United States v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co.

181 F. 882, 1910 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedJune 14, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 181 F. 882 (United States v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., 181 F. 882, 1910 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206 (W.D. Mo. 1910).

Opinion

PHILIPS, District Judge.

The indictment is predicated of section 2 of the act of March 3, 1905 (33 Stat. 1264, c. 1496 [U. S. Comp-. St. Supp. 1909, p. 1185]), charging the defendant with transporting a car load of cattle from Maud, in the state of Oklahoma, in May, 1908, within the quarantine district prescribed by the Department of Agriculture, in violation of the regulations of said department. The case has been submitted to the court upon the following agreed statement of facts:

“It is hereby stipulated and agreed between the plaintiff and defendant in this cause that a jury shall be and is hereby waived, and this cause is submitted to the court upon the following agreed statement of facts:
“It is agreed and admitted that the defendant is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Illinois, and that during the month of May, 1908, it was engaged in the business of a common carrier of live stock and in the transportation of interstate commerce between various states of the United States; that defendant’s line of railroad connected at Kansas City, Mo., with the railroad of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas' Railway Company; that on or about the 16th day of May, 1908, one Peter Hansen shipped from Maud, Okl., over the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, 28 head of cattle consigned to Davis & Son at St. Joseph, Mo.; that in the ordinary course of business the car containing said 28 head of cattle was delivered to defendant by said Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company at Kansas City, Bio., on or about Blay 18, 1908, and was carried by defendant from Kansas 'City, Bio., to St. Joseph, Mo., and there delivered to consignee on Blay 18, 1908, in the original car into which the cattle were loaded by said Hansen at Maud, Okl, to wit, C. C. C. car 774; that said 28 head of cattle and the car containing the same were, when so delivered to defendant at Kansas City, Mo., accompanied by the original waybill made by said Missouri, Kansas & Texas Raillway Company at Maud, Okl., said cattle having been waybilled through from Maud to St. Joseph; that a true copy oí said original waybill is attached hereto, marked ‘Exhibit A’ and made a part hereof; that said original waybill described said cattle as being ‘Native Cattle,’ and was not stamped with the words ‘Southern Cattle’; that the waybill did not show said cattle to' be ‘Southern Cattle,’ and that the said car in which they were transported was not placarded as containing ‘Southern Cattle’ with cards of any kind or size; that when said cattle, car, and waybill were so delivered to the defendant by said Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway at Kansas City, Bio.,"the defendant had no knowledge or information as to the point or origin of said cattle, or as to the kind, class, or origin of said cattle, other than as shown upon said original waybill so made by said Blissouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company.
“It is further agreed that at the time said shipment of cattle was made from Blaud, Old., the said Maud, Old., was located within the quarantined area from which cattle were required to be shipped in cars placarded ‘Southern Cattle’ and upon waybills describing the cattle as ‘Southern Cattle,’ all in accordance with the quarantine regulations promulgated by the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States, and duly published.”

It is not easy to understand why the government selected this defendant for prosecution, rather than the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company.- The latter was the carrier that received the cattle and billed the car out at Maud, Okl., for transportation beyond the [884]*884state to St. Joseph, Mo. The regulations of the Department of Agriculture imposed upon it the duty of plainly writing or stamping upon the face of the waybill the words “Southern Cattle,” so as to indicate that the cattle were from the quarantined district. The further requirement was to conspicuously placard the car containing the cattle with the words “Southern Cattle.” The fact that this company instead wrote conspicuously across the face of the waybill the words “Native Cattle” tends to indicate that it connived at an evasion of the quarantine regulations. Its failure to properly placard the car, and turning it and thé waybill over to the defendant company at Kansas City, Mo., were well calculated to mislead the latter company in taking the car into its train for transportation to St. Joseph, Mo. So there was no conceivable difficulty in obtaining the fullest evidence of its culpability.

There is no charge or proof that the required placard became detached or defaced during the transportation conducted by the defendant, so as to make it answerable for failure to replace the same. The regulation in this respect is as follows:

“If for any reason the placards required by this regulation are removed from the car, or' are destroyed or rendered illegible, they shall be immediately replaced by the transportation company or its agents; the intention being that legible placards shall be maintained on the car from the time such shipments leave the quarantined area until they arrive at final destination.”

From which it is clear that unless the car had been placarded by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, which brought it from the state of Oklahoma, and it had been destroyed or rendered illegible, there was no obligation imposed by this regulation upon the defendant company to put on such placard in the first instance. Neither is there any charge in the indictment that the defendant had neglected to replace a destroyed or illegible placard. Its liability to indictment must, therefore, in so far as the indictment charges and the proof submitted goes, depend upon its mere failure to note the words in the upper left-hand corner of the waybill “from Maud, Olcla.,” and the inference to be drawn therefrom, against the more palpable facts that conspicuously written across the face of the waybill were the words “Native Cattle,” indicating that they were not from an assumed infected district, and the absence of any placard on the car in large words “Southern Cattle,” which placard, by the regulations aforesaid, was required “to show the name of the place from which the shipment was made, the date of the shipment, the name of the transportation company, and the name of the place of destination.” Those were the signs prescribed by the regulations to indicate to other persons than the shipper taking the_cattle out of the district that they had come from within the quarantine lines.

It must be conceded that, as this is a criminal prosecution, the guilty knowledge of this defendant is an indispensable element of the offense, and the burden of proof rests upon the government to establish this fact beyond a reasonable doubt in the mind of the trier of the facts. Under the circumstances of this case I would seriously hesitate to find this defendant guilty.

[885]*885Aside from this, the question arises in my mind: Does the carrier connecting with the railroad company that received the shipment within the prescribed quarantine territory, and after the transportation has passed into another state and the connecting carrier only carries the car within the state where it received it, also become liable to indictment, whereby the government might recover a penalty from each of said carriers? The statute in question is as follows:

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Related

United States v. Southern Ry. Co.
187 F. 209 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of South Carolina, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
181 F. 882, 1910 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-chicago-b-q-r-co-mowd-1910.