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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Were Standard Oil's Railroad Rebates And Drawbacks Cost Justified?, Daniel A. Crane
Were Standard Oil's Railroad Rebates And Drawbacks Cost Justified?, Daniel A. Crane
Articles
In this essay, written for a symposium on the centennial anniversary of the Supreme Court's Standard Oil decision, I reexamine the costjustification question. In the first part, I explain why the cost-justification question is central to the entire case and its acquired and evolving historical meaning. In the second part, I review the evidence of claimed efficiencies passed on to the railroads. I conclude that there is evidence that Standard Oil passed along significant cost savings to the railroads and that these savings could have justified a portion of the rebates and drawbacks. However, I conclude that there is little …
The Evolution And Devolution Of Public Utility Law, Edwin C. Goddard
The Evolution And Devolution Of Public Utility Law, Edwin C. Goddard
Michigan Law Review
As long ago as 1873, and very likely even earlier, courts were speaking of the public utility in the sense of the public convenience or advantage, a New Jersey court saying, "these prerogatives (of railway corporations) are grants from the government, and public utility is the consideration for them." This has been often quoted by other courts, notably by your Judge Atherton in the famous case of Scofield v. Railway in 1885. But the term "public utility'' as applied to plants or corporations rendering a public service is very new. It is not to be found in the 1904 edition …