This is a suit brought by the United States against the state of California in the District Court for Northern California to recover the statutory penalty of $100 for violation of the Federal Safety Appliance Act, § 2, Act of March 2, 1893, c. 196, 27 Stat. 531, 45 U.S.C. § 2 (45 U.S.C.A. § 2), and section 6 of the act, as amended April 1, 1896, 29 Stat. 85, 45 U.S.C. § 6 (45 U.S.C.A. § 6).
The complaint alleges that California, in the operation of the state-owned State Belt Railroad, is a common carrier engaged in interstate transportation by railroad, and that it has violated the Safety Appliance Act by hauling over the road a car equipped with defective coupling apparatus. Upon the trial, without a jury, upon stipulated facts, the District Court gave judgment for the United States. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed, 75 F.(2d) 41, on the ground that as exclusive jurisdiction of suits to which a state is a party is conferred upon this Court by section 233 of the Judicial Code, 36 Stat. 1156, 28 U.S.C. § 341 (28 U.S.C.A. § 341), the District Court was without jurisdiction of the cause. We granted certiorari, 296 U.S. 554, 56 S.Ct. 87, 80 L.Ed. 391, to review the case as one involving questions of public importance, upon a petition of the government which urged that the state is a common carrier by railroad, subject to the Safety Appliance Act, and, under its provisions, to suit in the District Court to recover penalties for violation of the act.
In an earlier suit, Sherman v. United States, 282 U.S. 25, 51 S.Ct. 41, 75 L.Ed. 143, brought against the Board of State Harbor Commissioners, which supervises operation of the State Belt Railroad, to recover penalties for violation of the act, this Court set aside the judgment of the District Court for the government because the state had not been made a party.
1. Whether a transportation agency is a common carrier depends not upon its corporate character or declared purposes, but upon what it does. United States v. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, 249 U.S. 296, 304, 39 S.Ct. 283, 63 L.Ed. 613, 6 A.L.R. 527. The State Belt Railroad is owned and operated by the state, see Sherman v. United States, supra. It parallels the water front of San Francisco harbor and extends onto some forty-five state-owned wharves. It serves directly about one hundred and seventy-five industrial plants, has track connection with one interstate railroad, and, by wharf connections with freight car ferries, links that and three other interstate rail carriers with freight yards in San Francisco leased to them by the state. It receives and transports from the one to the other, by its own engines, all freight cars, loaded and empty, and the freight they contain, offered to it by railroads, steamship companies, and industrial plants. The larger part of this traffic has its origin or destination in states other than California. For the transportation service, it makes a flat charge per car. It issues no bills of lading and is not a party to through rates. It moves the cars on instructions contained in 'switch lists' made out by the delivering or receiving carrier, which pays the charge and absorbs it in its rate. The charge on cars not delivered to or received from another carrier is paid by the industry concerned.
The Belt Railroad is thus a terminal railroad for the industries and carriers with which it connects, and it serves as a link in the through transportation of interstate freight shipped to or from points in San Francisco over the connecting carriers. Its service is of a public character, for hire, and does not differ in any salient feature from that which this Court, in United States v. Brooklyn Eastern District Term nal, supra, 249 U.S. 296, 304, 305, 39 S.Ct. 283, 63 L.Ed. 613, 6 A.L.R. 527, held to be common carriage by rail in interstate commerce within the meaning of the Federal Hours of Service Act, 34 Stat. 1415, 45 U.S.C. § 61 (45 U.S.C.A. § 61).