---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 U.S.C. § 519"
title: "33"
title_heading: "Navigation and Navigable Waters"
number: "519"
heading: "Noncompliance with orders; penalties; removal of bridge"
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/33/519"
units:
  - "Chapter 11 — Bridges Over Navigable Waters"
  - "Subchapter II — Alteration of Bridges"
---

# §519. Noncompliance with orders; penalties; removal of bridge


Any [bridge owner](/usc/33/511.md) who shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order of the [Secretary](/usc/33/511.md), made in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished in any court of competent jurisdiction by a fine not exceeding $5,000, and every month such [bridge owner](/usc/33/511.md) shall remain in default shall be deemed a new offense and subject such [bridge owner](/usc/33/511.md) to additional penalties therefor. In addition to the penalties above prescribed the [Secretary](/usc/33/511.md) may, upon the failure or refusal of any [bridge owner](/usc/33/511.md) to comply with any lawful order issued by the [Secretary](/usc/33/511.md) in regard thereto, cause the removal of any such [bridge](/usc/33/511.md) and accessory works at the expense of the [bridge owner](/usc/33/511.md); and suit for such expense may be brought in the name of the [United States](/usc/33/511.md) against such [bridge owner](/usc/33/511.md) and recovery had for such expense in any court of competent jurisdiction. The removal of any [bridge](/usc/33/511.md) erected or maintained in violation of the provisions of this subchapter or the order or direction of the [Secretary](/usc/33/511.md) made in pursuance thereof, and compliance with any order of the [Secretary](/usc/33/511.md) made with respect to any [bridge](/usc/33/511.md) in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter, may be enforced by injunction, mandamus, or other summary process upon application to the district court of any district in which such [bridge](/usc/33/511.md) may, in whole or in part, exist, and proper proceedings to this end may be instituted under the direction of the Attorney General of the [United States](/usc/33/511.md) at the request of the [Secretary](/usc/33/511.md).


## Source credit

(June 21, 1940, ch. 409, § 9, 54 Stat. 500.)