United States v. Erie Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 03 May 1915
• Docket Number: No. 580,580
• Citation: 59 L.Ed. 1019,35 S.Ct. 621,237 U.S. 402
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err., v. ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

237 U.S. 402

35 S.Ct. 621

59 L.Ed. 1019

UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err.,

v ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY.

No. 580.

Argued December 18, 1914.

Decided May 3, 1915.

Assistant Attorney General Underwood for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. George S. Hobart and Gilbert Collins for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Van Devanter delivered the opinion of the court:

This was a civil action by the United States to recover from the Erie Railroad Company a penalty for each of several alleged violations of the safety appliance act of March 2, 1893, 27 Stat. at L. 531, chap. 196, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 8605, as amended and supplemented by the acts of April 1, 1896, 29 Stat. at L. 85, chap. 87, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 8610; March 2, 1903, 32 Stat. at L. 943, chap. 976, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 8613; and April 14, 1910, 36 Stat. at L. 298, chap. 160, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 8617.

The declaration contained twenty-six counts. The first seven were based upon the use of that number of cars having defective couplers, the eighth upon the use of a car without grab irons or hand holds at one end, and the remaining eighteen upon the operation of that number of transfer trains in which less than eighty-five per cent of the cars were controlled by air brakes. All of these acts were charged as having occurred in January and February, 1911, on the defendant's railroad while it was being used and operated in moving interstate traffic. The plea interposed was the general issue.

The case was tried twice. The first trial resulted in a judgment for the government which was reversed by the circuit court of appeals, 116 C. C. A. 649, 197 Fed. 287. At the second trial there was a directed verdict for the defendant and the judgment thereon was affirmed by that court. 129 C. C. A. 307, 212 Fed. 853. This writ of error challenges the judgment of affirmance.

There was no real conflict in the evidence, the material facts being as follows: The defendant operates an interstate railroad extending from New York city via New Jersey to Buffalo and Chicago. In that connection it maintains railroad yards, with docks for ferries and floats, on the west bank of the Hudson river, at Jersey City and Weehawken, where cars are received from and forwarded to various points around New York harbor; and it maintains another yard at Bergen,—inland 2 miles from Jersey City and 3 1/2 miles from Weehawken,—where cars are received from and forwarded to western points. In the Jersey City yard there are 60 tracks, in the Weehawken yard 80, and in the Bergen yard 115. Between the Bergen yard and the others is a hill about 250 feet high, which is pierced by a tunnel almost a mile in length. The three yards are connected by double tracks extending from Jersey City and Weehawken to the eastern portal of the tunnel, and then passing through the tunnel to Bergen. The situation may be illustrated by treating the three yards as located at the outer points of the letter Y,—Weehawken and Jersey City at the upper points and Bergen at the base,—and connected by tracks conforming to the lines of that letter, the tunnel being along part of the lower line. The connecting tracks are not used by passenger trains, but are the main tracks over which freight is moved from and to points around New York harbor. Jersey City, Weehawken, and Bergen are all stations at which freight, both local and interstate, is accepted and delivered, and are so shown in the defendant's tariff schedules. While the yards at these places are all used for receiving, storing, handling, and forwarding cars, the work of classifying, distributing, and assembling the cars preparatory to sending them to their ultimate destinations, west and east, is principally done in the Bergen yard. Most of the regular west-bound freight trains are made up and started in that yard, and most of the regular east-bound freight trains are stopped and broken up there. Some regular trains carrying high-class freight pass Bergen without more than a temporary stop, but the greater part of the traffic is moved between the yards at Jersey City and Weehawken, and the one at Bergen in transfer trains which run only between those yards and are operated over the double tracks before described. These transfer trains usually have about twenty-five cars, do not carry a caboose, are drawn and operated by engines and crews specially engaged in that service, and have flags and signal lights differing somewhat from those on other trains, but answering the same purpose. They are not run according to fixed schedules, but at irregular intervals under the orders of yard masters and according to block signals. Their speed is from 7 to 18 miles an hour and they move great numbers of cars in each direction every day. All go through the tunnel, which is admitted to be very dark, and upon each trip they pass over several switches leading to other tracks, traverse part of the same line over which fifteen regular through and local freight trains are moved each day, and cross at grade tracks which are in daily use by approximately thirty-five passenger trains.

The cars named in the first eight counts of the declaration were defective in the particulars charged, and while thus defective were hauled—six from Jersey City to Bergen and two from Weehawken to Bergen—in transfer trains along with other cars in commercial use. All of the defects were discovered in the yards from which the cars were moved, and those in six of the cars could have been readily repaired in those yards by the local force of car repairers, consisting of seven men at Jersey City and five at Weehawken. The defects in two of the cars were serious, and as to them Bergen may have been the nearest available point for making the necessary repairs. These cars were hauled by means of chains instead of drawbars, and there was no claim that they contained live stock or perishable freight.

The transfer trains named in the remaining eighteen counts were hauled—nine from Jersey City to Bergen, two from Weehawken to Bergen, one from Bergen to Jersey City, and six from Bergen to Weehawken—without the requisite number of air brakes being in use or connected for use. On fourteen of these trains there was no attempt to connect any of the air brakes, and on the remaining four less than 55 per cent were connected. Brakemen were required to be on the cars, and in some instances rode on the tops of box cars pursuant to a rule of the defendant. No cars were switched out of or into these trains while they were on the way from one yard to the other.

The circuit court of appeals rested its judgment upon the conclusions (a) that the three yards are not separate or distinct, but with the connecting tracks constitute a single and extensive...