Homer v. Oregon Short Line Railroad

128 P. 522, 42 Utah 15, 1912 Utah LEXIS 98
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 5, 1912
DocketNo. 2397
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 128 P. 522 (Homer v. Oregon Short Line Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Homer v. Oregon Short Line Railroad, 128 P. 522, 42 Utah 15, 1912 Utah LEXIS 98 (Utah 1912).

Opinion

FRICK, C. J.

This action was brought by respondent as a passenger' to' recover damages for baggage lost by appellant as a common carrier. Respondent, in her complaint, after stating that appellant was a coiporation and a common carrier of passengers, in substance alleged that on the Í5th day of March, 1910, she purchased from appellant at Salt Lake City, Utah, [22]*22for the sum of sixty-one dollars, a ticket entitling ber to be carried as a passenger, with her baggage consisting of a trunk and contents, from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Los Angeles, 'Cal., and return; that appellant issued to respondent a check for said trunk at Los Angeles, Cal., and received and carried the same on its baggage car, and also received and1 carried respondent upon its passenger train running between Los An-geles and Salt Lake City; that, pursuant to the ticket purchased and the check issued as aforesaid, appellant was required to deliver said trunk and contents to respondent at Salt Lake City on demand; that within a reasonable time after arriving at Salt Lake City respondent presented said check to appellant at its baggage room at Salt Lake City, and then and there demanded her baggage; “that by the neglect and improper conduct of said defendant (appellant) anc its servants in failing to exercise reasonable care in guarding and keeping said trunk and baggage the said trunk of the plaintiff (respondent) was wrongfully delivered and was misdelivered by the defendant to some person or persons unknown to plaintiff, and was by the person or persons to whom it was so wrongfully and negligently delivered by the defendant broken open, and the goods and baggage of the plaintiff therein and hereinafter described were taken therefrom and damaged, stolen, and totally lost.” Then follows a description of the articles that were lost and which were never returned to respondent, and also a list of those that were received from the pawnshops (where they had been pawned) in a damaged condition, the extent of the damage to which was fully set forth. .The value of the articles that were lost was alleged to be $480, and the damage to those that were injured, but obtained by respondent as aforesaid, was alleged to be $236.75. She therefore prayed judgment for the sum of $716.75, with interest and costs.

Appellant in due time filed an answer to the complaint, in which it admitted that it was a corporation, but denied that it was a common carrier of baggage or passengers, or a common carrier for any purpose, between Los Angeles, Cal., and Salt Lake City, Utah. Appellant admitted that re[23]*23.spondent at tbe time and' place stated in tbe complaint purchased1 a. railroad ticket from it wbicb entitled ber to be transported from Salt Lake City, Utab, to Los Angeles, Cal., and return. Appellant denied all other allegations of tbe complaint As affirmative defenses, appellant, in substance, alleged that at tbe time stated in tbe complaint “it bad no line of railroad extending to California points, or west to California beyond tbe city of Ogden,” Utab; that on or about March 15, 1910, appellant sold' to respondent a certain railroad ticket wbicb entitled ber to transportation for herself and tbe carriage of a certain quantity of personal baggage from Salt Lake City', Utab, to Ogden, Utah, over tbe lines of appellant, and from Ogden, Utab, “to San Francisco, Cal., and thence to Los Angeles, Cal., and return via tbe same route over tbe lines of railroad of tbe Southern Pacific Company;” that appellant and said Southern Pacific Company at all times stated in tbe complaint were common carriers subject to tbe act of Congress approved February 4, 1887, commonly called tbe “Interstate Commerce Act” (Act Feb. 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 379 [U. Si. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3154]), and particularly as said act was amended on June 26, 1906 (Act June 26, 1906, c. 3591, 34 Stat. 584 [U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1911, p. 1284.]). Tbe appellant specifically set forth in its answer that it bad complied with all tbe provisions of said interstate act; that it bad duly filed with tbe Interstate Commerce Commission its rates, charges, rules, and regulations governing passengers and their baggage; and that, pursuant to said regulations, tbe ticket purchased by respondent and wbicb entitled ber to transportation as aforesaid contained a limitation whereby appellant’s liability for loss of personal baggage consisting of wearing apparel was limited to a sum not in excess of $100; that said ticket was sold and purchased pursuant to the rates, charges, rules, and regulations filed with tbe Interstate Commerce Commission; and that, in consideration of the reduced rate for wbicb said ticket was sold, appellant’s liability for tbe loss of said baggage was limited to $100 as aforesaid.

[24]*24At the trial of the case the facts that were either conceded or established without dispute are in substance as follows: On March 10, 1910, the husband of the respondent went to the ticket office of appellant, and requested a “round-trip” ticket for his wife from Salt False City to Los Angeles, •and the agent sold him such a ticket for sixty-one dollars, which was held until the respondent reached the office, when she signed the same in presence of the agent, and immediately thereafter went to the station and boarded a train for Los Angeles via San Francisco; that, when the ticket in ■question was purchased, there was nothing said by the agent ■or anyone else about any other class of tickets that could be obtained', or with respect to any other rate. The husband also testified that before going to the railroad office he telephoned to the agent for rates, and that the agent advised him that the sixty-one-dollar rate was the lowest rate obtainable. It was also shown that the respondent intended to make a visit at Los Angeles of about six months’ duration, ■and for that reason took with her considerable wearing apparel in her trunk; that, when she was ready to return home, she cheeked her trunk at Los Angeles for the return trip to Salt Labe City, and she and the trunk arrived safely at Salt Lake City; that immediately after the trunk had arrived at Salt Lake City a stranger asked the baggageman in ■charge at appellant’s depot to admit him to the baggage room of appellant for the purpose, as he said, of obtaining something from his trunk, which was checked, and was in the baggage room aforesaid; that on being admitted to the baggage room in presence of, but without being watched by, the baggage man, the stranger removed the strap containing the check from his' trunk, and also- removed the strap and check from respondent’s trunk and exchanged them, placing his strap and check on her trunk and hers on his, and in that way •obtained the duplicate check for respondent’s trunk. The ■exchange of checks made as aforesaid was not discovered by the baggageman, and respondent’s trunk was subsequently delivered by appellant to the stranger, and his trunk, upon surrender of the check she held, was delivered to her, and, [25]*25upon sucb delivery being made, it was discovered that her trunk had been delivered to some one else. The stranger broke open respondent’s trunk, removed the articles therefrom, and pawned' or sold them to pawnbrokers in Salt Lake Oity. Some of the articles she received from the pawnbrokers in a damaged condition, and many of them she never obtained.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kinsman v. Utah Gas & Coke Co.
117 P. 418 (Utah Supreme Court, 1918)
O'Neill v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. of New York
172 P. 306 (Utah Supreme Court, 1918)
Shay v. Union Pacific R.
153 P. 31 (Utah Supreme Court, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
128 P. 522, 42 Utah 15, 1912 Utah LEXIS 98, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/homer-v-oregon-short-line-railroad-utah-1912.