United States v. Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 30 June 1958
• Docket Number: No. 7534.,7534.
• Citation: 258 F.2d 262
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

258 F.2d 262 (1958)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 7534.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued March 6, 1958.

Decided June 30, 1958.

Opinion July 10, 1958.

Edwin J. Slipek, Asst. U. S. Atty., Richmond, Va. (L. S. Parsons, Jr., U. S. Atty., Norfolk, Va., and Henry L. Hilzinger, Atty., Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellant.

Lewis Thomas Booker and Eppa Hunton, IV, Richmond, Va. (Hunton, Williams, Gay, Moore & Powell, Richmond, Va., on the brief), for appellee.

Before SOBELOFF, Chief Judge, HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judge, and WILLIAMS, District Judge.

Opinion of Circuit Judge Sobeloff Filed July 10, 1958.

HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judge.

This is a proceeding under ß 6 of the Safety Appliance Act (45 U.S.C.A. ß 6) to collect the statutory penalties for violations of the Act. The violations are said to have occurred when, on four occasions, the railroad moved cars without coupling their brakes so that they could be operated by the engineer. It is admitted that, in each instance, the only operable brakes were those upon the engine, so the only issue is whether or not the movements were train movements within the contemplation of the Act (45 U.S.C.A. ß 9) and the supplementary orders of the Commission.

In distinguishing between "train movements," in which the brakes of the cars must be coupled and operable, and switching movements, in which they need not be, courts have considered so many circumstances as affecting the character of the movement that we should first refer to the trackage and operations of the Seaboard in Hopewell, Virginia, where the movements occurred.

Hopewell, Virginia, is served by a branch line of the Seaboard which connects with the main line at Bellwood and terminates at Hopewell. Incoming trains from Bellwood arrive at a classification yard where they are broken up and from which the cars are distributed to consignees in Hopewell. Much of the distribution is effected over a lead track, which winds through the industrial section of Hopewell for a total distance of approximately two miles. Nine spurs, springing from the lead track, serve industrial customers whose plants are adjacent to them, and some of them are used for car storage. The spur, or customer lead, track most distant from the classification yard serves a plant of Continental Can Co., while the one second in distance from the classification yard serves a plant of the Allied Chemical & Dye Co. A track for the interchange of traffic with the Norfolk and Western also springs from the lead track at a point approximately midway between the classification yard and the end of the lead at Continental Can Co.

The Norfolk and Western has lead tracks paralleling the Seaboard lead throughout most of the length of the latter, and several of the Norfolk and Western industrial spurs cross the Seaboard lead track. At such crossings, the Seaboard has the right of way, and Norfolk and Western crews must bring their engines to a complete stop before crossing the Seaboard lead track. The leads of both railroads cross several streets and private ways. The crossing of one of these streets, a state highway carrying a substantial amount of traffic, is protected by a watchman and manually operated gates. The crossings of other streets and ways are protected only by stationary signs.

There is no perceptible grade on the Seaboard lead, and all movements over it are at yard speeds and under yard control. It is a part of the Hopewell Yard, and serves no purpose other than the distribution of cars from inbound trains broken up in the classification yard and the assembly of cars to be made up, in the classification yard, into outbound trains.

When an incoming train has been broken up in the classification yard, a switch engine couples on to those cars which are to be delivered over the lead track. Acting under orders of the local freight agent, the switching crew proceeds to distribute the cars over the lead track. Those consigned to customers on Seaboard spurs are spotted on the appropriate spur, while those destined to points on the Norfolk and Western are placed upon the interchange track. Because of the specialized needs for different types of cars,¹ the crew may be required, en route, to pick up cars from storage tracks and place them upon other spurs for loading. On the return trip,² the switching crews pick up from the spurs loaded outbound cars and empty cars for which the customer has no need, and, from the interchange track, cars which had been placed there by the Norfolk and Western for delivery to the Seaboard. These cars are then distributed to storage tracks breaking from the lead track or to the classification yard as circumstances may require. Outbound cars are then made up in the classification yard into an outbound train.

