The Federal Reporter (Annotated), Volume 169: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and Circuit and District Courts of the United States. June-July, 1909. Page: 72
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72 169 FEDERAL REPORTER.
nary stall in a stable. The ground therein was dry and in good condi-
tion, and the surrounding fence was sufficient. Cattle unloaded there-
in could be watered by driving them along a public lane to a creek dis-
tant 515 yards from the pen, and they could be fed in the pen by strew-
ing hay about upon the ground. These cattle were watered and fed
in that way, but not as advantageously as if proper facilities for sup-
plying their needs had been present in the pen. Seneca was a small
waystation, and the pen there was seldom used for resting, watering,
and feeding cattle, and then only in cases of emergency. The defend-
ant maintained extensive and properly equipped pens for those pur-
poses at Monett and Springfield, which are respectively 43 and 87 miles
east of Seneca. When these cattle were loaded into the cars at Co-
manche, which was on the line of a connecting carrier, the period of
confinement was extended from 28 hours to 36 hours at the written re-
quest of the person in custody of the cattle, and that was done in the
reasonable expectation on the part of both the custodian and the con-
necting carrier that the cattle could be carried to Monett or Springfield
within that period. And when the cattle were started from the con-
necting point, at which they were delivered to the defendant, there re-
mained enough of the 36 hours to justify a reasonable expectation that
the run to Monett or Springfield could be completed within that time.
No storm or bad weather intervened, but other occurrences in the
course of the run produced such delays that 35 of the 36 hours were
gone when the cattle reached Seneca. Monett could not be reached
within the remaining hour, and it was in that situation that the cattle
were unloaded at the Seneca pen for rest, water, and feeding. They
were not unloaded, rested, watered, or fed between Comanche and
Seneca. When the defendant obtained knowledge of how long the cat-
tle had been confined in the cars without rest, water, or food before
they were delivered to it was not shown, save as it appeared that it
had knowledge thereof when they reached Seneca.
There was no claim that the occurrences producing the delay after
the run from the connecting point was begun should have been fore-
seen before that run was undertaken, or that the defendant did not ex-
ercise reasonable diligence to reach Monett within the 36 hours, or that
the cattle were carried by any properly equipped pen after it became
reasonably certain that Monett could not be reached within that pe-
riod, or that the defendant did not maintain properly equipped pens
sufficient in number and location to meet the requirements of the traf-
fic reasonably to have been anticipated, or that it should have proceed-
ed with the cattle to Monett instead of unloading them at Seneca, but,
on the contrary, the sole claim was that the pen was not properly equip-
ped in the sense, of the statute. Indeed, after filing the petition, the
government seems to have proceeded as if the qualifying words "know-
ingly and willfully" were not in the penal section, and in its brief in this
court it is said:
"The issue in the case is confined to the one proposition, viz.: Was or
was not the pen into which these cattle were unloaded by the defendant
company properly equipped for resting, watering, and feeding? If it was
not, then the defendant company is guilty."
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The Federal Reporter (Annotated), Volume 169: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and Circuit and District Courts of the United States. June-July, 1909., legislative document, 1909; Saint Paul, Minnesota. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38215/m1/83/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.