Blackford v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.

203 S.W. 867, 181 Ky. 70, 1918 Ky. LEXIS 483
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJune 11, 1918
StatusPublished

This text of 203 S.W. 867 (Blackford v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blackford v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co., 203 S.W. 867, 181 Ky. 70, 1918 Ky. LEXIS 483 (Ky. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

Judge Thomas

Affirming.

The appellant and plaintiff below, G. L. Blackford, on April 11, 1916, shipped from Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Louisville, Kentucky, seven race horses, among which was one named “Bookie.” The appellee, St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, was the initial carrier, while the delivering one was the appellee, Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company; which took possession of the shipment at Memphis, Tennessee. In the early afternoon of April 13 the shipment, which was made in an Arms palace car, of the largest and best equipped size and especially designed for the shipment of horses, arrived in the city of Louisville. The rate which was quoted by the agent at Hot Springs to plaintiff for the shipment, and which was paid by him, was $176.10, but it was afterward discovered that this sum lacked $85.80 of being the rate for that character of shipments between the two points mentioned, which rate was on file with the Interstate Commerce Commission and in effect on the date of the shipment. Upon the arrival of the stock in Louisville the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company declined to permit the horses to be unloaded until the balance of the freight, $85.80, was paid. This was not done until the next morning, when the stock was unloaded at Douglas Park, in that city, and two days thereafter, on April 16, the horse “Bookie” developed a case of [72]*72pneumonia, from which he died on April 24, and to recover for his value, which is alleged to be $2,000.00, and for medicine and bill of the veterinary surgeon, amounting to $52.00, plaintiff filed this suit against the two corporations, alleging that the detention of the horses in the car from the afternoon of April 13 until the morning of April 14 was the cause of “Bookie” contracting and developing pneumonia, and that the agent of the initial carrier had wrongfully quoted the freight on the shipment, which if l^e had done correctly it would have been paid and there would have been no delay in unloading it at its destination.

It is also alleged that because of the long haul the horses became “droopy” and Bookie was especially in that condition when the shipment arrived at Louisvlle, and “Plaintiff states that said shipment was not unloaded and cared for and not delivered by the defendant, Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, and that it did not allow this plaintiff to unload and care for said stock until the morning of April 14, 1916, and some nineteen hours after the arrival at South Louisville, Kentucky, as aforesaid, being allowed by said defendant to remain confined in the car in which it arrived at South Louisville during this interim.”

Demurrers filed by each defendant were overruled, and in separate answers they denied the allegations of the petition and pleaded contributory negligence; in a third paragraph they relied upon the fact that the rate for this character of shipments had been filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission and that the total amount of it was, according to the schedule so filed, the sum of $261.90, instead of $176.10, the amount paid by plaintiff at the beginning of the shipment. A reply com-' pleted the issues, and upon a trial of the case the court gave to the jury a peremptory instruction to find for the defendants, which was done, and the petition was dismissed. To reverse that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

A part of section 6 of the Interstate Commerce Act is: “That every common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall file with the commission created by this act, and print and keep open to public inspection schedules showing all the rates, fares and charges for transportation between different points on the route of [73]*73any other carrier by railroad, by pipe line, or by water, when a through rate and joint rate have been established. ’ ’

The common carriers subject to the provisions of that act are interstate carriers, and it is not disputed in this case but that the shipment was an interstate shipment. Neither is it disputed—but if so it is established without contradictory proof—that at the time of the shipment involved there had been filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, in compliance with the Interstate Commerce Act, a schedule for rates of this character of shipment between Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Louisville, Kentucky, and it is likewise admitted that the freight between the two points mentioned on this character of shipment under the schedule so filed was $261.90 instead of $176.10, the amount paid at Hot Springs. A fact equally well established is that the agent at Hot Springs made a mistake in naming the total amount of freight between the two points. It has been frequently determined by the Federal courts, as well as this court, since the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act, that both shipper and carrier are bound by the schedule of rates in the report filed with the commission, and that to charge any less rate, whether through mistake or otherwise, would .be giving a preferential one, and therefore illegal and void. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co. v. Maysville Brick Co., 132 Ky. 643; Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. Henderson Elevator Co., 138 Ky. 220, 226 U. S. 441; Louisville & Nashvillee R. R. Co. v. Coquillard Wagon Works, 147 Ky., 530; Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co. v. Allen, 152 Ky. 145; Gulf, Colorado & Sante Fe Ry. Co. v. Hefley, 158 U. S. 98; Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Mugg, 202 U. S. 242; Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Abilene Cotton Oil Co., 204 U. S. 426; Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Cisco Oil Mill, 204 U. S. 449; Kansas City Southern Ry. Co. v. Alvers Commission Co., 223 U. S. 573; Illinois Central Railroad Company v. Henderson Co., 226 U. S. 441; Kansas Southern Ry. Co. v. Carl, 227 U. S. 639; Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. International Coal Co., 230 U. S. 187, 197; Boston & Maine R. R. Co. v. Hooker, 233 U. S. 97, 110-113; George N. Pierce Co. v. Wells, Fargo & Co., 236 U. S. 278, 284; Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Maxwell, 237 U. S. 94, and Southern Railway v. Prescott, 240 U. S. 632.

[74]*74The failure to post a copy of the rate in the stations of the carrier will not relieve its binding effect upon each of the parties to the contract of shipment. Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Mugg, Boston & Maine Railroad Co. v. Hooker, Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company v. Allen, supra,

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Related

Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé Railway Co. v. Hefley
158 U.S. 98 (Supreme Court, 1895)
Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. Mugg
202 U.S. 242 (Supreme Court, 1906)
Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. Cisco Oil Mill
204 U.S. 449 (Supreme Court, 1907)
Chicago & Alton Railroad v. Kirby
225 U.S. 155 (Supreme Court, 1912)
Illinois Central Railroad v. Henderson Elevator Co.
226 U.S. 441 (Supreme Court, 1913)
Kansas City Southern Railway Co. v. Carl
227 U.S. 639 (Supreme Court, 1913)
George N. Pierce Co. v. Wells, Fargo & Co.
236 U.S. 278 (Supreme Court, 1915)
Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Maxwell
237 U.S. 94 (Supreme Court, 1915)
Southern Railway Co. v. Prescott
240 U.S. 632 (Supreme Court, 1916)
Boston & Maine Railroad v. Hooker
233 U.S. 97 (Supreme Court, 1914)
Thomas v. Frankfort & Cincinnati Ry. Co.
76 S.W. 1093 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1903)
Ches. & Ohio Ry. Co. v. Maysville Brick Co.
116 S.W. 1183 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1909)
Kelly v. Adams Express Co.
119 S.W. 747 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1909)
Ill. Cent. R. R. v. Henderson Elevator Co.
127 S.W. 779 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1910)
Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Coquillard Wagon Works' Assignees
144 S.W. 1080 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1912)
L. & N. R. R. v. Allen
153 S.W. 198 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1913)

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Bluebook (online)
203 S.W. 867, 181 Ky. 70, 1918 Ky. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blackford-v-st-louis-iron-mountain-southern-railway-co-kyctapp-1918.