No question has been raised about any movement in either direction over the lead track during which the crew worked a spur relatively near the classification yard. It is asserted, however, that an isolated movement in either direction becomes a train movement if only the more distant spurs are worked. Thus, the charges here are based upon two movements from the classification yard to the Continental Can lead track without intermediate stops and upon two movements from the Allied Chemical lead track to the classification yard during at least one of which there was an intermediate stop en route to pick up additional cars from the interchange track.³

The fact that less than all of the nine spurs may be worked during a particular movement has no controlling significance. Nor do we believe the answer is to be found in an identification of the spurs actually worked. The nature of the work, its purpose and character are precisely the same, whether every other spur is to be worked, only those between the classification yard and the interchange track or only those, or one of them, between the interchange track and the end of the lead track. Whether these spurs are to be worked or those, the business of the switch engine and its crew here is the distribution of cars from trains which have completed their over-the-line run and the collection and assembly of cars to be made up into out-going trains.

Nor do we accept the Government's contention that "since the defendant moved (cars) between designated points in its yard for a distance of about 2 miles without picking up or setting out any car en route," the movement must necessarily have been a train movement requiring operable train brakes. Substantially every switching operation involves such movements, many for comparable distances, but they take on the appearance of train movements only when lifted from their context of switching operations and separated from their function and purpose. It is not enough, ignoring what transpires before and what follows, to say that cars were moved from this point to that; the character of the operation is to be determined by a look at the whole and with due regard to all elements of its setting.

Thus viewed, we agree with the District Court that these movements were properly classified as switching movements. In the average day there were ten of such movements, and they do not fall into separate categories solely upon the basis of a classification, in terms of relative distance from the classification yard, of the spurs worked. The lead track, the spurs that break from it and the classification yard are all parts of one yard, and its extremities are not so distant as to deprive a movement from one end of the yard to the other of the flavor of its function in breaking up and making up trains.

Unlike other sections of the Safety Appliance Act which apply to the use or haulage of a locomotive or a car, the train brake provisions apply only to the running of trains. The difference in language is an appropriate expression of Congressional intention, in the adoption of the train brake provisions, to distinguish between an over-the-line run, during which the need of useful train brakes was great and obvious and compliance with the requirement would not unduly hinder railroad transportation, and switching operations, during which there is little or no need for train brakes and general and strict compliance with the requirement would be impossible or highly impractical. The distinction was pointed out by the Supreme Court in the first case involving the train brake provisions to come before it. United States v. Erie Railroad Company, 237 U.S. 402, 35 S.Ct. 621, 59 L.Ed. 1019, and, a week later, the Supreme Court declared the controlling test to be "the essential nature of the work done." United States v. Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, 237 U.S. 410, 35 S.Ct. 634, 636, 59 L.Ed. 1023.

But movements of trains and cars are so varied that the distinction between the fast, through train and the simplest switching operation is not always easily applied. Functionally, a transfer movement between separated yards may be a switching operation, but, particularly if it moves over main line tracks, it has elements of similarity to movements between major terminals and many of the underlying reasons for the train brake requirement are present. Train brakes are usually required in such movements. United States v. Erie Railroad Company, 237 U.S. 402, 35 S.Ct. 621, 59 L.Ed. 1019; United States v. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, 237 U.S. 410, 35 S.Ct. 634, 59 L.Ed. 1023; Louisville & Jeffersonville Bridge Co. v. United States, 249 U.S. 534, 39 S.Ct. 355, 63 L.Ed. 757; United States v. Northern Pacific Railway Company, 254 U.S. 251, 41 S.Ct. 101, 65 L.Ed. 249; Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. United States, 4 Cir., 226 F. 683; Illinois Central R. Co. v. United States, 8 Cir., 14 F.2d 747; Chicago & E. R. Co. v. United States, 7 Cir., 22 F.2d 729; United States v. Southern Pacific Co., 9 Cir., 60 F.2d 864; United States v. Southern...