United States v. Southern Pac. Co.

[1] This action was brought by the government to recover from the Southern Pacific Company certain penalties for alleged violations of the act of Congress known as the “Hours of Service Act,” approved March 4, 1907 (34 Stat. p. 1415); the complaint containing 12 counts, the first 6 relating to the hours of service on one train, and the last 6 to the hours of service on another train. The last 6 are the only counts involved on this writ of error, and are substantially the same, except as to the names of the trainmen, and charge that on the defendant company’s extra train, drawn by locomotive engine 2794, leaving Tucson, in the state of Arizona, at 5:20 a. m. December 22, 1912, for Bowie, in the same state (the said train being then and there engaged in the movement of interstate traffic), the defendant company required'and permitted the train crew to be and remain on duty for a longer period than 16 consecutive hours, to wit, from said hour of 5:20 a. m. to 10:50 p. m. of the same day. As an affirmative answer and defense to those counts the defendant company alleged and prayed as follows:

*747 The plaintiff in the case demurred to the affirmative defense upon these grounds:

The…