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Title 49 — Transportation

Chapter 805 — Miscellaneous

§ 80501. Damage to transported property

Statutory text

(a)

Criminal Penalty.—

A person willfully damaging, or attempting to damage, property in the possession of an air carrier, motor carrier, or rail carrier and being transported in interstate or foreign commerce, shall be fined under title 18, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both. In a criminal proceeding under this section, a shipping document for the property is prima facie evidence of the places to which and from which the property was being transported.

(b)

Prohibition Against Multiple Prosecutions for Same Act.—

A person may not be prosecuted for an act under this section when the person has been convicted or acquitted on the merits for the same act under the laws of a State, the District of Columbia, or a territory or possession of the United States.

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. Pub. L. 103–272 § 1(e) · 108 Stat. 745

    Enacted · 49 U.S.C. § 80501

    (Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 1356.)

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    (Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 1356.)

    Enacted provision · exact public law section
    Section 1. subtitles ii, ii, and v-x of title 49, united states code (a) Certain general and permanent laws of the 49 USC prec. 101 note. United States, related to transportation, are revised, codified, and enacted by subsections (c)–(e) of this section without substantive change as subtitles II, III, and V–X of title 49, United States Code, “Transportation”. Those laws may be cited as “49 U.S.C. ________”. (b) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by striking the table of subtitles at the beginning of the title and substituting the following new table of subtitles: “Subtitle “I. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION “II. OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES “III. GENERAL AND INTERMODAL PROGRAMS “IV. INTERSTATE COMMERCE “V. RAIL PROGRAMS “VI. MOTOR VEHICLE AND DRIVER PROGRAMS “VII. AVIATION PROGRAMS “VIII. PIPELINES “IX. COMMERCIAL SPACE TRANSPORTATION “X. MISCELLANEOUS (c) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by striking subtitle II, except that chapter 31 (comprising sections 3101–3104) of subtitle II is redesignated and restated as chapter 315 (comprising sections 31501–31504) of subtitle VI of title 49, as enacted by subsection (e) of this section. (d) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding the following immediately after subtitle I:

1 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision

Notes

historicalAndRevision
Historical and Revision Notes
RevisedSectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large)
80501(a)15:1281.Sept. 13, 1961, Pub. L. 87–221, 75 Stat. 494.
80501(b)15:1282.

In subsection (a), the words “A person . . . shall be fined under title 18” are substituted for “It shall be unlawful for any person” and “Whoever violates any provision of subsection (a) of this section shall be fined not more than $5,000” to eliminate unnecessary words and for consistency with title 18. The word “damaging” is substituted for “destroy or injure” because it is inclusive. The words “air carrier, motor carrier, or rail carrier” are substituted for “common or contract carrier by railroad, motor vehicle, or aircraft”, and the words “being transported” are substituted for “moving”, for consistency in the revised title. The words “In a criminal proceeding under this section” are substituted for “To establish the interstate or foreign commerce character of any property involved in any prosecution under this section” to eliminate unnecessary words. The words “shipping document” are substituted for “waybill or similar shipping document” because they are inclusive.

In subsection (b), the words “A person may not be prosecuted for an act under this section when the person has been convicted or acquitted on the merits for the same act” are substituted for “A judgment of conviction or acquittal on the merits . . . shall be a bar to any prosecution under this chapter for the same act or acts” for clarity. The word “territory” is added for consistency in the revised title and with other titles of the United States Code. The words “or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico” are omitted as unnecessary because of 48:734.

Credits

(Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), , 108 Stat. 1356.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc49.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-05-04

USLM identifier /us/usc/t49/s80501