154 F. 897 | D. Or. | 1907
Briefly stated, the conditions under which the cars in question were moved by the defendant, railroad company are as follows: The line of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company enters Portland from the east. Its junction with the Southern Pacific is at the latter’s station in East Portland. The former company owns and operates repair shops on the east side of the Willamette river, distant from the junction approximately one mile; and the Southern Pacific Company likewise owns.and operates car shops on the same side of the river, two miles distant. The cars in question were taken up at the'East Portland station, carried to and across "the steel bridge spanning the Willamette river and into the
It should be noted that the government is not complaining of any defects other than one broken and two missing uncoupling lever chains. The defendant was not called upon to answer except as to these. The additional defects shown by the answer are set up, no doubt, to indicate the necessity of sending the cars to the repair shops before the repairs could be made. The answer does not say that it was impracticable to repair the defects complained of without sending the cars to the repair shops, but to repair the cars in respect of the combined defects which the answer itself discloses. This is an evasion of the real issue. A combining of other car defects with the defects complained of can afford no excuse for delaying the repairs requisite to a compliance with the law; and for this reason alone the answers are wholly insufficient. However, the case has been presented as if the allegations of the answers were confined to the defects complained of, and it is upon this hypothesis that I will determine the controversy.
Some observations preliminarily. The specific purpose of the safety appliance act is pertinently voiced by its title, as follows: “To promote the safety of employés and travelers upon railroads.” So the Supreme Court of the United States has said:
“Tim primary object of the act was to promote the public welfare by securing the safety of employes and travelers.” Johnson v. Southern Pacific Co., 196 U. 8. 1, 17, 25 Sup. Ct. 158, 161, 49 D. Eel. 363.
So in Voelker v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. (C. C.) 116 Fed. 867, the court says:
“The statutory requirement with respect to equipping- cars with automatic couplers was enacted in order to protect railway employes, as far as possible, from the risks inexirred when engaged in coupling and uncoupling cars.”
In further interpretation of the act, the duty of the transportation companies has also been ascertained:
“When companies, like the defendant in this case,” says the court in Voelker v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., supra, “are engaged in interstate traffic, it is their duty, under the act of Congress, not to use, in connection with such traffic, cars that are not equipped as required, by that act. This duty of proper equipment is obligatory upon the company before it uses the car in connection with interstate traffic, and it is not a duty which only arises when the car happens to be loaded with interstate freight.”
And Judge Whitson, in United States v. Great Northern Ry. Co. (D. C.) 150 Fed. 229, has carried the duty to the keeping of the equipment in suitable repair for use as designed by Congress. See, also, P. & R. Ry. v. Winkler, 4 Pennewill (Del.) 387, 56 Atl. 112. The utility of the act requires as much. Otherwise, it would prove to be of but little practical consequence.
“Tlie defendant asks tlie court to hold, in effect, that they cannot haul the car in that condition, provided they have tailed to use diligence to discover its defective condition, hut that, if they have used due diligence, they may haul the car in its defective condition. In all such cases it would be impossible for tlie officers of the government to determine in advance whether a statute has been violated or not; but, before a prosecution could be properly instituted, they should go to the defendant company, ascertain what care it had used in regard to a certain car, determine as a matter of fact and law whether the acts of the defendant constituted due diligence, and from that determine whether a prosecution might he safely instituted. It is evident that such a defense would take the very life out of the act in question, and render its enforcement impossible except in a few isolated eases.”
And it was specifically held that due diligence in keeping the coupler in proper repair was not an element of defense.
If such an act was not cause for defense in that case, lack of knowledge that the apparatus was defective would not constitute a defense in this. The railroad companies.are charged, as I have shown, with the duty of hauling only such cars as are provided with automatic couplers in suitable repair, so as to be operative without the necessity of em-ployés going between the cars; and it woujd go far to subvert the law, and the purpose thereof, if- they were permitted to say that they had no knowledge of the defect, and fhat therefore they were not liable under the act. The companies must ascertain for themselves, and at their peril, whether or not they have taken up or are hauling cars with defective couplers. Their intention' to do right does not relieve them. United States v. Great Northern Ry. Co., supra. I hold, therefore, that want of knowledge of the defects on the part of the defendant company does not constitute a defense.
The next question is whether the defendant company should have made the repairs before hauling the cars across the river and into the terminal yards. There are here two phases of the question. One involves the condition"that the couplers were capable of repair, in the respect that the law requires, without the necessity of taking the cars to the repair shops. If they were, there can he no further contention, because it would surely follow that the defendant should have repaired the defects before moving the cars further upon their journey. I say further upon their journey, because the cars were yet in transit; the point of destination had not been reached; nor was it reached until they were set in at the place of unloading. The chain coupling the lock pin with the lever, is a very simple device, consisting of a few links of a small chain, easily attachable with the aid of light tools, and there exists no reason why it should not be readily repaired or replaced at any stage in the journey without serious or material inconvenience or delay.
The demurrers to the answers should therefore be sustained, and it is so ordered.