United States v. Harris, 177 U.S. 305 (1900)

177 U.S.
305
20 S.Ct. 609
44 L.Ed. 780
UNITED STATES, Petitioner,

v.
JOSEPH S. HARRIS, Edward M. Paxson, and John Lowber
Welsh, Receivers of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad
Company.
No. 169.
Argued March 5, 6, 1900.
Decided April 9, 1900.
This was a suit brought in November, 1895, in the district court of by the
United States against Joseph S. Harris, Edward M. Paxson, and John
Lowber Welsh, receivers of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad
Company, to recover a penalty in the sum of $500 for an alleged violation
of 4386, 4387, 4388, and 4389 of the Revised Statutes of the United
States.
There was a verdict in favor of the United States, but afterwards, on a
question reserved at the trial, judgment was entered in favor of the
defendants non obstante veredicto. 78 Fed. Rep. 290. Thereupon a writ of
error was sued out from the circuit court of appeals for the third circuit,
and on March 14, 1898, the judgment of the district court was affirmed.
57 U. S. App. 259, 85 Fed. Rep. 533, 29 C. C. A. 327. The cause was
then brought to this court on a writ of certiorari.
Solicitor General Richards for petitioner.
Mr. John G. Lamb for respondents.
Mr. Justice Shiras delivered the opinion of the court:
This was an action to recover penalties for an alleged violation of the laws of
the United States relating to the transportation of live stock; and the question
involved is whether the defendants, who were in charge and control of the
Philadelphia & Reading Railroad as receivers, appointed by the circuit court of

the United States, were liable in such an action.
2
The act under which this suit was brought was passed March 3, 1873, and was
entitled 'An Act to Prevent Cruelty to Animals while in Transit by Railroad or
Other Means of Transportation within the United States.' It appears in the
Revised Statutes as 4386, 4387, 4388, and 4389, as follows:
'Sec. 4386. No railroad company within the United States whose road forms
any part of a line of road over which cattle, sheep, swine, or other animals are
conveyed from one state to another, or the owners or masters of steam, sailing,
or other vessels carrying or transporting cattle, sheep, swine, or other animals
from one state to another, shall confine the same in cars, boats, or vessels of any
description for a longer period than twenty-eight consecutive hours, without
unloading the same for rest, water, and feeding for a period of at least five
consecutive hours, unless prevented from so unloading by storm or other
accidental causes. In estimating such confinement the time during which the
animals have been confined without such rest on connecting roads from which
they are received shall be included, it being the intent of this section to prohibit
their continuous confinement beyond the period of twenty-eight hours, except
upon contingencies hereinbefore stated.
'Sec. 4387. Animals so unloaded shall be properly fed and watered during such
rest by the owner or person having the custody thereof, or in case of his default
in so doing, then by the railroad company or owners or masters of boats or
vessels transporting the same at the expense of the owner or person in custody
thereof; and such company, owners, or masters shall in such case have a lien
upon such animals for food, care, and custody furnished, and shall not be liable
for any detention of such animals.
'Sec. 4388. Any company, owner, or custodian of such animals who knowingly
and willingly fails to comply with the provisions of the two preceding sections,
shall, for every such failure, be liable for and forfeit and pay a penalty of not
less than $100 nor more than $500. But when animals are carried in cars, boats,
or other vessels in which they can and do have proper food, water, space, and
opportunity to rest, the provisions in regard to their being unloaded shall not
apply.
'Sec. 4389. The penalty created by the preceding sections shall be recovered by
civil action in the name of the United States, in the circuit or district court of
the United States, holden within the district where the violation may have been
committed, or the person or corporation resides or carries on its business; and it

shall be the duty of all United States marshals, their deputies and subordinates,
to prosecute all violations which come to their notice or knowledge.'
7
The contention on behalf of the government is that, by the words 'any

company,' used in 4388, Congress intended to embrace all common carriers,
whether by rail or water, upon whom the duty was imposed by 4386 of
unloading and feeding the animals; that the word 'company' is used in a popular
sense as signifying the person or persons, the association or corporation,
carrying on the business of a common carrier by rail or water; that, as shown by
its title, the act in question was a humane one, designed to prevent cruelty to
animals while in course of interstate transit; that the regulations were to be
complied with whenever animals were transported by rail or boat from one state
or another; and that whoever had charge of the railroad or the boat had to see
that these wholesome and humane regulations were obeyed, or had to pay the
penalty for violating them.
To strengthen the argument that Congress intended to include even receivers

when managing a railroad under an appointment by a court, the government's
counsel calls attention to the provisions of the 2d and 3d sections of the act of
August 13, 1888 (25 Stat. at L. 436, chap. 866), reading as follows: receiver or
manager who shall wilfully violate in any court of the United States there shall
be a receiver or manager in possession of any property such receiver or manager
shall manage and operate such property according to the requirements of the
valid laws of the state in which such property shall be situated, in the same
manner that the owner or possessor thereof would be bound to do if in
possession thereof. Any receiver or mannager who shall wilfully violate the
provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall,
on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding three thousand
dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said
punishments, in the discretion of the court.
'Sec. 3. That every receiver or manager of any property appointed by any court
of the United States may be sued in respect of any act or transaction of his in
carrying on the business connected with such property, without the previous
leave of the court in which such receiver or manager was appointed; but such
suit shall be subject to the general equity jurisdiction of the court in which such
receiver or manager was appointed, so far as the same shall be necessary to the
ends of justice.'
10
It is claimed that the effect of such legislation is to place receivers upon the
same plane with railway companies as respects their liability to be sued for acts
done while operating as railroad.

