Sherman v. United States
| Decision Date | 24 November 1930 |
| Docket Number | No. 14,14 |
| Citation | 282 U.S. 25,75 L.Ed. 143,51 S.Ct. 41 |
| Parties | SHERMAN et al. v. UNITED STATES |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. Karl D. Loos, of Washington, D. C., and Leon E. Morris, of San Francisco, Cal., for Sherman and others.
The Attorney General and Mr. John Lord O'Brian Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 25-27 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case comes here on a certificate of questions of law from the judges of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Subsequently the entire record was brought up, but the facts sufficiently appear in the certificate and both they and the questions may be abbreviated here. The suit is brought by the United States against the appellants by name, described as 'constituting the Board of State Harbor Commissioners of the State of California, operating The State Belt Railroad,' to recover penalties for alleged breaches of the Safety Appliance Acts. Acts March 2, 1893, c. 196, 27 Stat. 531, April 1, 1896, c. 87, 29 Stat. 85, March 2, 1903, c. 976, 32 Stat. 943, and April 14, 1910, c 160, 36 Stat. 298 (U. S. Code, tit. 45, §§ 1, 2, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 16 (45 USCA §§ 1, 2, 6, 8, 11-13, 16)). The penalties are imposed upon 'any common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad,' and the broad question is whether the defendants are liable under the Acts.
The matters complained of occurred upon what is known as the State Belt Railroad. The road is about five miles long, within the City of San Francisco, runs nearly parallel with the water front of the harbor, and connects many industrial plants and the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company with wharves belonging to the State and through the wharves with other common carriers engaged in interstate commerce by railroad. It may be assumed that the work done upon the Belt Line was interstate commerce. But the line belongs to and is operated by the State; the work is done without profit for the purpose of facilitating the commerce of the port, and the funds received after paying expenses go to the Treasury of the State to the credit of the San Francisco Harbor Improvement Fund. California has not gone into business generally as a common carrier, but simply has constructed the Belt Line as an incident of its control of the harbor-a State prerogative. Cal. Political Code, § 2524. The defendants are officers of the State charged with the administration of the Harbor of San Francisco and of the State Belt Railroad in connection therewith. They had no hand in or knowledge of the alleged violations of law, the immediate supervision being the duty of an inspector appointed by them, and his subordinates being Civil Service employees of the State.
On these facts in our opinion the statute, if it applies to anyone, can apply only to the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State of California v. Taylor
...stated, we hold that it does. The operations of the State Belt Railroad have been described by this Court in Sherman v. United States, 282 U.S. 25, 51 S.Ct. 41, 75 L.Ed. 143; United States v. State of California, 297 U.S. 175, 56 S.Ct. 421, 80 L.Ed. 567; and State of California v. Latimer, ......
-
State of Maryland v. Wirtz
...v. Raines, supra, from which the quotation is extracted. 19 It is interesting that in an earlier suit, Sherman v. United States, 282 U.S. 25, 51 S.Ct. 41, 75 L.Ed. 143 (1930), involving the same belt railroad, Mr. Justice Holmes said: "California has not gone into business generally as a co......
-
United States v. State of California
...its provisions, to suit in the District Court to recover penalties for violation of the act. In an earlier suit, Sherman v. United States, 282 U.S. 25, 51 S.Ct. 41, 75 L.Ed. 143, brought against the Board of State Harbor Commissioners, which supervises operation of the State Belt Railroad, ......
-
United States v. Dotterweich, 5
...and allow its agents to escape. In very exceptional circumstances it may have required this result. See Sherman v. United States, 282 U.S. 25, 51 S.Ct. 41, 75 L.Ed. 143. But the history of the present Act, its purposes, its terms, and extended practical construction lead away from such a re......