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

Please note: this case begins in mid-page. It therefore shares a citation with the last page of the previous case. If you are attempting to follow a link to the last page of 177 U.S. 296, click here.

United States v. Harris

No. 169

Argued March 5-6, 1900
Decided April 9, 1900
177 U.S. 305

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT

OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

Syllabus

A receiver of a railroad is not

within the letter or the spirit of the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1873, c. 252, 17 Stat. 584, entitled "An act to prevent cruelty to animals while in transit by railroad or other means of transportation within the United States,"

now incorporated into the Revised Statutes as sections 4386, 4387, 4388 and 4389.

This was a suit brought in November, 1895, in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 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 five hundred dollars for an alleged violation of sections 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 F. 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. 85 F. 533. The cause was then brought to this Court on a writ of certiorari.