Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Napier

• Decision Date: 20 December 1924
• Docket Number: No. 311.,311.
• Citation: 2 F.2d 891
• Parties: ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO. v. NAPIER, Atty. Gen., et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

2 F.2d 891 (1924)

ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO. v. NAPIER, Atty. Gen., et al.

No. 311.

District Court, N. D. Georgia, N. D.

December 20, 1924.

Alston, Alston, Foster & Moise, of Atlanta, Ga., for complainant.

Geo. M. Napier, Atty. Gen., for defendant.

Branch & Howard, of Atlanta, Ga., and Thomas Stevenson, of Cleveland, Ohio, for the Brotherhoods.

SIBLEY, District Judge.

The Georgia statute of August 5, 1924 (Laws Ga. 1924, p. 173), whose execution is sought to be enjoined, requires, under daily penalty, that all steam locomotives of specified types, operating in or through the state after January 1, 1925, be equipped with an automatic door to the fire box of a construction therein described. There appears no such cost of installation or insufficiency of time between the passing of the law and its operative date, or want of adaptation of means to a proper legislative end or arbitrary classification as to make the statute a taking of property without due process of law, or a denial of equal protection of the law. The real question is whether, in view of the congressional legislation on the subject, its provisions can be applied to carriers and locomotives engaged in interstate commerce, as the complainant and its locomotives are admitted to be. By the Act of Congress of March 2, 1893 (Comp. St. §§ 8605-8612), carriers by railroad, in interstate commerce, were required to equip locomotives with power brakes; by the Act of May 30, 1908 (sections 8624-8629), safety ash pans were required; the Act of May 27, 1908 (section 8616), required the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate, test, and report on safety appliances of all kinds; the Act of February 17, 1911 (sections 8630-8639), dealt with the safety of boilers and their appurtenances, providing for inspections and the establishment of rules touching the same under the direction of the Commission. At this stage of the legislation it was held that Congress had neither directly nor through the Commission covered the matter of headlights for locomotives, and that the states were still free to legislate touching them. Atlantic Coast Line v. Georgia, 234 U. S. 280, 34 S. Ct. 829, 58 L. Ed. 1312. Thereafter the act touching inspection of boilers was, on March 4, 1915, made "to apply to and include the entire locomotive and tender and all parts and appurtenances thereof." It was intimated in Vandalia Railroad v. Indians, 242 U. S. 255, 37 S. Ct. 93, 61 L. Ed. 276, that a different ruling from that made in the Georgia case would be proper thenceforth.

In line with the legislation last named, by the Act of June 7, 1924 (43 St. 659), section 2 of the original act of February 17, 1911, was amended to read thus: "Sec. 2. That it shall be unlawful for any carrier to use or permit to be used on its line any locomotive unless said locomotive, its boiler, tender, and all parts and appurtenances thereof are in proper condition and safe to operate in the service to which the same are put, that the same may be employed in the active service of such carrier without unnecessary peril to life or limb, and unless said locomotive, its boiler, tender, and all parts and appurtenances thereof have been inspected from time to time in accordance with the provisions of this act and are able to withstand such test or tests as may be prescribed in the rules and regulations hereinafter provided for."

The Interstate Commerce Commission, since the amendment of 1915 (Comp. St. § 8604a), has promulgated rules of inspection regarding many appliances, looking to safety on locomotives, including headlights of a stated capacity, cab windows of specified arrangement, and having protection from obscuration by snow, whistles, sanding apparatus, and the like. The chief inspector has several times reported the desirability of automatic fire...