Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/242/462/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 00:37:31+00:00

Document:
Section 2 of the supplementary Safety Appliance Act of April 14, 1910. c. 160, 36 Stat. 298, requiring interstate railway carriers to equip their cars with secure runningboards, ladders, and hand-holds or grab-irons, became effective July 1, 1911.
on the Interstate Commerce Commission to extend the time within which the carriers may conform to the established standards, but it does not authorize the Commission to change the date upon which § 2 became effective.
The plaintiff, a switchman in the employ of the defendants, was in the act of mounting, by means of a ladder, to the top of a box car to set the brake, when the hand-hold or grab-iron placed at the top of the ladder, and intended to be fastened securely to the roof of the car, gave way, causing him to fall to the ground and sustain injuries, for which he instituted suit in a circuit court of Mississippi, and recovered a judgment, which was affirmed by the supreme court of the state. This judgment is now here for review on writ of error.
claim that this section of the act was not in effect at that time, because it had been suspended until July 1st, 1916, by an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, issued on March 13, 1911, under the authority contained in the proviso of § 3 of the act.
Thus, the sole question presented for decision is, does the order issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission on March 13, 1911, suspend the provisions of § 2 of the act under discussion until July 1st, 1916?
To answer this question requires an examination of §§ 2 and 3 of the Act of April 14, 1910, and of the order of the Interstate Commerce Commission of March 13, 1911.
"requiring secure ladders and secure running boards shall be equipped with such ladders and running boards, and all cars having ladders shall also be equipped with secure handholds or grab irons on their roofs at the tops of such ladders,"
and it makes it unlawful to use cars not so equipped.
A box car could not properly be used without a secure ladder, and since, by its terms, all cars having ladders must be equipped with secure handholds, the application of this section (if it was not suspended) to the case at bar, the neglect of its requirements, and the liability of the defendants to the plaintiff for the result to him of such neglect, are too clear for discussion. Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Rigsby, 241 U. S. 33.
"thereafter said number, location, dimensions, and manner of application, as designated by said Commission, shall remain as the standards of equipment to be used on all cars subject to the provisions of this act,"
"Provided, That the Interstate Commerce Commission may, upon full hearing and for good cause, extend the period within which any common carrier shall comply with the provisions of this section with respect to the equipment of cars actually in service upon the date of the passage of this act."
Pursuant to the command of this third section, the Interstate Commerce Commission, on March 13, 1911, issued an order designating "the number, dimensions, sizes and manner of application of the appliances provided for by section 2 of the act," and specifically describing the size, character, and location of ladders on "freight train cars" and of handholds to be maintained at the tops of such ladders. By the terms of this order, carriers were granted an extension of five years from July 1st, 1911, in which to bring such safety appliances into compliance with the standards by it prescribed.
this (the third) section," etc., and that § 2 was therefore suspended until July 1st, 1916, by the Commission's order of March 13, 1911.
The congressional purpose in enacting § 2 of the act is very plain. At the time the act was passed, railroad carriers had in service many box cars, requiring for their proper use secure ladders and secure handholds or grab irons on their roofs at the tops of such ladders, and the purpose of this section clearly is to convert the general legal duty of exercising ordinary care to provide such safety appliances and to keep them in repair into a statutory, an absolute and imperative, duty of making them "secure," and to enforce this duty by appropriately severe penalties. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Ry. Co. v. United States, 220 U. S. 559.
that ultimately the location of these ladders and handholds shall be absolutely fixed, so that the employee will know certainly that night or day he will find them in like place and of like size and usefulness on all cars, from whatever line of railway or section of the country they may come. This highly important and humane purpose must not be defeated by finesse of construction such as is pressed upon our attention in the argument of this case.
To change these safety appliances on all the cars in the country from what they were as contemplated by § 2 -- "secure," but differing "in number, dimensions, location and manner of application" -- to what they must be when standardized to meet the requirements provided for in § 3 was regarded by Congress as a work so great and so expensive that it wisely committed to the informed discretion of the Interstate Commerce Commission the power and duty of determining the length of time which the carriers should be allowed in which to accomplish it. To give this discretion to the Commission is the function, and the only function, of the proviso of § 3, and the claim that, by construction, power may be found in it to suspend § 2 is too forced and unnatural to be seriously considered.
and usefulness, to be prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

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