bridge traffic for the Trailways system. The court dismissed the suit, holding that the Commission had not abused its discretion in denying rehearing. The core reasoning was that whether to grant rehearing rests in the agency's sound discretion, the alleged new facts were matters of public record that could have been discovered earlier, and even if true they did not necessarily require a different outcome on the public convenience and necessity determination.
The case involved a challenge by Carolina Scenic Coach Lines to an Interstate Commerce Commission order that granted Smoky Mountain Stages a certificate to operate buses on a route between Clinton, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia, while denying Scenic's competing application. The court, consisting of three judges, reviewed the record and upheld the Commission's decision, denying the requested injunction and dismissing the suit. The Commission found that granting the certificate to Stages would complete a Trailways system for through traffic to Florida, providing public benefits that outweighed any harm to competitors like Greyhound, and Scenic's route was not adequately coordinated for such service. The court reasoned that the Commission's factual findings and balancing of economic factors in transportation regulation are entitled to deference and were supported by evidence, with no procedural errors affecting the outcome.
The case concerned whether a North Carolina statute barring deficiency judgments on notes secured by mortgages or deeds of trust for real property prevented a Virginia resident from recovering such a judgment in federal court on a Virginia contract. The district court decided that the statute and a related North Carolina Supreme Court ruling did not limit federal jurisdiction, allowing the plaintiff to proceed and awarding judgment for the $3,100 deficiency. The court reasoned that federal diversity jurisdiction for suits exceeding $3,000 between citizens of different states is conferred by federal statute and cannot be restricted by state law or policy, even when the state has closed its own courts to such claims. It distinguished state authority over its own courts from any power to control federal jurisdiction and noted that the underlying obligation remained enforceable under Virginia law.
This case involved a South Carolina peach grower who operated trucks selling peaches in North Carolina without a permanent in-state business and sought to enjoin enforcement of a state revenue statute imposing a $50 per-truck license tax on out-of-state peddlers of fresh fruits and vegetables. The statute exempted sellers of North Carolina-grown produce or locally caught fish and imposed criminal penalties for noncompliance. The court held that the tax violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against interstate commerce. It reasoned that while states may tax peddlers, they cannot impose burdens that favor in-state goods over those from other states. The court also found equity jurisdiction appropriate to avoid a multiplicity of suits and granted an interlocutory injunction against enforcement.
This case involved the Suncrest Lumber Company seeking an interlocutory injunction in federal court to prevent the North Carolina Park Commission from initiating condemnation proceedings under the 1927 Park Commission Act to acquire the company's land in Swain and Haywood counties for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, or from obtaining a restraining order against timber cutting on that land. The company argued that the Act violated its rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and the North Carolina Constitution. The three-judge federal court denied the injunction, noting that state constitutional issues had been resolved against the plaintiff by the North Carolina Supreme Court in a prior case, which was binding, and that federal constitutional challenges had also been decided against the company. The court found the statute, as interpreted by the state court, did not violate the U.S. Constitution, and declined to issue a restraining order pending appeal because the conditions for such relief were not met and it would interfere with a public project.
