CASES ADJUDGED

IN THE

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

AT

OCTOBER TERM, 1942.

TERMINAL RAILROAD ASSOCIATION OF ST. LOUIS v. BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN ET AL.

APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF ILLINOIS.

No. 218. Argued December 15, 16, 1942.-Decided January 18, 1943.

1. In the absence of federal legislation which conflicts or occupies the field, as here, it is within the authority of a State, in the interest of the health and safety of employees, to require a terminal railroad, though engaged largely in interstate commerce, to provide cabooses on trains within the State on designated runs. P. 7.

Neither the Boiler Inspection Act, the Safety Appliance Act, nor the Interstate Commerce Act precludes the state regulation here involved; and, since the Interstate Commerce Commission has made no rule or regulation in respect of the matter, it is unnecessary to consider the extent of the Commission's power under those Acts. Nor is the regulation precluded by the Railway Labor Act.

2. The state regulation here involved is not rendered invalid by the fact that some of the runs are across state lines and, because of lack of facilities, the cabooses must be provided for some distance into a neighboring State; nor by the fact that the requirement may to some extent retard, or increase the cost of, interstate transportation. P. 8.

379 Ill. 403, 41 N. E. 2d 481, affirmed.

APPEAL from a judgment which, reversing a lower state court, sustained an order of the Illinois Commerce Commission.

1

Mr. Bruce A. Campbell, with whom Messrs. Rudolph J. Kramer, Arnot L. Sheppard, Louis A. McKeown, Carleton S. Hadley, and Walter N. Davis were on the brief, for appellant.

Messrs. William C. Wines, Assistant Attorney General of Illinois, and Alvin E. Stein, with whom Mr. George F. Barrett, Attorney General, was on the brief, for appellees.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON delivered the opinion of the Court.

Appellant is a corporation engaged in performing terminal services and furnishing terminal facilities in and about East St. Louis, Illinois, to a number of railroad companies which share its ownership and control. It operates several yards for the sorting and classification and interchange of cars, with some service to industries within the switching district.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, one of the appellees, representing trainmen and switchmen employed by appellant, complained to the Illinois Commerce Commission of appellant's failure to provide caboose cars for its employees. In answer the appellant denied that the Commission had power to enter any order that would relate to movements in interstate commerce, which it said included substantially all of its operations; and it contended further that it had already provided all reasonably necessary facilities. The issues were sharply contested before the Commission, and the evidence, while it may not have required, certainly permitted these conclusions:

Appellant's switching crews make and break up trains of cars and deliver and transfer them. One man of each crew is required to ride the rear car of the train when it is in motion. Depending upon the distances by which fixed