United States v. St. Johnsbury Trucking Co., Crim. No. 4925.
| Decision Date | 08 July 1954 |
| Docket Number | Crim. No. 4925. |
| Citation | 122 F. Supp. 812 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. ST. JOHNSBURY TRUCKING CO., Inc. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maine |
Peter Mills, U. S. Atty., Farmington, Herman F. Mueller, Boston, Mass., for plaintiff.
Wilfred A. Hay, John E. Hanscomb, Portland, for defendant.
This action is based upon an information brought by the United States of America against the St. Johnsbury Trucking Company, Inc., a common carrier, by motor vehicle, charging the defendant with violations of the Explosive and other Dangerous Articles' Regulations, prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission, pursuant to Title 18, § 835, of the U.S. Code. There are two counts in the information which are as follows:
1. Knowingly failing to mark or placard a motor vehicle used in transporting corrosive liquid. (49 C.F.R. 77.823, Title 18, Section 835, U.S.C.)
2. Knowingly failing to require a driver in its employ operating a motor vehicle engaged in transporting corrosive liquid to have in his possession shipping papers or other memoranda showing the prescribed label applied to the outside container of such corrosive liquid. (49 C.F.R. 77.817, Title 18, Section 835, U.S.C.)
Counsel for both the defendant and the government waived trial by jury. The case, therefore, was submitted to and heard by the Court. The government's sole witness was Mr. Edward Shea, an inspector employed by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The defendant called two of its employees as witnesses, a Mr. Morin and a Mr. Stranahan. The facts, briefly stated, are as follows:
The defendant corporation is one of the largest motor transportation companies in New England and maintains seven or eight terminals. It employs in excess of 750 people and owns and operates approximately 600 motor vehicles.
On October 24, 1952, Inspector Shea, while in the performance of his official duties, observed a truck, owned and operated by the defendant company, delivering wet storage batteries on Kennebec Street to the Community Oil Company in Portland, Maine. He thereupon made a spot investigation and observed that the defendant's truck contained seventy wet storage batteries, each bearing a four inch square label denoting its dangerous content. He talked with the defendant's truck driver who, at his request, produced the shipping papers or memoranda in his possession which indicated that the total weight of the batteries was 3550 pounds. He noticed that the shipping papers or memoranda, shown to him by the defendant's driver, lacked the prescribed inscription and likewise noted that the truck was not placarded on its four sides with any explosive sticker labels, marked, "Dangerous", as required by the regulations of the I.C.C.
In answer to a question asked of the driver by Inspector Shea as to his reasons for his failure to have affixed to the trailer the "Dangerous" placards, the driver answered that he was only a driver and did not know anything about such things.
This particular shipment, originating in Fairfield, Connecticut, had as its original carrier the Bay State Motor Express and was transported to the defendant's terminal in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The dispatcher for St. Johnsbury received the shipment and signed the delivery receipt which had been prepared by the Bay State Motor Express. A duplicate of the delivery receipt was then sent to the main billing room where three rating and five billing clerks were employed.
In the usual course of processing the paper work of a shipment, a rating clerk receives a duplicate of the delivery receipt from the dispatcher, observes the items listed thereon, checks the division and rates, and determines the charge for the transportation. He also has the duty imposed upon him by the defendant company of attaching a label to the delivery receipt which designates the shipment as being explosive or of a dangerous nature if warranted by the type and amount of cargo. In this case the rating clerk failed to attach a warning label to the duplicate receipt although required by the amount and type of cargo.
The delivery receipt, according to the defendant's practice, is then sent to the billing clerks who perform their duties. Following this, a manifest is prepared and a trailer is assigned to transport the cargo to its destination. A totalizer then totals the amount of weight of all items to be shipped on a particular trailer. If the weight of the dangerous articles such as are involved here, exceeds twenty-five hundred (2500) pounds, a trailer sticker is sent along to the dispatcher, who supervises the loading of the trailer and whose duty it is to attach an explosive sticker label on each side of the vehicle, for the purpose of warning the public of the dangerous nature of the cargo.
In this particular case, as already noted, the trailer was not properly marked and placarded showing that said motor vehicle was transporting a dangerous corrosive liquid. Nor did the driver have in his possession shipping papers or other memoranda showing the prescribed label applied to the outside container of the corrosive liquids.
Approximately ten days after Mr. Shea made the spot investigation as aforementioned, he brought the matter to the attention of the officials of the defendant company. They denied knowledge of this occurrence and immediately commenced an investigation. As a result of this investigation, they admitted that there was negligence on the part of one or more of their employees in permitting the shipment to be transported from Cambridge to Portland in the manner aforementioned.
The basic issue in this case is whether the offense with which the defendant is charged requires proof with regard to the element of criminal intent. The determination of the issue turns upon the meaning of the word "knowingly" as used in section 835 which reads, in part, as follows:
"Whoever knowingly violates any such regulation shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and, if the death or bodily injury of any person results from such violation, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both." 18 U.S.C. § 835.
The defendant contends that the facts in this case clearly indicate that the failure to attach explosive sticker placards upon all sides of the truck in which the batteries were transported and its failure to provide its driver with shipping papers or other memoranda showing the prescribed label applied to the outside containers of such corrosive liquid was an oversight and a mistake; that it was the result of negligence of one or more of its employees; that its failure to comply with the regulations was not intentional, and, therefore, was not knowingly done in violation of the statute and regulations as set forth in the provisions contained in this information; and, that the defendant should be found not guilty of said charges.
The Government contends that the defendant, being a corporation, is responsible for the acts of its agents; that there was a complete disregard of the duty imposed upon the defendant by the regulations to make the prescribed regulations effective; that it is not necessary for the Government to prove any element of deliberation; that the only "knowledge" or "knowingness" necessary to convict here is as to the name of the commodity and the volume thereof; and that the defendant in this case was possessed of such knowledge but failed to comply with the regulations and, therefore, should be found guilty.
Whether intent is a requisite element to be proved under section 835 depends, of course, upon the wording of the statute but primarily upon the nature of the offense. That sections 831-835 of Title 18 and the regulations thereunder involve so-called "public welfare" offenses is plain. See Boyce Motor Lines, Inc. v. United States, 342 U.S. 337, 72 S.Ct. 329, 96 L.Ed. 367, where the Supreme Court traced the history of this...
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St. Johnsbury Trucking Company v. United States
...Circuit Judge. This appeal is from a judgment of the District Court of the United States for the District of Maine entered August 17, 1954, 122 F.Supp. 812, sentencing the defendant to a fine of $700.00 based upon a verdict by the court finding the defendant guilty of violating two regulati......