Inland Freight Lines v. United States

• Decision Date: 03 October 1951
• Docket Number: No. 4214.,4214.
• Citation: 191 F.2d 313
• Parties: INLAND FREIGHT LINES v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

191 F.2d 313 (1951)

INLAND FREIGHT LINES v. UNITED STATES.

No. 4214.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

August 18, 1951.

Rehearing Denied October 3, 1951.

Richard L. Bird, Jr., Salt Lake City, Utah (Dan S. Bushnell, Salt Lake City, Utah, on the brief), for appellant.

George W. Howard, Special Asst., Washington, D. C. (Scott M. Matheson, U. S. Atty. and O. K. Clay, Asst. U. S. Atty., Salt Lake City, Utah, on the brief), for appellee.

Before BRATTON, MURRAH and PICKETT, Circuit Judges.

BRATTON, Circuit Judge.

Title 49, section 304(a), United States Code Annotated, empowers the Interstate Commerce Commission to require motor carriers subject to the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, to keep, maintain, and preserve uniform systems of accounts, records, and reports; and section 322(g) makes it a misdemeanor for a carrier to knowingly and wilfully prepare, keep, and preserve false records in connection with the operation of its business. Regulation 191.5, promulgated by the Commission, provides in presently material part that each carrier shall require that a driver's log in duplicate shall be kept by each driver in his employ who operates a motor vehicle engaged in transportation in interstate commerce, and that entries in the log shall show the place of origin and destination of the trip, the times of reporting for duty and going off duty, the periods of driving and operating and other work, and any other information found desirable.

An information containing ten counts was filed in the United States Court for Utah against Inland Freight Lines, a common carrier engaged in the business of transporting property in interstate commerce by motor vehicle. The first count charged that on October 3, 1948, the company had in its employ as a driver Robert Harrison, who operated a motor vehicle engaged in such transporation between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Oakland, California; that the company aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, and procured Harrison, at Salt Lake City, to prepare and keep, and Harrison did prepare and keep a driver's log in connection with such operation and transportation containing false entries, in that such driver entered on such date that he was off duty from 12:01 A.M. to 6 A.M., was driving from 6 A.M. until 1:30 P.M., and was in a sleeper berth from 3 P.M. until 11 P.M., when in truth and in fact, as such driver and the defendant well knew, from 8 A.M. until 3 P.M., he was performing duties other than driving for six hours, none of which time was reported in the log, whereby the defendant did knowingly and wilfully falsify such report, record, and memorandum, to-wit: driver's log, prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The other counts were similar in substance, differing only in respect to date, name of driver, point of origin and point of destination of trip, and nature of false entries in the driver's log. The court submitted to the jury the charges contained in counts 2, 6, 7, 9, and 10. The company was found guilty on each of such counts and the sentence imposed was a fine of $1,000 on each count.

While no motion to dismiss the appeal was filed, the United States contends that this court is without jurisdiction of the cause for the reason that the notice of appeal was filed too late. The verdict of the jury was returned on October 3, 1950. A motion for new trial was filed on October 6. An order denying the motion for new trial was entered on October 27. Judgment was entered imposing sentence on November 3. And the notice of appeal was filed on November 10. The notice of appeal recited the date of trial, the dismissal of certain counts in the information, the denial of the motion for a directed verdict, the return of the verdict, the filing of the motion for new trial, the denial of such motion, and the tender of a personal surety bond in support of an application for stay of execution. After such recitals, the notice stated that the company appealed "from the above stated judgment, and all parts thereof, and from the denial of motion for new trial and motion for directed verdict." The order denying the motion for a directed verdict and the order denying the motion for a new trial were not orders from which an independent appeal would lie. The final judgment was the only action of the court from which an appeal could be perfected. The notice contained much surplusage which did not serve any useful purpose. But a critical reading of it makes it plain that the company sought among other things a review of the final judgment. And having been filed within ten days after entry of the final judgment, the notice was sufficient to perfect an appeal from such judgment. Wilson v. Southern Railway Co., 5 Cir., 147 F.2d 165; Porter v. Borden's Dairy Delivery Co., 9 Cir., 156 F.2d 798.

Coming to the merits, the company contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict and judgment. The argument in support of the contention is that the company cannot be held responsible for the...