United States v. Garbish

Background

A federal contractor working on a Mississippi River levee was indicted under the 1892 law that limits government and contractor labor to eight hours a day except in an “extraordinary emergency.” The indictment charged the contractor with requiring employees to work more than eight hours on August 17, 1908, while building an ordinary levee in the usual season. The trial court sustained the contractor’s demurrer after taking judicial notice that levee building in that district necessarily requires urgent work, citing the need to get levees settled and grass rooted before high water and statistics the court said showed the river is often bank full.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether ordinary levee construction automatically counts as an extraordinary emergency that excuses the eight‑hour rule. It explained that an “extraordinary emergency” must be a special, unusual occurrence and not merely the routine timing, business convenience, or customary speed of levee work. The opinion noted earlier decisions rejecting mere convenience as an emergency, criticized taking such broad judicial notice of recurring levee conditions, and rejected treating the importance of levee work as a blanket exemption. Because the lower court assumed facts beyond the indictment and relied on common‑knowledge assumptions, the Court reversed that ruling.

Real world impact

The Court reversed and sent the case back with instructions to overrule the demurrer so the indictment can proceed. Contractors on federal levee projects must follow the federal eight‑hour limitation unless they can prove a genuine extraordinary emergency. The decision warns courts not to assume routine public‑works tasks are automatically exempt, and it notes contractors have the law and known conditions beforehand and can plan work accordingly.