Opinion ID: 491024
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the term of the trip lease

Text: 7 The form and content of motor carrier leases are specified by ICC regulations. 47 Fed.Reg. 53,858, 53,859 (1982); see, e.g., 49 C.F.R. Sec. 1057 (1985); id. Sec. 1057.42 (authorizing trip leasing for periods of less than 30 days from private carriers). 2 Congress and the ICC, through authorizing statutes and regulations, intended to impose financial responsibility requirements upon authorized carriers to protect the public. E.g., Transamerican Freight Lines, Inc. v. Brada Miller Freight Systems, Inc., 423 U.S. 28, 37-39, 96 S.Ct. 229, 233-34, 46 L.Ed.2d 169 (1975); Price v. Westmoreland, 727 F.2d 494, 496 (5th Cir.1984); H.R. Rep. No. 2425, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. ---, reprinted in 1956 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 4304, 4307, 4309. 8 The ICC requires authorized carriers to assume complete responsibility in their written leases for the operation of equipment from the time the carrier takes possession until the equipment is returned to the lessor. 49 C.F.R. Sec. 1057.22(c)(2). A receipt must indicate the time and date that the authorized carrier takes possession of the leased equipment, and the lessor must give the lessee carrier a receipt upon redelivery to the lessor. Id. Secs. 1057.11(b)(1) & (2); see id. Sec. 1057.22(c)(2). The regulations also require the carrier to mount signs identifying the authorized carrier-lessee as the operator of the tractor for the duration of the lease. Id. Sec. 1057.22(2), 1057.11(c). 9 PST checked the condition of lessor Ainsworth's equipment and found it acceptable upon taking possession. While the date December 30, 1982 appears on the receipt, the time was omitted. The lease-manifest specified pick-up and delivery points but did not require Ainsworth to use a particular route and did not set a time for beginning the trip. Because the accident occurred before the load was picked up and before Ainsworth affixed the carrier's signs to his doors, 3 Transport contends he was not yet driving for PST. 10 Express contract language indicates, however, that the lease was in effect the morning of December 30. In a clause apparently designed to satisfy the requirements of 49 C.F.R. Sec. 1057.22(c)(2), PST's trip-lease specified that [t]he Lessor shall surrender full control, possession and management of said equipment to the Lessee during the term of this lease which shall start at delivery of equipment and end with delivery of cargo at destination. (emphasis supplied). Although the precise time for transferring possession was not documented, Transport does not dispute that the lease was executed and that the equipment was delivered into PST's possession in North Las Vegas the morning before the accident. 4 The receipt for the equipment was delivered to Ainsworth at that same time. 11 We conclude that the lease term began when the tractor was delivered into the lessee's possession. See 49 C.F.R. Sec. 1057.22(c)(2); id. Sec. 1057.11(b). We would stray impermissibly from the allocation of responsibility contemplated by Congress and the ICC if we held that the lease did not come into effect until PST's signs were affixed to the truck or the load actually picked up. Thus, the district court properly concluded that the lease term began on the morning of December 30.