Sutton v. Payne
Sutton v. Payne
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff’s action was to recover the value of mechanic’s tools checked as baggage and lost while in possession of the defendant. There was no question as to the facts. The director general admitted receiving the tools, which were in a hand-satchel or kit, at Schleswig, Iowa, and issuing a baggage check for the same, also that the said tools were lost in transit. The case was tried in the municipal court at Omaha. Judgment was for the' plaintiff, appellee, in the sum of $100. The district court refused to review this judgment, and the case is brought here by the defendant, appellant.
The whole contention of the appellant is that the court was holding contrary to the provisions of the Hannegan tariff, and was therefore in error in the rendition of its judgment. This is not a surprising view to take when one considers only the language of the definition above given. But the courts have uniformly and for a long time given to the term “baggage” the precise definition which is found in the Hannegan baggage tariff. In other words, this baggage tariff which is relied upon by the appellant is merely a statement of the common-law definition of baggage. Bomar v. Maxwell, 9 Humph. (Tenn.) 620; Kansas City, Ft. S. & G. R. Co. v. Morrison, 34 Kan. 502; Dibble v. Brown, 12 Ga. 217, 56 Am. Dec. 460; Kansas City P. & G. R. Co. v. State, 65 Ark. 363, 41 L. R. A. 333; Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. v. Collins, 56 Ill. 212.
The case of Hannibal Railroad v. Swift, 12 Wall. (U. S.) 262, dealt with a very similar question. This was a decision of the supreme court of the United States, and the question involved arose in regard to the surgical instruments of a physician. The supreme court held that such instruments were baggage. It follows in logic that if the instruments which a physician takes with him on a journey for the purpose of performing an operation are baggage, and the physician may recover the entire value, unless otherwise limited, of such instruments, then the ordinary mechanic who takes tools upon his journey may also recover the full value of the same, unless otherwise limited.
We are of the opinion that the judgment of the district court was right, and it is
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Clifford C. Sutton v. John Barton Payne, Director General
- Status
- Published