11
Upon the whole, the proposition of the government's counsel is that the words
'any company, owner, or custodian of such animals,' used in 4388, are
intended to cover all those who can possibly violate the preceding two sections;
that the words 'every company' must, therefore, be held to include a railroad
company, whether a person, a partnership or a corporation, and whether acting
individually, or through officers or receivers.
12
It may be conceded that it was the intention of Congress to subject receivers of

railroad companies, appointed such by courts of the United States, to the valid
laws and regulations of the states and of the United States, whose object is to
promote the safety, comfort, and convenience of the traveling public. But we
are not now concerned with the general intention of Congress, but with its
special intention, manifested in the enactments under which this suit was
brought. Was it the purpose of Congress when prescribing a penalty for any
company, owner, or custodian of animals who knowingly and willingly fails to
comply with the directions of the statute, to include receivers? Can we fairly
bring receivers within the penal clause by reasoning from a supposed or an
apparent motive in Congress in passing the act?
13
It was the view of the courts below that receivers were plainly not within the
letter of the statute, and not necessarily within its purpose or spirit; and an
attentive examination has brought us to the same conclusion.
14
It must be admitted that, in order to hold the receivers, they must be regarded as
included in the word 'company.' Only by a strained and artificial construction,
based chiefly upon a consideration of the mischief which the legislature sought
to remedy, can receivers be brought within the terms of the law. But can such a
kind of construction be resorted to in enforcing a penal statute? Giving all
proper force to the contention of the counsel of the government, that there has
been some relaxation on the part of the courts in applying the rule of strict
construction to such statutes, it still remains that the intention of a penal statute
must be found in the language actually used, interpreted according to tis fair
and obvious meaning. It is not permitted to courts, in this class of cases, to
attribute inadvertence or oversight to the legislature when enumerating the
classes of persons who are subjected to a penal enactment, nor to depart from
the settled meaning of words or phrases in order to bring persons not named or
distinctly described within the supposed purpose of the statute.
15
It may well be that Congress, in omitting to expressly include receivers in these
sections, intended to leave them subject to the control and direction of the
courts, whose officers they are. It does not, therefore, follow that the statute in
question would be without operation where railroads are in the hands of
receivers. The owners and custodians of the stock would still remain subject to
the punishment prescribed.
16
We cannot better close this discussion than by quoting the language of Chief
Justice Marshall, in the case of United States v. Wiltberger, 5 Wheat. 76, 5 L.
ed. 37:
17
'The rule that penal laws are to be construed strictly is perhaps not much less
old than construction itself. It is founded on the tenderness of the law for the
rights of individuals, and on the plain principle that the power of punishment is
vested in the legislative, and not in the judicial, department. It is the legislature,
not the court, which is to define a crime and ordain its punishment. It is said
that, notwithstanding this rule, the intention of the lawmaker must govern in the
construction of penal as well as other statutes. . . . But this is not a new
independent rule which subverts the old. It is a modification of the ancient
maxim, and amounts to this, that though penal laws are to be construed strictly,
they are not to be construed so strictly as to defeat the obvious intention of the
legislature. The maxim is not to be so applied as to narrow the words of the
statute to the exclusion of cases which those words, in their ordinary
acceptation, or in that sense in which the legislature has obviously used them,
would comprehend. The intention of the legislature is to be collected from the
words they employ. Where there is no ambiguity in the words there is no room
for construction. The case must be a strong one indeed which would justify a
court in departing from the plain meaning of words, especially in a penal act, in
search of an intention which the words themselves did not suggest. To
determine that a case is within the intention of a statute its language must
authorize us to say so. It would be dangerous, indeed, to carry the principle that
a case which is within the reason or mischief of a statute is within its
provisions, so far as to punish a crime not enumerated in the statute because it
is of equal atrocity, or of a kindred character with those which are enumerated.
If this principle has ever been recognized in expounding criminal law, it has
been in cases of considerable irritation, which it would be unsafe to consider as
precedents forming a general rule for other cases.' See likewise Sarlls v. United
States, 152 U. S. 570, 38 L. ed. 556, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 720.
18
The judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals is affirmed.

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177 U.S.

UNITED STATES, Petitioner,

Philadelphia & Reading Railroad as receivers, appointed by the circuit court of

committed, or the person or corporation resides or carries on its business; and it

The contention on behalf of the government is that, by the words 'any

To strengthen the argument that Congress intended to include even receivers

done while operating as railroad.

It may be conceded that it was the intention of Congress to subject receivers of

It may well be that Congress, in omitting to expressly include receivers in these

The judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals is affirmed.

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