United States v. Southern Railway Co.

CRAVEN, Chief Judge.

This is an action brought by the United States at the request of the Interstate Commerce Commission to recover civil penalties for violations of the Safety Appliance Act.1

Both plaintiff and defendant have filed motions for summary judgment. The evidentiary facts are not in dispute. Briefly stated,2 the Southern Railway Company began a program on February 4, 1963, intended to make one railroad car out of what had previously been two conventional hopper cars. The method adopted to accomplish the desired result was simply to join two conventional hopper cars together with the…