Caine v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.

185 N.W. 765, 217 Mich. 231, 23 A.L.R. 1442, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 846
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 22, 1921
DocketDocket No. 39
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 185 N.W. 765 (Caine v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Caine v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co., 185 N.W. 765, 217 Mich. 231, 23 A.L.R. 1442, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 846 (Mich. 1921).

Opinion

Steere, C. J.

Plaintiff resides near Benton Harbor, Michigan. In the summer of 1920 she made a journey with her little daughter to visit a sister re< siding in a small town named Addyston, in the State of Ohio, which is a way station on plaintiff’s line 13 miles from Cincinnati. She took with her a trunk containing the wardrobes of herself and daughter, with other articles of ordinary baggage. Defendant’s through trains did not stop at Addyston. Having completed her visit and desiring to take a through train on defendant’s line for return to Benton Harbor, plaintiff went to Cincinnati for that purpose. On September 3, 1920, the day before she started on her journey home, she sent her trunk containing the baggage of herself and daughter to defendant’s station at Addyston shortly after 5 o’clock in the afternoon, by a drayman named Deakman who bought a ticket good for four rides between Addyston and Cincinnati and had her trunk checked to the latter place, telling the Addyston station agent who checked her trunk that the lady for whom he was transacting the business would catch the early train for Benton Harbor and wanted her trunk sent to Cincinnati on the first train [233]*233in the morning. He accepted and checked the trunk for Cincinnati, put it in the station baggage room and closed up the station for the night at about 5:45 p. m. The drayman afterwards delivered to her the ticket and baggage check. The ticket was tom up by the little girl after they were on the train. The through morning train over defendant’s line which plaintiff intended to and did take for Benton Harbor left Cincinnati at 9 a. m., passing through Addyston without stopping. Its first local train in the morning for Cincinnati left Addyston at 6:30.

It was some distance from the home of defendant’s sister to defendant’s station in Addyston, while an interurban line passed in front of the house on which she could take a car later than defendant’s local train and reach Cincinnati in plenty of time to catch her train for Benton Harbor. She remained at her sister’s that night, took the interurban to Cincinnati in the morning, there bought her ticket at defendant’s station for Benton Harbor, surrendered her local baggage check for the trunk from Addyston to Cincinnati and re-checked it to Benton Harbor, receiving a baggage check for its carriage there, and went home over defendant’s line. She never saw her trunk again. It did not arrive at Benton Harbor with her as anticipated and later she received notice by telegram from defendant that her trunk had been stolen from the Addyston station and directing her to file a claim for her loss, which she did.

It appears that on the night of September 3, 1920, after plaintiif’s trunk had been received by defendant’s agent and checked for Cincinnati, thieves broke into defendant’s baggage room at Addyston and stole her trunk with its contents. After she received defendant’s telegram and forwarded her claim some correspondence followed until, on November 8th, defendant, through its general baggage agent, wrote her [234]*234denying any liability of the company for the loss of her trunk on the ground that it occurred through no negligence of defendant, its liability only being that of a warehouseman, and stating they had found the trunk about 400 yards from the station in a corn-field broken open and rifled of its contents and he inclosed to her a duplicate baggage check for the empty broken trunk to Benton Harbor, with which she could get it from the baggage agent at that station. She declined to do so, insisting on compensation for her loss, and on November 22, 1920, defendant’s general baggage agent wrote her, saying:

“Beg to state my communication gave you all the facts and as to the position of this company in the matter.”

Plaintiff then brought this action in justice’s court where the case was tried, resulting in a judgment in her favor, and defendant appealed to the circuit court where the court, on conclusion of proofs, directed á verdict for defendant on the ground that plaintiff did not become a passenger on its line from Addyston to Cincinnati after her trunk Was checked and therefore its liability, if any, for her baggage in its possession checked between those two stations was only that of a warehouseman.

The¡ authority for that view in this State, which the court evidently concluded and counsel for defendant contend is controlling in the instant case, is Marshall v. Railroad Co., 126 Mich. 45 (55 L. R. A. 650). We do not find that the reasoning and application of authorities referred to in support of that decision are generally accepted as applicable or complacently followed as contended for the defense (55 L. R. A. 650, 43 L. R. A. [N. S.] 806) ; nor do we construe the decision in that case upon the issue directly before the court as conclusive in all cases under any circumstances of the proposition that the carrier does not [235]*235incur the liability of an insurer of checked baggage unless the passenger accompanies it in its transportation or is prevented from doing so through fault of the carrier. Whatever may have been said in that case incidentally harking back- to the early common-law rule adopted and strictly applied in stage coach and early railway days,- where and when checking of passenger baggage was unknown and each traveler must look after his personal baggage at his peril, the actual question there presented for determination, as stated and decided by the court, was:

“May a passenger purchase a ticket, check his baggage, sell his ticket, and then stand in the position of a bona fide passenger upon the road?”

And the writer of the opinion said:

“Counsel cite no authority the parallel of this * * * My own examination of the authorities fails to find a parallel case.”

While analogous in some respects, the instant case does not parallel the Marshall Case in various material facts. In that case the court was considering a state of facts where baggage arrived at the destination to which it had been checked Saturday forenoon at 10 o’clock, was held on the platform some time for the owner to claim it, then placed in defendant’s baggage room at the terminal point from where it was stolen during the night after a claimed reasonable time and opportunity for the owner, who was not and did not intend to be a passenger on defendant’s line, to have taken it away. In the instant case it was checked in the evening for an early morning train by a prospective passenger on defendant’s line and stolen from its baggage room at the initial point during the night, before arrival of the morning train upon which it was to be forwarded, and upon which plaintiff might have been a passenger. When stolen the trunk [236]*236was yet in the carrier’s possession for the purpose of transportation and plaintiff held both a check for it and a passenger- ticket, entitling her to transportation for both herself and her checked baggage to the designated terminal point. In the Marshall Case no one was at the terminal point to claim the baggage during the day or night after it arrived. When it was first claimed is not shown. Some time after it was stolen Marshall made a journey there in his own conveyance, but he was not a passenger over defendant’s road.until more than four months had elapsed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
185 N.W. 765, 217 Mich. 231, 23 A.L.R. 1442, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 846, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/caine-v-cleveland-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railway-co-mich-1921.