Bateham v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co.

195 Iowa 659
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 3, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 195 Iowa 659 (Bateham v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bateham v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co., 195 Iowa 659 (iowa 1923).

Opinion

Arthur, J.

The issues presented by the pleadings were:

(1) That plaintiffs, through their agents, delivered to defendant company a carload of stock cattle and a carload of hogs in good condition for transportation.

(2) That the cattle and hogs reached their destination in a damaged condition.

(3) That there was an unreasonable delay in the transportation of said shipment.

(4) That the defendant company negligently and carelessly transported said shipment.

To meet the claims of the petition, defendant company alleged in its answer: (1) Denial of negligence on its part; (2) [661]*661denial of delay in transportation; (3) that it was not the initial carrier; and that the shipment in question was received from the St. Paul Bridgve & Terminal Company, of South St. Paul, Minnesota, a common carrier, at its terminal at Hoffman Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota.

I. Appellees were joint owners of a farm near Granger, which, in October, 1919, was occupied by one Thomas Waldron, as tenant and agent of appellees. Waldron purchased for appellees, at the Union Stockyards in St. Paul, 132 hogs and 27 steers, and on October 11, 1919, at 6:45 P. M., 128 of the hogs and all of the steers were loaded at the Union Stockyards in the cars of the defendant company on the St. Paul Bridge & Terminal Company’s tracks, and the cars containing the stock were received by the defendant railroad on its tracks at St. Paul at 10:45 the same evening. The defendant company does not connect directly with the Union Stockyards at St. Paul, Minnesota. The line that connects with the yards is the St. Paul Bridge & Terminal Company. It is four or five miles from the yards to the terminal of the defendant company at Hoffman Avenue in St. Paul.

Several errors are assigned, upon which appellant relies for reversal.

II. At the close of all the testimony, and after a motion by defendant company to direct a verdict in its favor had been submitted and overruled, the court permitted plaintiffs, over objection of defendant, to file an amendment to their petition, which alleged the following particulars of negligence:

(1) That the shipment was conveyed on slow trains, and slower than the regular trains scheduled between terminal points.

(2) That the shipment was mishandled between Mason City, .Iowa, and Granger, Iowa; that the shipment was held nine hours between Madrid, Iowa, and Granger, Iowa, and hauled over that distance at the end of a long coal train.

(3) That defendant wrongfully permitted a feed trough to remain in the car with the hogs from Mason City to Granger, Iowa.

(4) That defendant confined said cattle and hogs in the cars for a longer period than 28 hours.

[662]*662(5) That said shipment should have reached Granger on the morning of October 14, 1919, and that it did not arrive until the evening of October 16, 1919.

Appellants assign error in permitting the amendment above set forth and in not allowing a continuance asked, upon the refusal of the court to strike the amendment. The assignment is without merit. The amendment introduced no new issues into the case. The matters pleaded in the amendment were germane to the cause of action alleged in the original petition, and merely made more definite the former allegations of negligence. Permitting' the amendment and refusing continuance of the case were within the discretion of the court, and wé think there was no abuse of discretion. Code Sections 3600 and 3602.

III. The court instructed the jury that:

“You will allow plaintiffs, as damages, the difference, if any, between the reasonable, fair market value of said stock in the condition it was in immediately after transportation, as shown by the evidence, and the fair and reasonable market value of said stock as it would have been had it been transported and delivered to plaintiffs without negligence. ’ ’

Appellant complains that it was error to permit a recovery on the basis set forth in this instruction, for the reason claimed by appellant, that there was no evidence of any market value of the stock, and no evidence - of how the market value of these animals was affected by the alleged negligence; and insists that the jury was allowed to determine the market value of the stock at Granger, without any evidence to guide them. Witnesses for plaintiff testified that the market price of cattle such as arc involved in this case, on the Des Moines and Granger markets at the time in question, was 10 cents per pound, and the market value of hogs, 16 cents per pound. There was testimony that the normal shrinkage of such cattle in being transported from South St. Paul to Granger would be 25 to 30 pounds each; and that these cattle shrunk, in the estimation of the witnesses, from 85 to 120 pounds each. -The testimony showed that the average normal shrinkage of .hogs of this kind would be 6 to 10 pounds on each animal, and that the shrinkage, on these hogs was from [663]*66320 to 35 pounds each. Also, there was the testimony of Waldron and of J. E. Jackson, who was with Waldron when he bought the stock, as to the good condition of the stock at St. Paul. Waldron and Jackson were present at the unloading of the stock at Granger, and testified to the bad condition of the stock then; that the cattle acted crazy, and some of them dragged their hind legs; that there wasn’t enough fill in them; that their hair was dry; that they thought the cattle had fever; that the hogs looked hungry and gaunt, and were uneasy; that four of the hogs were crippled, and some of them dragged their hind feet.

We think the instruction was proper, under the evidence.

IV. Appellant complains of error in giving Instructions 8 and 9, and that said instructions are conflicting. In Instruction 8 the court told the jury that:

“If the animals were injured while they were being transported upon defendant’s train, then the plaintiff has made out a prima-facie case, and the burden of proof will be upon defendant to prove that care and. skill on his part would not have prevented the loss, or injury, or to show the circumstances which excuse or relieve him from liability.”

The court said, in Instruction 9:

“The evidence discloses that certain of the hogs died, either in transit or after delivery to plaintiffs. On this point you are instructed that the burden of proof is on the plaintiffs to show that said hogs did not die because of disease or natural infirmities. ’ ’

The first complaint is that Instruction 8 was erroneous in that it does not place the burden of proving negligent delay on the plaintiffs. The criticism of this instruction as to burden of proof is not warranted. Instruction No. 1, given by the court, placed the burden of proof upon the plaintiffs, to show that defendant failed to deliver the stock at destination within a reasonable time. The instruction properly placed the burden upon the carrier to prove that care and skill on its part would not have prevented the injury, after the plaintiffs had, in the first instance, borne the burden of proof, and made out a primafacie case by showing unusual delay and other necessary matters [664]*664of negligence. We. observe no error in these instructions. Carr v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 173 Iowa 444.

V. Appellant assigns error in Instruction 6.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bashford v. Slater
96 N.W.2d 904 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1959)
Huff v. United Van Lines, Inc.
28 N.W.2d 793 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1947)
Wilson v. Pennsylvania Rd. Co.
21 N.E.2d 865 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
195 Iowa 659, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bateham-v-chicago-milwaukee-st-paul-railway-co-iowa-1923.