United States v. Philadelphia & R. R Co.

• Citation: 160 F. 696
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. PHILADELPHIA & R. RY. CO.
• Decision Date: 17 March 1908
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

160 F. 696

UNITED STATES v. PHILADELPHIA & R. RY. CO.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

March 17, 1908

This was an action brought by the United States to recover three penalties of $100 each alleged to have been incurred by the defendant in hauling on November 12, 1906, Lehigh Valley car No. 83,759, November 13, 1906, Lehigh Valley car No. 69,609, and on September 26, 1906, its own No 49,786, from Allentown, Pa., with the coupling and uncoupling apparatus on one end of each car in a defective condition, in that the lock pin or lock block was disconnected from the uncoupling lever. Two government inspectors of safety appliances found these cars in the defendant's yard at Allentown, and after at least half an hour's interval the defendant hauled the cars in the defective condition. The defendant offered evidence that in the ordinary course of its business it had inspectors whose duty it was to inspect cars moved by it, and if any defects were found such defects were noted in an inspection book kept for that purpose; that it had examined these books, and found no entry of any defect having been found or repaired.

J Whitaker Thompson, U.S. Atty., John C. Swartley, Asst. U.S Atty., and Luther M. Walter, Special Asst. U.S. Atty.

James F. Campbell, for defendant.

J. B. McPHERSON, District Judge (charging jury).

This is an action brought by the United States, as no doubt you understand, to recover the sum of $300, being a penalty of $100 for the use by the defendant company of each of three cars, which it is said were defectively equipped in violation of the act of Congress which is ordinarily known as the safety appliance act (Act March 2, 1893, c. 196, 27 Stat. 531 (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3174)). There is only one portion of it to which your attention need be directed, and that is the second section of the act, which provides, in substance, that no common carrier may haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line any car used in moving interstate traffic not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars. The meaning of that section is clear enough. The direction of Congress is that any common carrier, such as a railroad, must equip its cars so that there shall be at both ends a coupler which will couple automatically by impact when it comes in contact with another car, and which may be uncoupled also from the side without the necessity of a man going between the ends of the two cars in order to perform that operation. That requires that each car taken separately shall be complete-- completely equipped; that is to say, it requires that the couplers at both ends shall be in good order.

It is not sufficient, under this act of Congress, that one coupler should be in good order and the other should be defective, although it appears from the testimony in the case that under certain circumstances even if one of the couplers is defective the process of coupling may nevertheless take place, provided the coupler upon the car with which the defective car comes in contact is in good order. If the two ends that come together were both out of order, then the coupling could not take place automatically, but if one of them is in good order while the other is not, then, under certain circumstances, the coupling may take place automatically just the same as though both cars were thoroughly equipped. But, however that may be, the act of Congress does not permit such a situation to exist. It requires that each car taken by itself shall have the couplers at both ends in good order, so that at each end the coupler may perform its service in the manner directed by this statute-- that is to say, automatically by the impact of the two cars. And it also requires that the couplers shall be in such order that the cars may be uncoupled without the necessity of somebody going between the cars; that is done by the use of levers.

In some instances the lever comes entirely across the ends of the...