SEABOARD COAST LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, A VIRGINIA CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
INTERNATIONAL MINERALS & CHEMICAL CORPORATION, A NEW YORK CORPORATION, APPELLEE
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Seaboard Coast Line Railroad appeals a trial court judgment finding that phosphate rock shipments from International Minerals & Chemical Corporation's inland plants to its Port Sutton facility were intrastate rather than interstate commerce, entitling the shipper to lower rates. The appellate court affirmed, finding competent substantial evidence supported the trial court's factual findings and the legal conclusion that the shipments were intrastate.
The shipments were intrastate shipments. The trial court's findings that the phosphate rock came to rest at Port Sutton for necessary processing and was consigned to the shipper for processing rather than to a specific customer were supported by competent substantial evidence, and applying the applicable law to those findings established that the shipments were intrastate.
[1] Shipments of goods to a facility where they undergo necessary treatment that materially increases their saleability and value are considered intrastate shipments, even if…
[2] A court must affirm a trial court's findings of fact if competent substantial evidence in the record supports those findings.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“All of the phosphate rock delivered by defendant to plaintiff at Port Sutton, which is involved in this case, comes to rest there for some necessary treatment in the process of preparing it for sale to specific customers, which treatment materially increases the saleability and value of the product.”
Trial court finding establishing that the rock underwent material processing at an intermediate point, supporting intrastate rather than interstate classification.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceInternational Minerals & Chemical Corporation shipped phosphate rock from its inland Florida plants to its Port Sutton facility, where the rock underw…
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Appellee filed suit against appellant in the trial court to recover overcharges to appellant from appellee on shipments of phosphate rock from appellee’s plants in Florida to its plant at Sutton, Florida where the phosphate was eventually shipped by vessels to foreign countries and other states. Appellee contended that the shipments from their inland plants to Sutton, Florida were intrastate shipments and not interstate for which higher rates were charged.
The trial court, sitting without a jury, found that such shipments were intrastate for which a lower rate was applicable and entered judgment for appellee for the difference between the charges based on the intrastate rates and the charges which had been paid by appellee based on the higher interstate rates. Appellant appeals this judgment entered by the trial court and contends that the evidence clearly shows that the shipments in question from the inland plants to Sutton were under the applicable law interstate shipments.
The trial court made certain findings of fact in its final judgment, as follows:
“1. The facilities owned and controlled by the plaintiff at Port Sutton, Florida, serve several purposes in plaintiff’s operations, viz., (1) storage facilities for both dry and wet rock; (2) *817drying facilities for wet rock; (3) blending facilities to enable plaintiff to fill orders for specific grades of dry rock; and (4) facilities for the loading of vessels with dry rock.
2. Blending is better accomplished at plaintiff’s Port Sutton facilities than is now possible at the facilities furnished by the defendant.
3. All of the phosphate rock delivered by defendant to plaintiff at Port Sutton, which is involved in this case, comes to rest there for some necessary treatment in the process of preparing it for sale to specific customers, which treatment materially increases the saleability and value of the product.
4. None of the aforesaid phosphate rock delivered by the defendant to the plaintiff at Port Sutton was consigned to or intended to be shipped to, a specific customer, but was consigned to itself at Port Sutton for processing.
5. The shipments in question are intrastate under the criteria laid down by the federal courts.”
Had we been sitting as the trial court we might not have reached the same conclusions as to the factual issues as did the trial judge herein; however, we have carefully studied the record on appeal and find that it contains competent substantial evidence to support the trial court’s findings and, therefore, under the law we must affirm the learned trial judge’s findings.
When applying the applicable law to the trial court’s findings we reach the same conclusion that shipments in question were intrastate shipments.
The other two points on appeal have been carefully considered and found to be without merit.
For the foregoing reasons the judgment appealed is
Affirmed.
PIERCE, C. J., and LILES, J., concur.
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Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Int'l Minerals & Chem. Corp., 283 So. 2d 45 (Fla. 1972)…lication of the parties, additional time was allotted for oral argument. Now, after oral argument and careful consideration of the briefs on the merits and re-study of the briefs on jurisdiction, we have concluded that the District Court of Appeal, 252 So. 2d 816, which recites, in its concise decision affirming the judgment of the trial court, the background of the litigation and sets forth therein the full [*46] findings of fact of the trial judge on the central and critical question of whether the shipmen…