National Power Corp. v. Federal Aviation Administration

Record contained sufficient evidence to support Federal Aviation Administration Administrator’s decision finding that petitioner violated several hazardous materials regulations when it shipped untested lithium battery packs that petitioner had manufactured. Petitioner provided no documentation that subject batteries had been tested or that Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration had authorized instant battery shipments, and instant $66,000 civil penalty was rationally related to number of violations at issue in instant shipments. Ct. rejected petitioner’s contention that “knowing” violation under civil penalty statute (49 USC section 5123(a)) requires evidence of intent to violate law and further found that section 5123(a) requires only knowledge of facts giving rise to violation. Also, record did not support petitioner’s claim that instant batteries were not “new” because they were similar to already-tested battery, and thus were exempt from testing requirements, since petitioner failed to present evidence regarding any comparison of existing battery to instant untested batteries to establish alleged similarity.