Union Pacific has appealed a judge's ruling ordering the reinstatement of an engineer who defecated on a locomotive connection knuckle - a device used to couple a locomotive to a rail car.

An arbitration board had ruled in favor of engineer Matthew Lebsack, ordering reinstatement.

A judge then weighed-in and while he didn't agree with the decision to put Lebsack back on the job he said the law didn't allow him to make that call. He said he could only consider if that decision fell within the arbitration board's discretion.

All of this had Lebsack back on track to return to work. Thus, the appeal.

The defecation incident in question happened in November of 2016. In addition to the knuckle pooping, according to court records, Lebsack threw feces-covered toilet paper out the locomotive window and told his manager that he had left a present for him.

That, according to Union Pacific, was a violation of Rule 1.6 of its policy regarding such things which reads: