Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad v. Zwirtz

1903 OK 53, 73 P. 941, 13 Okla. 411, 1903 Okla. LEXIS 94
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 9, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1903 OK 53 (Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad v. Zwirtz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad v. Zwirtz, 1903 OK 53, 73 P. 941, 13 Okla. 411, 1903 Okla. LEXIS 94 (Okla. 1903).

Opinion

Opinion of the court by

IewiN, J.:

The first assignment of error is that the court erred in overruling the defendant’s objection to the introduction of evidence on the grounds that the petition fails to state a cause of action. In this count plaintiff seeks only to recover damages for the delay in delivering the butcher’s tools to him at Anadarko, resulting, so he alleges, in delaying him in starting and carrying on his business.

This contention turns upon whether or not the articles contained in said trunk were or were not properly baggage. This is a subject which we think is a proper subject for legislative limitation, and one which the legislature of this territory have regulated by statute.

Wilson’s Revised and Annotated Statute of Oklahoma, 1903, section 708, contains this provision:

*414 “A common carrier,of persons, unless his vehicle is fitted for the reception of passengers exclusively, must receive and carry a reasonable amount of luggage for each passenger without any charge except for an excess of weight over one hundred pounds to a passenger.”

Section TOO: “Luggage may consist of any^ articles intended for the use of a passenger while traveling, or for his personal equipment.”

We take it that the term luggage is synonomous with baggage, the latter being in common use in this countay,, while the former seems to be almost exclusively used in England. They signify one and the same thing.

The petition merely alleges that the plaintiff purchased the tickets, and upon them had the trunk checked as baggage. It is not alleged that defendant’s agent knew the contents of the trunk, or the purpose of plaintiff’s journey, and accepted the same with such knowledge; therefore, unless the tools mentioned in plaintiff’s petition come within the term luggage as defined by the statute, he has not stated a cause of’action. The legislature having defined luggage as baggage, the statute quoted limits the articles which common carriers may be required to carry to those which fall within the definition, and if at common law other articles might have been included, then this statute limits the common law, and governs the subject in this territory. It seems to us that the statute in determining of what items luggage may consist, uses the term may in the sense of must or shall, because to say: “Luggage may consist of any articles intended for the use of a passenger while traveling, or for his personal equipment,” would infer that any other article would not come within the definition of baggage. To come within the statute the tools for which rental value is sought to be re *415 covered in this case, must either have been intended for the use of the plaintiff while traveling, or for his personal equip-' ment.

That they were not intended for his use while traveling is clear from the very nature of the articles themselves, and from the allegations of the petition, for the petition says they were articles necessary to carry on the plaintiff’s business as a butcher. This language does not bring them within the definition of section 709 of the statute, which is, articles intended for the use of the plaintiff while traveling, or for /the plaintiff’s personal equipment, but articles necessary for plaintiff’s business as a butcher. Now were they intended for his personal equipment? That is, the equipment of his person? The Century dictionary defines equipment as the act of equipping or fitting, or the state of being equipped, as for a voyage or an expedition. It will be seen by the same authority that the term equip is derived from words of similar meaning, and often similar sound in various other languages, all meaning or relating to a ship, voyage or expedition. Now the equipment here referred to is personal. The adjective personal is defined by "Webster as pertaining to the external or bodily appearance. It is defined in the Century dictionary as things of or pertaining to the person. It seems to us that a reasonable interpretation of the term “personal equipment” is that it only includes clothing, jewelry, and such things as are used in the protection or adornment of the person; it does not include the tools with which one may gain a livelihood after the journey is completed. It is true that some cases there are which hold that tools may be carried as baggage, but such cases are always within jurisdictions where no statute similar to ours is in force, and it will also *416 be seen upon examination of those cases that the tools there mentioned were shown to have been such as are usually carried by journeymen workmen in traveling, which is not one of the allegations in the petition in reference to the tools here involved.

In the case of Oakes v. Northern. Pac. Ry. Co., decided by the supreme court of Oregon in. 1891, which was a case where the Oakes Comedy Company, an organization giving theatrical entertainments in the villages and cities on the line of the defendant’s road, checked seven trunks on five first class tickets from Hope, in the state of Idaho, to Thompsons Falls, Montana, and that said trunks were delivered to the said railroad company, and contained clothing, stage properties, costumes, musical instruments and theatrical property of the said comedy company. It was. further alleged in the petition in this case that through the negligence of the said company said train was wrecked, and a large part of said property was destroyed by fire, etc. Justice Lord, in deciding that case, uses this language:

“In determining the question presented by this record it is necessary to understand the nature and extent of the obligation which a common carrier of passengers by rail assumes as respects the personal baggage of the passenger. That obligation requires it not only to carry the passenger, but also to carry a'reasonable amount of his personal baggage. The carriage of the baggage of the passenger, said Andrews, judge, under reasonable limitations as to amount, is the ordinary incident to the carriage of the passengers; and the duty arises on the part of the company to carry the baggage of the passenger as incident to the principal contract, without any specific agreement or separate compensation. (Isaacson v. Railroad Co., 94 N. Y. 278.) As respects such baggage a carrier of passengers is held to the same lia *417 bility as a common carrier of goods. For its loss or destruction save by the act of God or tbe public enemy, it must respond, though without fault on its part. To this extent it is an insurer and is responsible for the carriage and safe delivery of such baggage the same as goods entrusted to it as freight. But it is only to such articles as may be legally termed baggage that such liability attaches, no matter what may be the contents of the bag or trunk. As to what constitutes baggage in the legal sense, or ordinary baggage or personal baggage as commonly used in England, it has been found by the courts difficult, if not impossible, to define with accuracy within the meaning of the rule of the carrier’s liability. It is agreed on all hands, said Erie, Chief Justice, that it is impossible to draw any very well defined line as to what is and what is not necessary or ordinary baggage for a traveler.

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Bluebook (online)
1903 OK 53, 73 P. 941, 13 Okla. 411, 1903 Okla. LEXIS 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/choctaw-oklahoma-gulf-railroad-v-zwirtz-okla-1903.