213 F. 332 | 8th Cir. | 1914
This was an action by the government to recover a penalty from the Union Pacific Railroad Company for violating Act of June 29, 1906, c. 3594, 34 Stat. 607 (U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1911, p. 1341), commonly called the Twenty-Eight Hour Law. A car load of horses was shipped from Denver, Colo., to Salt Lake City, Utah. The owner of the horses who went with them consented in writing, as authorized by the statute, that the period of confinement without unloading for rest, water, and feeding should be extended to 36 hours. The route was over the-Union Pacific and Oregon Short Line railroads, Ogden, Utah, being the junction point. When the Union Pacific train containing the car in question reached the yards at Ogden it went from the main line of that road onto a siding and the trainmen left it there. Thirty-five hours and twenty minutes had then elapsed since the horses were last unloaded. A switching crew took the car and delivered it at the stockyards about a mile distant 3 hours and 40 minutes later. The horses had then been confined 39 hours. The defense was that when, the train went from the main line to the siding the car was no longer under defendant’s jurisdiction, but was in the custody of the Ogden Union Railway & Depot Company, an independent corporation, for whose acts or neglect it was not responsible, and that the lawful period of confinement had not expired when it gave up possession. The trial court directed a verdict for defendant.
True, these principles are applied as between carrier and shipper, but by analogy they apply also to duties imposed by public statute to prevent cruelty to stock in transportation. The limit of 36 hours was near expiration when the car reached Ogden. Thirty-nine hours had elapsed when it reached the stockyards for unloading. It had not been delivered to the Oregon Short Line, the connecting carrier, but in the meanwhile was in the custody of a local instrumentality which defendant selected and used to discharge its duties both to the shipper and under the statute and for whose conduct it was responsible. The terminal company was an employe of the defendant, incorporated, it is true, but as much so as if its individual servants had done the work.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial.