United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

United States v. Atchison, T. & S.F. Ry. Co., 220 U.S. 37 (1911)

United States v. Atchison, Topeka

and Santa Fe Railway Company

No. 504

Argued February 28, 1911

Decided March 13, 1911

220 U.S. 37

Syllabus

In determining whether an office is one continuously operated, a trifling interruption will not be considered, and quaere whether a railway station shut for two periods of three hours each day and open the rest of the time is not a station continuously operated night and day within the meaning of §§ 2 and 3 of the Act of March 4, 1907, c. 2939, 34 Stat. 1415.

Under §§ 2 and 3 of the Act of March 4, 1907, c. 2939, 34 Stat. 1415, a telegraph operator employed for six hours and then, after an interval, for three hours, is not employed for a longer period than nine consecutive hours.

The presence of a provision in one part of a statute and its absence in another is an argument against reading it as implied where omitted, and so held that the word "consecutive" is not to be implied in connection with limiting the number of hours during the twenty-four that telegraph operators can be employed under the Act of March 4, 1907.

177 F.1d 4 affirmed.

The facts, which involve the construction of the Act of March 4, 1907, regulating the hours of service of railway employees, are stated in the opinion.

Page 220 U. S. 42