Grammes v. Central Railroad
Grammes v. Central Railroad
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
By the Act of Congress dated June 18, 1910, 36 Statutes at Large, page 546, it is “made the duty of all common carriers......[engaged in interstate commerce] to establish, observe and enforce just and reasonable regulations and practices affecting......bills of lading, the
By the Act of Congress dated March 4, 1915, 38 Statutes at Large, 1196, it is provided: “That any common carrier, railroad or transportation company......receiving property for transportation from a point in one State or territory or the District of Columbia to a point in another State, territory [or the] District of Columbia, or from any point in the United States to a point in an adjacent foreign country, shall issue a receipt or bill of lading therefor, and shall be liable to the lawful holder thereof for any loss, damage, or injury to such property caused by it or by any common carrier, railroad, or transportation company to which such property may be delivered or over whose line or lines such property may pass within the United States or within an adjacent foreign country, when transported on a through bill of lading; and no contract, receipt, rule, regulation or other limitation of any character whatsoever, shall exempt such common carrier, railroad;' or transportation company from the liability hereby imposed.”
On the trial it was proved that plaintiff loaded in a box car, placed by defendant on plaintiff’s private siding at Allentown, Pennsylvania, 41 barrels of scrap brass to be transported to Waterbury, Connecticut, and received
Had defendant observed its own regulations, and the loss been occasioned by plaintiff’s failure to comply therewith, the point it now seeks to raise, viz, is a carrier responsible for a loss resulting from the shipper’s failure to obey its rules? would have been up for consideration. Here, however, defendant by its haste prevented plaintiff from marking the freight as required, did not “observe” its own regulations, — as the Act of 1910, relied on (by it), requires it to do, — in that it received freight which was not all properly marked, and issued a
The judgment of the court below is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Grammes v. Central Railroad Co. of New Jersey
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Common carrier — Carrier—Bules and regulations — Loss of goods —Act of Congress March 4, 1915, 88 Stat. 11,96. 1. A common carrier cannot complain of a shipper’s failure to comply with its rules and regulations, if such failure is due to the act of the carrier or its servants. 2. Where articles shipped have been lost by reason of- the failure of the carrier to comply with its own rules, it and not the shipper must suffer the loss. 3. Where some of the articles shipped are properly marked, as required by the rules and regulations of the carrier, and some are not, and all are lost in transit, the carrier will in any event be held liable for the loss of the packages which were properly marked. 4. Where a carrier alleges some of the packages shipped have been lost in transit because not properly marked, the burden of proof is upon it to show which were not so marked. 5. By the Act of Congress dated March 4, 1915, 38 Statutes at Large 1196, where a common carrier takes property in interstate commerce, and issues a through bill of lading therefor, it is liable to the shipper whether the loss occurs on its own line or on the line of a connecting carrier.