N.L.R.B. v. Pacific Intermountain Express

Citation: N.L.R.B. v. Pacific Intermountain Express Co., 228 F.2d 170 (8th Cir. 1955).

The defendant, a motor freight carrier engaged in interstate commerce, fired one employee and issued a warning to another for alleged safety violations. The N.L.R.B. found that no violation had occurred, and ordered reinstatement of the dismissed employee. The company claimed that the employee was speeding, while the examiner and the N.L.R.B. concluded that he was not. The Board based its conclusion on a chart taken from a tachograph, which was attached to the employee's truck. The company challenged the admissibility of the tachographic evidence.

The Eighth Circuit noted that since tachographs are regularly installed and maintained by the company, and since drivers are regularly required to turn in charts, such records were therefore kept in the regular course of business and admissible under the Federal Business Records Act.

Since a reviewing court will disturb the Board's findings of fact only if clearly erroneous, the court held that the tachographic evidence was admissible, and affirmed the Board's ruling of reinstatement.