Florida East Coast Railway Co. v. Peters

83 So. 559, 77 Fla. 411
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedApril 17, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 83 So. 559 (Florida East Coast Railway Co. v. Peters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Florida East Coast Railway Co. v. Peters, 83 So. 559, 77 Fla. 411 (Fla. 1919).

Opinion

Whitfield, J.

— Peters brought an action against the railroad company to recover special damages alleged to have accrued to the plaintiff by reason of the failure of the defendant company to transport and deliver, within a reasonable time from their receipt by the carrier, large quantities of crate material designed to be used in crating tomatoes to be shipped to market.. A judgment for the plaintiff was reversed. Florida East Coast R. Co. [414]*414v. Peters, 72 Fla. 311, 73 South. Rep. 151. Another trial was had on a second amended declaration containing many counts, one of which being typical, is as follows:

“11. And the plaintiff by his attorneys sues the defendant in this the eleventh count of his second amended declaration, for that whereas, the defendant was from to-wit November 1st, 1910, until this date, and at all intervening times, and-is now a common carrier of goods for hire, operating a line of railroad from to-wit Knights Key, Monroe County, Florida, to to-wit Jacksonville, Du-val County, Florida, and the plaintiff was at the times above set forth, a farmer residing near Peters Station, a station on the main line of the defendant’s railroad in Dade County, Florida, and was then and there engaged in the business of growing early vegetables for market. And in the course of said business during the vegetable season beginning about November 1st, 1910, and ending about May 3rd, 1911, plaintiff had planted and cultivated in tomatoes a large number to-wit about four hundred (400) acres of land near said Peters Station of which the defendant had notice; that in anticipation of a large crop' of tomatoes which was indicated and expected and of which the defendant had notice, the plaintiff contracted with the Cummer Lumber Company a corporation doing business in Jacksonville, Florida, by and through its duly authorized agent, to-wit the Drake Produce Company of Miami, Florida, to supply the plaintiff with carrier crates to be shipped on order of plaintiff, which said crates were to be especially prepared for the plaintiff by the said Cummer Lumber Company aforesaid with the name, brand and address of the plaintiff stamped on each end of the said correr crates, and which were to be furnished and shipped as directed by the plaintiff; that in accordance with the said agreement the plaintiff purchased from the said [415]*415Cummer Lumber Company, to-wit, seventy-five thousand (75,000) carrier crates for tomatoes specially prepared as aforesaid, to be shipped by the said Cummer Lumber Company from Jacksonville, Florida, to the plaintiff at Peters Station, Florida, aforesaid, in accordance with shipping directions of the plaintiff that the plaintiff had on hand enough carrier crates in which to pack and ship early shipments of tomatoes, which might become ripe and ready for shipment before the carrier crates ordered from the said Cummer Lumber Company should arrive, if transported by the defendant with reasonable speed and diligence; that said carrier crates were loaded in certain cars for shipment, twenty-five hundred (2,500) of tbe said carrier crates being, loaded in each car; that the defendant had knowledge that when tomatoes become ripe and ready for packing and shipping, that they must be packed and shipped immediately in order to prevent them from becoming over-ripe and thus reaching the market in a deteriorated and unmarketable condition; that defendant had notice that the plaintiff would during the busy seasi n require a large number of carrier crates, to-wit, five oi sis thousand of the same each day in which to pack such tomatoes as had ripened and were ready for shipment on that day; that defendant had notice that such carrier crates as were offered to it for transportation consigned to the plaintiff were to be used for the' purpose of packing and shipping the tomatoes grown on plaintiff’s farm near Peters Station aforesaid; and the defendant had notice that a failure to deliver them promptly would result in the loss of a large number of tomatoes; that on to-wit, the sixteenth day of March, 1911, the Cummer Lumber Company aforesaid at Jacksonville, Florida, delivered to the defendant to-wit, twenty-five hundred (2,500) carrier crates, consigned to the [416]*416plaintiff at Peters Siding, Florida, and the defendant then and there being a common carrier of goods for hire, it became and was its duty to carry and transport said car containing said crates to the plaintiff at Peters Siding, Florida, with reasonable speed and diligence, and the defendant then and there promised and agreed to transport said goods over its said line by the shortest and most available route and deliver the same to the plaintiff at the point of destination with reasonable speed and diligence that the defendant had notice of the facts as aforesaid, that all conditions precedent necessary to be performed by the plaintiff had been performed.
“Yet the defendant notwithstanding the premises failed and neglected to transport the said goods with reasonable speed and dispatch, but on the contrary thereof did greatly delay the transportation and delivery of the same over its said line so that by reason of said great delay in the transportation and negligence of the defendant the said twenty-five hundred (2,500) carrier crates did not arrive at their destination and were not delivered to the plaintiff until to-wit, March thirtieth, 1911; that in the mean time, the plaintiff had exhausted the supply of carrier crates on hand, which would have been sufficient to last until the said twenty-five hundred (2,500) crates had arrived, if the same had been transported with reasonable speed, diligence and dispatch; and by reason of the fact that the said carrier crates on hand had become exhausted, and by raeson of the facts that the said twenty-five hundred (2,500) carrier crates did not arrive within a reasonable time after delivery to the defendant, the plaintiff was unable to pick, pack and ship the tomatoes grown as aforesaid as the same ripened and became ready for shipment; and by reason of the facts aforesaid sufficient tomatoes [417]*417to fill to-wit, twenty-five hundred (2,500) carrier crates, became too ripe for shipment, so that the plaintiff was forced to allow them to become overripe and rot in his field; that the said tomatoes would have been, if properly packed and shipped with reasonable diligence of a net value to the plaintiff of to-wit One Dollar and thirty-five cents ($1.35) per crate, but by reason of the negligence of the defendant, the said tomatoes were allowed to rot and spoil in the field of the plaintiff and were a total loss to the plaintiff.”

The thirty-first count contains the following: “Plaintiff further says that tomato plants or vines are of such a nature that if the tomatoes which become ripe thereon, and ready to be picked and shipped are not at once upon their becoming ripe picked from the vines that the vitality and productiveness of the vine is thereby affected so that the productiveness of such plants is materially decreased, not only in the number of the tomatoes produced and the time that such plants will keep on bearing or producing tomatoes, but that the size and quality of the fruit produced will be greatly depreciated, that the defendant had notice of the facts, circumstances and conditions as aforesaid.

“That by reason of the delay aforesaid and by reason of the negligence and carelessness of the defendant aforesaid, on or about the fifteenth clay of March, A. D.

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Bluebook (online)
83 So. 559, 77 Fla. 411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/florida-east-coast-railway-co-v-peters-fla-1919.