Crescent Forwarding & Transportation Co. v. City of New Orleans
Crescent Forwarding & Transportation Co. v. City of New Orleans
Opinion of the Court
rendered the opinion and decree of the Court, as follows:
Plaintiff sues the Public - Belt Railroad Commission and the City of New Orleans for $727.50 for damages resulting from a collision between its four mule dray and a railroad engine operated by the Public Belt Railroad Commission over- the Public Belt tracks of the City of New Orleans. There was judgment for plaintiff against the defendants in solido for $620.00 and the latter both appeal.
. We'entertain no doubt as to plaintiff’s right of recovery. Owing to the view being masked or obscured by defendant’s parking of cars on .an adjoining track, the approach of the head-mules must or should have been
But the City of New Orleans alone can be held accountable, for the Public Belt Railroad 'Commission is but the City itself administering and operating its own properly through its designated officials. It is not in itself a corporation, nor an entity separate or distinct from the corporation of the City of New Orleans, but on the contrary merely an official agency erected by the latter and possessing no corporate existence or functions. It is true that this designated agency has received legislative recognition, Act 159 of 1912, but this is clearly not the equivalent of the acknowledgment or endowment of corporate capacity.
The record shows that two mules were killed, but there is no evidence at all to support the allowance of $100 damages for the alleged injury to a third mule. The ¡judgment must therefore be reduced.
It is accordingly decreed that the judgment be set aside and reversed and plaintiff’s suit be dismissed at its costs-in both Courts in so far only as the Public Belt Railroad Commission is concerned; and it is further decreed that
Amended.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.