Greyhound Corp. v. Stevens

413 S.W.2d 439, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2462
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 1, 1966
DocketNo. 4059
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 413 S.W.2d 439 (Greyhound Corp. v. Stevens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greyhound Corp. v. Stevens, 413 S.W.2d 439, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2462 (Tex. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

GRISSOM, Chief Justice.

In July, 1962, while Jacqueline Stevens was a passenger on The Greyhound Corporation’s bus, making an interstate trip from Houston, Texas, to Dover, Delaware, her luggage and its contents were lost by Greyhound. Her baggage was checked free [440]*440on one passenger ticket or fare. She sued for the value of the bags and contents. Greyhound, relying on rules of the Interstate Commerce Commission and federal decisions, principally the Hooker case, hereinafter discussed, tendered to Miss Stevens $25.00, as the limit of its liability for loss of her baggage. In a trial to the court, judgment was rendered for Miss Stevens against Greyhound for $500.00, the agreed value of the lost baggage and contents, and Greyhound has appealed.

Appellant’s points of error are, in substance, that the court erred in refusing to limit the liability of appellant to $25.00 for the loss of appellee’s baggage because (1) appellant had filed a baggage tariff with the Interstate Commerce Commission, thereby giving notice to appellee that its liability was so limited, unless she declared a value in excess of $25.00 and paid the charge therefor; because (2) appellee, as a matter of law, was given reasonable notice that appellant’s liability was so limited, unless she declared an excess value and paid the charge therefor, and because (3) ap-pellee was given a reasonable opportunity, as a matter of law, to choose between paying an extra charge for increased protection of her baggage or paying the standard passenger rate, and therefore her protection was limited to $25.00.

Before boarding the bus Miss Stevens checked two suitcases in the bus depot. They were never returned to her. Appellee was given two baggage checks or receipts for her two suitcases at the baggage counter. She immediately put the checks into her purse and did not read the liability limitation printed thereon until she arrived in Delaware on August 1st. On the front of the baggage checks there was a statement that appellant’s liability' for her baggage was limited to $25.00 and she was referred to the back of the checks. On the back was printed a “Contract Notice to Passengers” by which the party accepting the checks agreed to make no claim in excess of $25.00 for loss of property checked as baggage on one full-fare ticket, unless the passenger declared in writing, the value of the baggage was in excess of $25.00, in which event a charge for the excess value would be made. They recited that the checks were accepted subject to all conditions of published tariffs. Miss Stevens did not declare a value in excess of $25.00 and did not pay anything above the cost of her passenger ticket for transportation of her baggage.

When Miss Stevens checked her bags there was a framed sign stating “INTERSTATE BAGGAGE LIABILITY $25.00 UNLESS A GREATER VALUE IS DECLARED” hanging at the end of the baggage counter to her left. When she bought her ticket, a sign was hanging over the Western Union Telephone at the right end of the ticket -counter which contained a notice that tariffs naming rates, fares, charges, rules and other provisions were on file in that office and could be examined by anyone upon request. Another such sign hung to appellee’s right when she checked her suitcases at the baggage counter, and still another such sign, giving notice of the tarriffs, hung behind the ticket office.

A copy of the National Baggage Tariff certified by the Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission as being in force at the time Miss Stevens made the trip was introduced. According to the applicable tariff, a free baggage allowance of $25.00 in value was allowed for each adult ticket purchased. The tariff limited the liability of Greyhound for loss of such baggage to the maximum free value allowance of $25.00, unless the passenger declared a value in excess of $25.00 and paid the charge therefor. But it provided that if excess value was declared and the charge therefor paid the passenger could recover the declared value.

At the trial appellant tendered to ap-pellee $25.00, which she refused. The court found that, (1) although appellant had posted the mentioned signs and had given appellee said baggage checks calling at[441]*441tention to the limitation of its liability, Greyhound had not afforded Miss Stevens a reasonable opportunity to discover that its liability for lost baggage was limited by the tariff to $25.00, or (2) a fair opportunity to choose between transportation of her baggage with liability limited to $25.00 or transportation with higher liability. The court concluded, as a matter of law, that such tariff was applicable to the facts of this case but that appellant’s liability was not limited to $25.00 because Miss Stevens was not afforded a reasonable opportunity to discover the limitation and declare a higher value.

It is not questioned that appellee’s trip was interstate and that the federal law, as set forth in the Interstate Commerce Act, governs the situation to the exclusion of state laws. Adams Express Co. v. Croninger, 226 U.S. 491, 509, 33 S.Ct. 148, 57 L.Ed. 314, 321, 44 L.R.A.,N.S., 257. The case upon which appellant mainly relies is the 1913 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Boston & Maine R. R. v. Hooker, 233 U.S. 97, 119, 34 S.Ct. 526, 58 L.Ed. 868, 879. In that case the plaintiff checked her baggage free on a first-class ticket for an interstate journey. She declared no excess value and paid no excess charges. Her baggage was lost. The carrier contended that its liability was limited to $100.00 by virtue of its compliance with federal statutes which required the filing and posting of regulations limiting its liability for loss of baggage as a part of the carrier’s tariff schedules. Notices were posted that such regulations were on file and that baggage not exceeding $100.00 in value could be checked free on one passenger ticket. Plaintiff had no actual notice of these regulations and, although she received a baggage check, the opinion does not show there was a notice of such limitation of liability printed on it. The United States Supreme Court there held that under 49 U.S.C.A. § 6, the carrier was required to file and post such regulations as a part of its tariff schedules and that the effect of the carrier’s compliance therewith was to give notice of rates based upon value when the baggage was of a greater value than $100.00, and that delivery and acceptance of the baggage without declaration of higher value, charged the carrier with liability only for the amount so limited by regulations filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Common carriers operating interstate have long been required to file tariffs, by which they may limit liability for loss of a passenger’s baggage, unless the passenger declares a value in excess of the limited amount and pays the charge therefor. When such a carrier complies with this requirement its liability for lost baggage has been held ever since the decision in the Hooker case to be limited to the amount specified in the tariff, unless the passenger declares a greater value and pays the charge therefor.

In 1935, Congress passed the Motor Vehicle Act, which provides that

“Every common carrier by motor vehicle shall file with the Commission, and print, and keep open to public inspection, tariffs showing all the rates, fares, and charges for transportation, and all services in connection therewith,

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Related

Tanguma v. State
721 S.W.2d 408 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1986)
Kiernan v. Greyhound Lines, Inc.
156 N.W.2d 310 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
413 S.W.2d 439, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2462, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greyhound-corp-v-stevens-texapp-1966.