Carrizzo v. New York, Susquihanna and Western Railroad

66 Misc. 243, 123 N.Y.S. 173
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 66 Misc. 243 (Carrizzo v. New York, Susquihanna and Western Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carrizzo v. New York, Susquihanna and Western Railroad, 66 Misc. 243, 123 N.Y.S. 173 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1910).

Opinion

Putnam, J.

The matters here in controversy arose at Bogota, a small station on the line of the defendant’s railroad in New Jersey. Among the industrial plants there is the Traders’ Paper Board Company, which in 1908 was being operated by the Chancery Court of New Jersey, through Mr. Charles W. Bell, as receiver.

At Bogota there are three other manufacturing concerns which have private sidings connecting with the defendant’s tracks. The railroad had only a small freight house, fourteen hy fourteen feet, for local town freight, such as groceries and provisions, of insignificant volume. The defendant had no public track for the unloading of freight cars into vehicles, and made it a practice to accept car-load lots only, if consigned to one of the four firms which had private sidings where the cars could he received and unloaded on the property of such consignee. The railroad did not provide any means to unload its car-load lots before they reached these private sidings. It simply left the cars standing on side storage tracks, extending to the south from Bogota and nearly down to the next station below, Ridgefield Park. These sidings were not accessible to any consignee by vehicles, so that while on these tracks the freight cars could not be unloaded.

The Traders’ Paper Board Company had been regularly receiving car-loads of waste paper and other materials car[245]*245ried by the defendant. It received notices almost daily of the cars that had been entered in the yardbook as arrived, which cars at the time might be standing along the storage tracks at points within 3,000 or 4,000 feet south of Bogota station.

When the consignee was thus notified, he did not interfere with any particular cars, but left it to the railroad company to take out and place the cars on the consignee’s private siding in the order in which the cars had been entered in the yardbook as having arrived at the station. The sending of these cars into the siding and-the removal of these there unloaded were by a switch engine and crew of the railroad, making two drills ” a day, at eight a. m. and at two p. m. The unloading of cars containing paper was alongside the Traders’ Company’s platform, which had a capacity of about eleven cars, with further trackage for coal cars.

After Hr. Bell had assumed the duties of receiver, he declined to recognize any liability for claims for car service, or car detention, or car demurrage, before the cars were placed within his reach upon the private siding of the Traders’ Company. His objection was apparently that, before the cars were thus placed on the consignee’s siding, the consignee was unable to reach them to unload; also that the switching and sending of the cars to and upon his siding, and the removal of the empty cars therefrom, had been the subject of his repeated complaints to the railroad company.

These disputed claims for car service are said to be in litigation in the New Jersey Chancery Court, which, however, had reached no ad judication of these points at the time of this trial.

In this state of affairs, Hr. Bell, as receiver, on October 14, 1908, contracted for the purchase of a large quantity of pressed paper from the plaintiff, a Brooklyn merchant, upon the terms that the plaintiff undertook the delivery by railroad to the Traders’ paper mill at Bogota. These bales were picked up by the railroad lighters from different points along the North river in New York, whence they were made up into car-loads at Jersey City. Although the bill of lading [246]*246described, the shipment as from Long Dock, Jersey City, to ■ Bogota, the original deliveries having started in New York, made the transportation interstate commerce. The following conditions were on the back of the bill of lading:

“ Sec. 5. Property not removed by the party entitled to receive it within forty-eight hours (exclusive of legal holidays) after notice of its arrival has been duly sent or given may he kept in car, depot,'or place of delivery of the carrier, ■ or warehouse, subject to a reasonable charge for storage and to carrier’s responsibility as warehouseman only, or may he, at the option of the carrier, removed to and stored in a pub-' lie or licensed warehouse at the cost of the owner and there held at the owner’s risk and without liability on the part of the carrier, and subject to a lien for all freight and other lawful charges, including a' reasonable charge for storage.
“ The carrier may make a reasonable charge for the detention of any vessel or car, or for the use of tracks after the car has been held forty-eight hours (exclusive of legal holidays), for loading- or unloading, and may add such charge to all other charges hereunder and hold such property subject to a lien therefor. Nothing in this section shall he construed as lessening the time allowed by law or as setting aside any local rule affecting car service or storage.
“ Property destined to or taken from a station, wharf, or landing at which there is no regularly appointed agent shall he entirely at risk of owner after unloading from cars or vessels or until loaded into cars or vessels, and when received from or delivered on private or other sidings, wharves, or landings shall he at owner’s risk until the cars are attached to and after they are detached from trains.” These shipments were made on November fifth and sixth, followed by two car-loads ordered direct from Piermont on November eleventh.

On the thirteenth of November, at seven a. m., .eight cars were on the defendant’s side tracks, followed by the other three cars which came on November sixteenth, and notice of such arrivals was given to the consignee. On November nineteenth, while these cars remained on these sidings, a demand was made on the consignee for car service charges [247]*247from the expiration of forty-eight hours’ time after the cars had arrived. These claims for car service were one dollar per car per day after the expiration of the free time, in accordance with the schedules for car demurrage filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission.

It was claimed that the defendant, by its engine and switching crew, had kept the consignee’s private siding filled to its capacity with freight' and coal cars which had arrived before the eleven cars here in controversy. The testimony on behalf of the plaintiff indicated that these car deliveries at times had been delayed by the railroad. An illustration of this appeared in the record of cars on the morning of November fourteenth, the day after the arrival of the first eight cars. At seven a. m., the railroad yardbook showed only seven loaded cars and two empty box cars on the siding of the Traders’ Company, although its platform and track had a capacity for eleven such cars — a deficiency which the station agent was unable to explain.

Later, the consignee informed the railroad officials that the shipper, and not Mr. Bell, was still the owner; but no noi ifi cation was sent to the shipper. In January, the shipper began to make inquiries, and on January twenty-second, these eleven cars, still holding the plaintiff’s goods, were sent to the railroad company’s yards at Edgewater, where they were unloaded and the a'oods stored. It was proved, without contradiction, that pressed paper in bales rapidly deteriorated, so that, in January, two months after the shipment, this paper would be unfit for manufacture.

Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 Misc. 243, 123 N.Y.S. 173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carrizzo-v-new-york-susquihanna-and-western-railroad-nysupct-1910.