Court Opinion

ID: 9443893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:33:22.293695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:38.302599
License: Public Domain

HUXMAN, Circuit Judge
(specially concurring) .
The legal principles which determine the issue presented are clear and without dispute in the authorities. It is unanimously held that a new instrumentality, which upon completion is to be dedicated to the use of interstate commerce or the production of goods for such commerce is not, during the period of its construction and prior to its dedication to such use, employed in commerce and workers thereon are not during such time engaged in commerce. But the difficulty as always comes when we undertake to apply this legal principle to a given state of facts. The line of demarcation between new construction on the one hand and repairs and improvement of existing facilities of commerce on the other becomes more vague and indistinct as we enter the twilight zone separating these two classifications. We ultimately reach a point where it cannot be said with that finality or certainty of conviction which is desirable that an activity falls within bne or the other of these two classifications.
It can be said with a great deal of emphasis and force of logic that eliminating a dangerous curve on an existing highway, or expediting traffic thereon by rerouting a portion thereof through a less densely populated portion of the city, constitutes an improvement or repair and not the construction of a new facility, and that this be so even though a new right of way must of necessity be acquired and perhaps new bridges built. On the other hand, if we say the construction in question here is new construction, then it could be argued with force that the elimination of a dangerous right angle turn on a highway by the construction of an angle turn of only a few hundred feet constitutes new construction. In the end, however, each case must be judged by its own facts.
In Raymond v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 9 Cir., 233 F. 239, the railroad company eliminated the necessity of operating its interstate railway over the mountains by constructing a tunnel through the mountain and routing its traffic that way. It was held that an employee engaged in work upon the tunnel was not engaged in interstate commerce. On appeal, the Supreme Court affirmed. 243 U.S. 43, 37 S.Ct. 268, 61 L.Ed. 583. In Bravis v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 8 Cir., 217 F. 234, 236, it was held that an employee engaged in the construction of a bridge 600 feet distant from a railroad on a cut-off more than a mile in length, which had never been used as a railroad, was not employed in interstate commerce. In its opinion the court stated, “The argument that the building of the cut-off was the mere correction or prevention of a defect or insufficiency of the defendant’s instrumentality for conducting interstate commerce is too remote and inconsequential to convince. The building of such a cut-off is new construction for use in interstate commerce, as much as the building of a new engine or car on plans prescribed by a railroad company to run over the cut-off or to take the place of an engine or car worn out in interstate commerce would.be.” In Pedersen v. Delaware Lack. & West. R. R., 229 U.S. 146, 33 S.Ct 648, 650, 57 L.Ed. 1125, the Supreme Court held that employees engaged in maintaining tracks, bridges, engines or cars were engaged in commerce but the court took occasion to say, “Of course, we are not here concerned with the construction of tracks, bridges, engines, or cars which have not as yet become instrumentalities in such commerce, * *
'While the question is not free from doubt and while the authorities cited above are not conclusive because the facts are not identical, I cannot say with that firmness of conviction one should have in overturning a finding by a trial court that the court erred in finding that the construction in question was new construction and not repair or improvement of an existing facility of commerce; and, therefore, join my Associates in upholding the judgment appealed from.