United States v. Geddes

Citations

• 131 F. 452
• 65 C.C.A. 320
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4300

Syllabus

<p>1. Safety Appliance Act — Noncompliance—Interstate Traffic — Intrastate Railroads.</p> <p>Defendant, as receiver, operated a' narrow gauge railroad wholly in Ohio, which connected at one of its termini with the B. & O. Railroad. Defendant refused to ship interstate traffic over his road, either received from or delivered to the B. & O. road, under a through bill of lading, or any other arrangement, except that, on the delivery of such freight shipped over defendant’s road under a local bill of lading at its terminus, it should be received for transportation without the state by the B. & O. road under another bill of lading, the latter road assuming defendant’s local freight charge, and defendant, on receiving such shipments from the B. & O. for transportation to points on his line, charged a local freight tariff from the receiving point to destination, also assuming payment of the B. & O.'s advance charges, settlement of freight between the parties being made weekly. Held, that defendant’s railroad was not engaged in interstate commerce within the meaning of, and was, therefore, not liable for penalties for noncompliance with, the safety appliance act (Act Oong. March 2, 1893, c. 196, 27 Stat. 532, as amended by Act Cong. April 1, 1896, c. 87, 29 Stat. 85 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3175]), requiring common carriers engaged in interstate commerce by railroad to equip their cars with automatic couplers, etc.</p>