Union Stockyards Co. of Omaha v. United States
| Decision Date | 02 April 1909 |
| Docket Number | 2,821. |
| Parties | UNION STOCKYARDS CO. OF OMAHA v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
(Syllabus by the Court.)
A stockyards company which owns and maintains at a large shipping point an extensive stockyards which is in effect the live stock depot of all the railroad companies doing business at that point, and which owns and maintains several miles of railroad tracks extending over its own premises from its stockyards to a transfer track (also on its own premises) connecting with the several tracks of the railroad companies and which by means of its own locomotives and servants transports for hire over its tracks all shipments of live stock accepted by the railroad companies for carriage to and from such stockyards, including such shipments as are interstate, is a common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad within the meaning of the safety appliance law of Congress, although the cars in which it transports such shipments are in every instance the cars of the railroad company from which the shipment is received or to which it is delivered at the transfer track, and although the stockyards company does not collect the compensation for its service directly from the shippers or consignees, but only from the railroad companies delivering the loaded cars to it, or receiving them from it, at the transfer track, and although its service is performed and its compensation is paid in accordance with a contract between it and the railroad companies.
Frank T. Ransom, for plaintiff in error.
Luther M. Walter, Special. Asst. U.S. Atty. (Charles A. Goss, U.S Atty., and A. W. Lane, Asst. U.S. Atty., on the brief).
Before VAN DEVANTER, Circuit Judge, and W. H. MUNGER, District Judge.
The single question to be considered in this case is, Is the Union Stockyards Company of Omaha a 'common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad,' within the meaning of the safety appliance law of Congress, Acts March 2, 1893, c. 196, 27 Stat. 531 (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3174) April 1, 1896, c. 87, 29 Stat. 85, and March 2, 1903, c. 976, 32 Stat. 943 (U.S. Comp. St. Supp. 1907, p. 885)? In the District Court, where the question arose upon an agreed statement of facts, it was answered in the affirmative. 161 F. 919. The facts disclosed by the agreed statement are substantially as follows: The stockyards company is a Nebraska corporation, and owns and conducts an extensive stockyards at South Omaha equipped with many sheds or pens wherein it receives, feeds, waters, cares for, and otherwise handles live stock as directed by the owners thereof.
On the margin of and adjoining its yards are several large packing houses wherein live stock is slaughtered and the product is prepared for shipment to market. Some other industrial plants are also similarly located. Upon its premises it owns maintains, and uses, conformably to its articles of incorporation, 35 miles of railroad tracks extending from its sheds or pens to a transfer track (also upon its premises) which connects with the railroads of the 8 or 10 railroad companies doing business at South Omaha. It receives from these companies at the transfer track cars loaded with live stock and other freight, and then, with its own locomotives and employes, moves them over its tracks to their ultimate destination, whether that be its sheds or pens or one of the packing houses or other industrial plants, where it delivers each shipment to the proper consignee. In like manner it moves cars loaded with live stock and other freight from its sheds or pens and the several packing houses and other industrial plants to the transfer track, and there delivers them to the railroad companies designated by the shippers. And in the same way it returns the empty cars to the transfer track after the in-bound freight has been unloaded, and takes empty cars from that track to its sheds or pens and to the several packing houses and other industrial plants so that out-bound freight may be loaded into them. The cars moved over its tracks are in every instance the cars of the railroad company from which the shipment is received, or to which it is delivered. Neither in-bound nor out-bound shipments are broken or transferred from one car to...
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