Irby v. Southern Express Co.
Irby v. Southern Express Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This is an action by the plaintiff for damages for the loss of a plat of a large tract of land, delivered to the express company at Boykin, S. C., to be forwarded to persons at Bennettsville, S. C. The package was lost. The agent of the defendant asked the .value of the package and the plaintiff said it was a plat, but she did not know the value. The agent then issued a receipt for the package, which limited the demand for its loss to fifty dollars, no value being stated. The damages claimed were placed at five hundred dollars and the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for three hundred and fifty dollars. From the judgment entered on this verdict the defendant appealed. There are sixteen exceptions, but the appellant has not considered them separately and states in its argument that a separate consideration is unnecessary.
The exceptions that complain of a charge on the facts are sustained.
The trial Judge could not direct a verdict. There were facts upon which this Court ought not to' comment, that made it necessary to' submit the case to' the jury.
3. The respondent seeks to1 sustain the judgment, notwithstanding the charge on the following ground:
3 “That the valuation clause upon the back of said express receipt, which attempted to limit the value of said shipment in case of loss, is in fact, an attempt to' contract against negligence and is, therefore, null and void. This being true, his Honor would not have committed error if he had charged the jury to1 disregard said clause entirely.”
The rig'ht of the carrier to limit liability by the rate paid is recognized in Visanska v. Southern Express Company, 92 S. C. 573, 75 S. E. 962. Still there was a question as to the assent of the shipper to the terms. Faulk v. Railroad Co., 82 S. C. 374, 64 S. E. 283. “When the carrier would limit its common law liability to1 respond for the true value of the article lost or destroyed -by it, the burden is on it to1 show the shipper’s assent.”
The judgment is reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.
Reference
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Appeal. — An order refusing to strike out allegations as irrelevant is not appealable. 2. Charge — Contracts—Carriers.—Where the trial Judge holds that a receipt for an express package was the contract, if it were legible and intelligible and says to the jury he cannot find the provisions contended for in the contract without the aid of the attorneys, he charges on the facts. 3. Carrier — Negligence.—Where the carrier would limit its common law liability to the value placed on the article carried the burden is on it to show the shipper’s assent.