Kansas City, M. & O. Ry. Co. of Texas v. Cliett
Kansas City, M. & O. Ry. Co. of Texas v. Cliett
Opinion of the Court
Fred Cliett, as plaintiff, sued the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway Company of Texas, as defendant, for damages which he alleges he sustained in the amount of $363.34 and attorney’s fees, by reason of a shrinkage of 6½ ppunds per head for 466 sheep and 15 goats shipped from Ft. Stockton, Tex., over the lines of defendant and other roads to Kansas City, Mo., and ex-' tra feed charge of $70. The cause of the shrinkage was alleged to be due to the negligence of the railway company in keeping the stock confined in the cars at Ft. Stockton without water from 6 o’clock p. m. January 12, to about noon January 13, 1917.
On a vetdict of the jury in favor of Cliett, judgment was rendered in his favor for the amounts sued for. A remittitur was thereafter entered for the amount found as attorney’s fees. This is the second appeal of this case. The first is reported in Railway Co. v. Cliett, 207 S. W. 166, to which we refer for a statement of the issues tendered.
The second assignment is to the effect that no evidence was introduced to show that the stock were given an extra feed at McFarland, Kan., and that the evidence gives no measure by .which the jury could determine the amount or reasonable value of the feed given; that from the evidence the jury were unable to separate the cost of feed which would have been required if the shipment was without delay from the amount required as a whole.
The stock reached Altus, Okl., on the afternoon of the 14th, where they were fed and watered. The stock left Altus on the morning of the 15th about 6 o’clock, arriving at McFarland on the afternoon of the 15th, and left there about daylight on the morning of the 16th. The feed at McFarland is the one claimed to be extra. Cliett testified:
“The feed at McFarland, Kan., was an extra feed, which I had to give my sheep on account of standing confined in the cars at Ft. Stockton, Tex. This feed cost me $70.”
The sheep and goats were loaded on the cars for the Kansas City market on the 12th day of January. They were put on the market at Kansas City and sold on January 22d. The damage alleged is loss of shrinkage in weight by reason of delay. The value of the animals on the Kansas City market was fixed by pirice per hundredweight. The loss in weight was fixed at 6½ pounds per hundredweight The uncontroverted evidence is that the market price of sheep on the Kansas City market steadily rose from January 12th to the 22d, the rise in price being about 25 cents per hundredweight. The sheep had been taken off the cars at Lawrence, Kan., and fed, watered, and rested for about five days for the market. The proposition is made under the third assignment that the fact that the shipment, if it was delayed, resulting in loss in weight, brought more at destination on account of such delay, and should have been considered in reduction of the loss, if any, sustained by shrinkage. The issue was submitted to the jury, but the jury made no allowance for the raise in value. We are referred to Railway Co. v. Hughes, 31 S. W. 411, and Railway Co. v. Bivins, 136 S. W. 1180. We regard the last-named case as not having such direct bearing on the facts or the proposition as to require a review. In the Kailway v. Hughes Case the calves were worth more on the day they were marketed than on the day previous, the day on which they would have been on the market but for the delay. In that case the Austin court held, and we think properly so, that the fact that a part of the shipment brought more at the destination on account of the delay in their arrival should be considered in reduction on the loss on the others as a result of the delay.
“It would be impossible for me to give the market value of the sheep and goats for January 12 to 27, 1917, but the general tone of the market during those dates * * * shows prices actually advanced about 25 cents per hundred weight on sheep and lambs from the 15th to the 22d.”
The fourth assignment has no merit. What we have said in discussing the third assignment applies to the fifth. There is evidence sufficient to sustain the alleged loss of weight.
We think the court’s charge in paragraphs 5 and 6 sufficiently presented the issues referred to, and that it was not reversible error to refuse special charge No. 3, complained of in the seventh assignment. If defendant in érror, within 15 days will enter a remittitur of the $70, allowed for extra feed, the case will be affirmed; otherwise it will be reversed and remanded.
<@=>For otter cases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
Reference
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published