C. H. Rice & Son v. Payne
C. H. Rice & Son v. Payne
Opinion of the Court
On Motion to Dismiss Proceeding.
This suit was brought originally in the city court. The defendant, railroad company, filed an exception of no cause of action, which was overruled. The suit was then put at issue and tried on its merits ; and judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff. On appeal, the exception of no cause of action was reargued and was sustained by the Court of Appeal. On application of plaintiff, a rehearing was granted, and the only question then argued was whether the petition disclosed a cause of action. The court overruled the exception of no cause of action and rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff, affirming the judgment which had been rendered by the city court on the merits of the case. The-case is before us on a writ of review, issued at the instance of the defendant.
In the ease before us, it was and is yet conceded by the relator, railroad company, that the allegations in plaintiff’s petition are true, and that the judgment complained of is correct, if the allegations disclose a cause or right of action. The opinion rendered by the Court of Appeal also shows that the only question presented is a question of law, i. e. whethen the facts alleged in plaintiff’s petition warranted the judgment that was rendered.
The motion to dismiss the proceeding is overruled.
Opinion on the Merits
On the Merits.
The argument on behalf of the railroad company is founded upon the doctrine that the liability of a common carrier for a failure to deliver a shipment of freight is limited to the value of the goods on the market, at the place where, and time when, the goods should have been delivered. Oakey v. Russell, 6 Mart. (N. S.) 58; Porter v. Curry, 7 La. 233; Rathbone v. Neal, 4 La. Ann. 563, 50 Am. Dec. 579; Price, Frost & Co. v. The Uriel, 10 La. Ann. 413; Y. Quadras & Co. v. The Daniel Webster, 11 La. Ann. 203; A. D. Grieff & Co. v. Captain Switzer, 11 La. Ann. 324; Lewis & O’Niel v. The Success, 18 La. Ann. 1; Simon & Loeb v. Steamship Fung Shuey, 21 La. Ann. 363; Silverman v. St. Louis, I. M. & S. R. Co., 51 La. Ann. 1785, 26 South. 447; Armistead v. Shreve
Inasmuch as'this is an interstate shipment, and therefore governed by federal regulations, the attorneys for the railroad company say that the case is controlled by the decision in Adams Express Co. v. Croninger, 226 U. S. 491, 33 Sup. Ct. 148, 57 L. Ed. 314, 44 L. R. A. (N. S.) 257. Our opinion is that the decision is not appropriate to the case before us. The question presented in Croninger’s Case was whether a stipulation, in a receipt issued by a carrier for an article received for shipment, limiting the carrier’s liability to a declared value, agreed to for the purpose of adjusting the rate, was forbidden by1 the provisions of the Carmack Amendment of June 29, 1906, to Act February 4, 1887, § 20 (U. S. Comp. St. §§ 8604a, 8604aa), that no contract, receipt, rule, or regulation should exempt the common carrier, railroad, or transportation company from the liability, thereby imposed. The ruling was that the carrier could, at common law, by a fair, open, just, and reasonable agreement, limit the amount recoverable by the shipper in case of loss or damage, to an agreed value, fixed for the purpose of obtaining the lower of two or more rates, proportioned to the amount of the risk. The shipper had, for the purpose of obtaining a lower rate, placed a value upon the article1 less than its actual value; and the court held him to the stipulation in the contract, that the liability of the carrier to the shipper, for the loss of the article, was limited to the value which the shipper had put upon it. The case before us has no such feature; for there was no agreement here between the carrier and the shipper, or stipulation
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- C. H. RICE & SON v. PAYNE, Agent. In re YAZOO & M. V. R. CO.
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- (Syllabus by Editorial Staff.) On Motion to Dismiss Proceeding. 1. Certiorari &wkey;>57 — When only question of law presented to Court of Appeal, case reviewabie by Supreme Court, though evidence not reduced to writing. That a case was tried de novo in the Court of Appeal and that the evidence was not reduced to writing, does not prevent review by the Supreme Court, where defendant admitted the truth of plaintiff’s allegations, and the only question before the Court of Appeal was the question of law whether the facts alleged warranted the judgment rendered. 2. Certiorari &wkey;>!5 — Cases tried in Court of Appeal on question of fact shouid not be brought to Supreme Court. Cases tried by the Court of Appeal on a question of fact should not be brought to the Supreme Court for review, even though the evidence be in the record. On the Merits. 3. Carriers &wkey;>229(2) — Liable to commission merchant for commission on cattle erroneously delivered to another commission merchant. A carrier negligently delivering a shipment of cattle consigned to a commission merchant for sale to one of his competitors in business, who sold the cattle and retained the commission, was liable to the consignee for the loss of his commission, which he had virtually earned and would have received but for its negligence. 4. Carriers &wkey;>94(3) — Value of shipment to consignee is test of liability for negligence. When freight has been received by a carrier for shipment, it becomes the property of the consignee or holder of the bill of lading, and its value to him is the test of liability of the railroad company for negligence in case of misdelivery, and, though the bill of lading be not regarded technically as a stipulation pour autrui, the carrier is bound not to cause loss to the consignee by its negligence. 5.Corporations Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, a corporation is no less liable for an injury resulting from negligence than for an injury resulting from willful wrongdoing on the part of its employees in the course of their employment.