branch thereof, be assigned or referred to any of said divisions for action thereon, and may by order at any time amend, modify, supplement, or rescind any such direction. All such orders shall take effect forthwith and remain in effect until otherwise ordered by the Commission."

"(4) In conformity with and subject to the order or orders of the Commission in the premises, each division so constituted shall have power and authority by a majority thereof to hear and determine, order, certify, report, or otherwise act as to any of said work, business, or functions so assigned or referred to it for action by the Commission, and in respect thereof the division shall have all the jurisdiction and powers now or then. conferred by law upon the Commission, and be subject to the same duties and obligations. Any order, decision, or report made or other action taken by any of said divisions in respect of any matters so assigned or referred to it shall have the same force and effect, and may be made, evidenced, and enforced in the same manner as if made, or taken by the Commission, subject to rehearing by the Commission, as provided in section sixteen-a hereof for rehearing cases decided by the Commission. The secretary and seal of the commission shall be the secretary and seal of each division thereof.

"(5) Nothing in this section contained, or done pursuant thereto, shall be deemed to divest the Commission of any of its powers.

1

The functions of the Commission are not strictly judicial, but they are quasi-judicial in their nature.2

It has been said that its proceedings in investigation should substantially conform to those of a referee or special master in chancery, appointed to report upon the facts and the law; 3 but less technicality is required.

Any person, firm, corporation, company, or association, or any mercantile, agricultural, or manufacturing society or other organization, or any body politic or municipal organization, or any common carrier complaining of anything done or omitted to be done by any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act in contravention of the provisions thereof, may apply to said Commission by petition, which shall briefly state the facts; whereupon a statement of the complainant thus made shall be forwarded by the Commission to such common carrier, who shall be called upon to satisfy the complaint or to answer the same in writing, within a reasonable time to be specified by the Commission. If such common carrier within the time specified shall make reparation for the injury alleged to have been done, the common carrier shall be relieved of liability to the complainant only for the particular violation of law thus complained of. If such carrier or carriers shall not satisfy the complaint within the time specified or there shall appear to be any reasonable ground for investigation of said complaint, it shall be the duty of the Commission to investigate the matters complained of in such manner and by such means as it shall deem proper.

(2) Said Commission shall, in like manner and with the same authority and powers, investigate any complaint forwarded by the railroad commissioner or railroad commission of any State or Territory at the request of such Commissioner or Commission, and the Interstate Commerce Commission shall have authority and power at any time to institute an inquiry, on its own motion, in any case and as to any matter or thing concerning which a complaint is authorized to be made, to or before said Commission by any provision of this Act, or concerning which any question may arise under any of the provisions of this Act, or relating to the enforcement of any of the provisions of this Act. And the said Commission shall have the same powers and authority to proceed with any inquiry instituted on its own motion as though it had appealed to by complaint or petition under any of the provisions of this Act, including the power to make and enforce any order or orders in the case, relating to the matter or thing concerning which the inquiry is

had, excepting orders for the payment of money. No complaint shall at any time be dismissed because of the absence of direct damage to the complaint."4

Under its statutory authority the Commission has adopted the following rules of practice. These rules regulate proceedings instituted by parties who apply for relief and not proceedings instituted by the Commission of its own motion.5

I.

PUBLIC SESSIONS AND HEARINGS.

"(a) Public sessions of the Commission or Divisions thereof for hearing evidence or oral arguments or for public conferences, and hearings before examiners, will be held as set upon notice by the Commission, subject to change upon such notice as may be practicable.

II.
PARTIES.

(a) The parties to proceedings before the Commission are complainants, defendants, interveners, protestants, respondents, applicants, and petitioners, according to the nature of the proceeding and their relation thereto. Any party may appear and be heard in person or by attorney.

"(b) In complaint cases, the parties who may complain to the Commission of anything done or omitted to be done in violation of the provisions of the Act to regulate commerce, as amended, otherwise known as the Interstate Commerce Act, and in these rules referred to as the Act, by any common carrier subject to the Act are those designated in section 13 of the Act, and are styled complainants. The common carriers so complained of, and their receivers or operating trustees, if any, are styled defendants. Two or more complainants may join in one complaint if their respective causes of action are against the same defendant or defendants and involve substantially the same violation of the Act and a like state of facts.

"(c) If complaint is made in respect of through transportation by continuous carriage or shipment all carriers subject to the Act participating therein should be made defendants.

"(d) If complaint is made of rates, fares, charges, regulations or practices of more than one carrier all carriers against which an order is sought should be made defendants.

(e) If complaint is made of a classification or any provisionthereof it will ordinarily suffice to make defendants the carriers operating one or more through routes between representative points of origin and destination.

“(f) The receiver or operating trustee of the line of a defendant must also be made defendant.

"(g) In investigation proceedings the carriers designated therein are styled respondents.

"(h) In investigation and suspension proceedings the applicants upon whose protests the proceeding was instituted are styled protestants.

"(i) In applications for relief from any provision of the Act the carriers by or on whose behalf the application is made are styled applicants.

"(j) Others seeking relief are styled petitioners.

"(k) Petitioners permitted to intervene as hereinafter provided are styled interveners.

"(1) Any one entitled under the Act to complain to the Commission may petition for leave to intervene in any pending proceeding prior to or at the time it is called for hearing, but not after except for good cause shown. The petition shall set forth the grounds of the proposed intervention; the position and interest of the petitioner in the proceeding; and, if affirmative relief is sought, should conform to the requirements for a formal complaint. Leave will not be granted except on allegations reasonably pertinent to the issues already presented and which do not unduly broaden them. If leave is granted, the intervener thereby becomes a party to the proceeding. When the petition is filed prior to the hearing the petitioner must furnish therewith a sufficient number of copies for service upon all parties to the proceeding and three additional copies for the use of the Commission. When not so filed prior to but tendered at the hearing sufficient copies must be provided for distribution as motion papers to the parties represented at the hearing. If

leave be granted at the hearing sufficient copies must also be fürnished for service and three additional copies for the use of the Commission. It is desirable, especially where affirmative relief is sought, that the petition be filed in season to permit of service on the defendants and afford them an opportunity to answer before the hearing, thereby making it possible in some instances to grant leave which otherwise it may be necessary to deny in fairness to the parties to the proceeding.7

III.

"COMPLAINTS.

"(a) Complaints may be either informal or formal,

"(b) Informal complaints may be made by letter or other writing and as received are filed. Matters thus presented are, if their nature warrants it, taken up by correspondence with the carriers affected in an endeavor to bring about adjustment or satisfaction of the complaint without formal hearing, and are given serial numbers on the informal docket. This informal procedure has been found efficacious in the great majority of cases and is recommended.

7 See infra, §§ 258-261.

8

"It might be well to state that while cases forward on this docket are adjusted in an informal manner, this special docket is not an informal docket in respect to the form of pleadings and the character of the hearing. The Commission cannot on the special docket exceed the authority exercised by it on the formal docket nor may it omit any requirement with respect to cases on the special docket that the law imposes on it in the disposition of cases on the formal docket. In all cases, whether on the formal or the informal docket, the law requires a complaint and answer and a full hearing, and provides that where damages are awarded the report of the Commis