Court Opinion

ID: 9470826
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:16:55.562152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:07.336369
License: Public Domain

ESCHBACH, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The Railroad Retirement Board (“Board”) found that ITEL Corporation’s Rail Division provides a service in connection with the transportation of property by railroad. I cannot label this finding unreasonable; indeed, the Board’s conclusion is entirely consistent with the governing statutes’ language, history, and authoritative interpretations.1
I.
As the majority ably notes, an entity is an employer covered by the provisions of the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act only if it “performs any service ... in connection with the transportation of ... property by railroad.” See 45 U.S.C. §§ 231(a)(1), 351(a). ITEL Corporation’s Rail Division, as the name implies, does perform such services. The Rail Division has 15,600 railroad ears, which are provided (leased) to rail carriers. The Rail Division monitors the movement of the cars, determines the amounts of fees owing to the Rail Division, and collects these fees. Moreover, the Rail Division is often responsible for the repair and maintenance of its cars.
I know of no way that a railroad could operate without railroad cars. Purchasing railroad cars, maintaining the cars, monitoring the cars’ locations, and providing the cars for the transportation of shippers’ goods, are activities typically performed by a railroad in connection with its transportation services. In this case a non-carrier is providing these services; however, this fact does not transform the services into services unconnected with the transportation of property by railroad. See Southern Developmental Co. v. Railroad Retirement Board, 243 F.2d 351, 355 (8th Cir.1957); Railroad Retirement Board v. Duquesne Warehouse Co., 149 F.2d 507, 509 (D.C.Cir.1945), aff’d, 326 U.S. 446, 66 S.Ct. 238, 90 L.Ed. 192 (1946).
ITEL Corporation’s Rail Division, therefore, provides a service that is vital to the transportation services of many rail carriers; if the Rail Division’s property and services disappeared, the nation’s rail transportation system would be significantly affected. The Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act apply to entities performing “services ... in connection with the transportation of .. . property by railroad.”2 In light of the cannon of construction that the words of statutes are to be given their ordinary meaning, Consumer Product Safety Commission v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., 447 U.S. 102, 108, 100 S.Ct. 2051, 2056, 64 L.Ed.2d 766 (1980), I cannot term unreasonable the Board’s conclusion that the Rail Division is governed by the two acts.
II.
I recognize that Congress may not always say what it means. The plain meaning of statutory language may be disregarded if there is a clearly expressed legislative intent that is contrary to the ordinary meaning of the words. In this case, however, I can discern no such legislative intent.
The drafters of the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act derived the phrase “in connection *1250with the transportation of ... property by railroad” indirectly from the definition of “transportation” contained in § 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act, 41 Stat. 474, 475 (1920). The majority’s argument is premised on this fact and the fact that the leasing of railroad cars to a carrier is not an activity regulated under the Interstate Commerce Act. Because the Rail Division’s leasing activities are not regulated by the Interstate Commerce Act, the majority concludes that the Rail Division is not governed by the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts.
The implicit, and false, premise in the majority’s argument is that the Rail Division’s leasing activities are not regulated under the Interstate Commerce Act because the leasing of cars is not a transportation service as defined in § 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act (now codified as amended at 49 U.S.C. 10102(24)). In fact, the reason that the Rail Division’s leasing activities are not regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission is that the Rail Division is not a carrier and “the only relation that is subject to the Commission is that between the railroads and the shippers.” Ellis v. ICC, 237 U.S. 434, 444, 35 S.Ct. 645, 646, 59 L.Ed. 1036 (1915). A lessor of railroad cars is not a carrier engaged in a public service; as such the lessor’s practices lie outside of “the realm of the Commission’s competence.” General American Tank Car Corp. v. El Dorado Terminal Co., 308 U.S. 422, 429, 60 S.Ct. 325, 329, 84 L.Ed. 361 (1940). In fact I read Ellis and General American Tank Car Corp., the two cases on which the majority relies, as finding that the leasing of railroad cars is contained within the definition of transportation in § 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act. See Ellis, 237 U.S. at 443, 35 S.Ct. at 646 (“the definition of transportation includes such instrumentalities as the Armour Car Lines lets to the railroads”); General American Tank Car Corp., 308 U.S. at 428, 60 S.Ct. at 329 (“Freight cars are facilities of transportation, as defined by the Act.”).
The case law confirms my view that the scope of entities brought under the purview of the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts is not coextensive with the entities subject to regulation under the Interstate Commerce Act. In Railroad Retirement Board v. Duquesne Warehouse Co., 326 U.S. 446, 66 S.Ct. 238, 90 L.Ed. 192 (1946), a warehouse company that handled and stored goods being shipped by a railroad, was found to be an employer covered by the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts even though the company was not regulated under the Interstate Commerce Act. See id. at 454, 66 S.Ct. at 241; accord Southern Development Co. v. Railroad Retirement Board, 243 F.2d 351 (8th Cir.1957); Despatch Shops, Inc. v. Railroad Retirement Board, 153 F.2d 644 (D.C.Cir.1946). If any more support for my view is needed, it can be found in the words of the person in charge of the Retirement Bill in the Senate, Senator Wagner, who stated that the Railroad Retirement Act’s coverage would include “not only those directly in the railroad business but those associated with it." 81 Cong.Rec. 6223 (1937) (emphasis added).
III.
My initial reaction to this case was that ITEL Corporation’s Rail Division, which forms a vital part of our nation’s rail system, obviously performs services in connection with the transportation of property by rail. Nothing in the legislative histories of the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act has convinced me that my initial reaction was wrong.

. Because the majority does not consider whether the Rail Division is “under common control” with a rail carrier, I also will not reach that issue.

. The entity also must have a sufficient affiliation with a railroad. I do not reach the question whether such an affiliation exists in this case. See supra note 1.