Gray v. Louisville & N.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 03 April 1912
• Docket Number: 1,529,at Law.
• Citation: 197 F. 874
• Parties: GRAY v. LOUISVILLE & N.R. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

197 F. 874

GRAY v. LOUISVILLE & N.R. CO.

No. 1,529, at Law.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Tennessee.

April 3, 1912

Pickle Turner & Kennerly, of Knoxville, Tenn., for plaintiff.

J. B Wright and J. G. Johnson, both of Knoxville, Tenn., for defendant.

SANFORD District Judge.

1. It is clear that under the undisputed facts of this case the movement of the defendant's car on which the coupling apparatus had been destroyed and which was about to be attached to another car and removed to the repair shops was in violation of the Safety Appliance Act, under the doctrine of St. Louis Ry. Co. v. Taylor, 210 U.S. 281, 28 Sup.Ct. 616, 52 L.Ed. 1061; Chicago Ry. Co. v. United States, 220 U.S. 559, 31 Sup.Ct. 612, 55 L.Ed. 582; Delk v. Railway Co., 220 U.S. 580, 31 Sup.Ct. 617 55 L.Ed. 590; Southern Ry. Co. v. United States, 222 U.S. 20, 32 Sup.Ct. 2, 56 L.Ed. 72, and Southern Ry. v Snyder (C.C.A. 6) 187 F. 492, 109 C.C.A. 344, provided the Safety Appliance Act applied to the car while being handled on the switch track of the Brookside Mills. The case clearly does not come within the exception to the general rule stated in Southern Ry. Co. v. Snyder, supra, since at the time it had not been withdrawn from connection with vehicles in commercial use, but was on the contrary on this side track in connection with other vehicles in commercial use, and was being attached to another car in such commercial use preparatory to its removal.

2. I am furthermore of opinion, after careful consideration, that the ground upon which peremptory instructions were given in this case, namely, that the Safety Appliance Act did not apply to this car while on the switch track of the Brookside Mills was erroneous. It appears, at least by inference, that there was some arrangement by which the defendant was permitted by the Brookside Mills to use this switch track in its interstate business, bringing in upon this track, unloading and removing therefrom cars containing interstate freight consigned to the Brookside Mills. In the recent case of Philadelphia R. Co. v. United States, 191 F. 1, 111 C.C.A. 661, it was held by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that where a railroad company operated its trains engaged in interstate commerce with its own engines and crews over the tracks of another company under a contract between them, such other tracks are a part of its line within the meaning of the Safety Appliance Act and its amendments so as to require cars operated upon them to be equipped with safety appliances as therein required. The doctrine of this case, in my opinion, is controlling in the case at bar. Furthermore the Hepburn amendment of 1906 (Act June 29, 1906, c. 3591, 34 Stat. 584 (U.S. Comp. St. Supp. 1911, p. 1285)) to the Interstate Commerce Act (Act Feb. 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 379 (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3154)) provides that the term 'railroad' as used in the Act shall include 'all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether...