House v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.

138 N.W. 809, 30 S.D. 321, 1912 S.D. LEXIS 233
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 3, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 138 N.W. 809 (House v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
House v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co., 138 N.W. 809, 30 S.D. 321, 1912 S.D. LEXIS 233 (S.D. 1912).

Opinions

WHITING, J.

This is an appeal from' a judgment in favor of the plaintiff and from- the order denying a new trial. It is alleged in the complaint, in substance, that on -December 10, 1908, at Blunt, S. D., the defendant in its capacity as common carrier, undertook and agreed to transport the plaintiff and 'his baggage from said Blunt to Sioux City, in the state of Iowa, and then and •there, for the purpose of transportation, received the plaintiff into its care with his baggage, consisting of one trunk and contents, of the alleged value of $488.30; that the defendant failed and neglected to transport said trunk safely and deliver same to the said plaintiff at Sioux City or at any other place, but negligently lost the same with its contents to the damage of the plaintiff in the sum above stated. By way of answer the defendant denied generally the allegations of the complaint except that it was and is a railway corporation and was and is a common carrier of passengers. In addition it alleged that, if at any time it accepted any trunk or baggage of the plaintiff for transportation from Blunt, S. D., to Sioux City, at such time the said Sioux City was and still is a place situated beyond the usual route of this defendant, and that -this defendant transported and delivered said trunk and baggage at the end of its route at Alton, Iowa, in the direction of Sioux City, to another competent carrier, namely the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Company.

[1] At the commencement of the trial the defendant objected to the introduction of any evidence by the plaintiff upon the ground that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and the defendant contends that: “Defendant’s objection that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action should have been sustained for ■the reason that it was necessary for plaintiff to plead and prove a demand, in writing, upon the defendant for the money damages [328]*328claimed to 'have been sustained, as a condition precedent to the right to commence this action.” The contention of counsel is based upon the proviso contained in section 442, Pol. Code, which reads as follows: “Provided, that in all cases demand in writing-on said common carrier * shall be made for the money damages sustained before the suit is brought for recovery under this section, and no .suit shall be brought until the expiration of thirty days after such demand.” We are of the opinion that this contention is. untenable for the reason that chapter 7, containing the section referred to, provides: “Sec. 431. The provisions of this article shall apply to the transportation of passengers and property, and to receiving, delivering, storage and handling- of property wholly within this state, * * * and shall also be held to apply to shipments of property made from any point within the state to any point within the state whether the transportation of the same shall be wholly within the state or partly within this state and an adjoining state or states.” It will thus be seen that the act is expressly limited to transportation between points within this state, and has no application to .interstate commerce beween this state and other states, and, in the case at bar, the contract was to transport the plaintiff and 'his lug-gage from a point in this state to1 a point within the state of Iowa.

[2] An examination of the record herein shows that the main contention of the appellant in the trial court was that, inasmuch as it delivered the trunk to the Omaha railroad company at Alton, Iowa, for transportation to Sioux City, it was not liable in this action to the plaintiff, and hence that the admission of a certain folder or timetable introduced by thé plaintiff, over the objections of the appellant, to show that the Omaha road was controlled by the appellant, and the charge of the court with reference thereto, constituted error for which the judgment should be reversed. We ai^e of the opinion that this contention is untenable as the act of Congress of June 29, 1906, known as the Carmack amendment to the act of 1887 providing for the Interstate Commerce Commission, imposed upon the carrier which accepts the property for transmission the liability of a common carrier for the entire distance so far as the party who has sustained the loss is concerned, whether that loss occurred upon the line of the original or primary carrier or upon the connecting line. This amend[329]*329ment received construction in Atlantic Coast Line Railway Co. v. Riverside Mills, 219 U. S. 186, 31 Sup. Ct. 164, 55 L. Ed. 167, 31 L. R. A. (N. S.) 7. In the opinion the court says: “In substance, Congress has said to such carriers: ‘If you receive articles for transportation from a point in one state to a place in another, beyond your own terminal, you must do so under a contract to transport to the place designated. If you are obliged to use the services of independent carriers in the continuance of the transit, you must use them as your own agents, and not as agents of the shipper.' It is therefore not the case of making one pay the debt of another. The receiving carrier is, as principal, liable not only for its own negligence, but for that of any agency it may use, although, as between themselves, the company actually causing the loss may be primarily liable.”

Under the United States law, as construed in that decision, the defendant in this action was primarily liable for the loss' of the trunk and contents notwithstanding the same may have occurred after the trunk was transferred to' the Omaha road. It will not be necessary, therefore, in view of the decision of that learned court, to pass upon the question as to the admissibility of the timetable or folder as the court’s charge and ruling, even if erroneous, would not constitute reversible error.

[3] As above stated, the chief contention of the appellant in the trial court was that it was not liable for the loss of the trunk and contents after same had been by it turned over to- the connecting line. Appellant also contends, as stated in its 'brief, that “the various article in the trunk, * * * not being articles intended for the use of the plaintiff while traveling, or for -his personal equipment, did not constitute baggage, and the defendant is not liable for their loss.” The articles objected to consisted of table cutlery, napkins, table cloths, curtains, pillowcases, pyrography outfit, as well as a shotgun and guncase.

In order to understand the real question before us, it is necessary tc notice the record made upon trial. The appellant, defendant below, at no time, except by certain objections which would really go to the order of proof, raised the question that the plaintiff had not proven facts which showed the property lost to' be baggage. The defendant moved to strike out the evidence that had been received in relation to the above-mentioned articles, [330]*330and based its motion solely upon the ground that such items were not baggage within the meaning of the law; but such motion in no manner raised the question of the facts proven being insufficient to show that, under the facts surrounding plaintiff’s journey, the articles were baggage. The real contention of defendant as shown by the objections interposed and said motion to strike out evidence, was that the property above referred to, from its very nature, could not, under any circumstances, become baggage.

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Bluebook (online)
138 N.W. 809, 30 S.D. 321, 1912 S.D. LEXIS 233, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/house-v-chicago-northwestern-railway-co-sd-1912.