Keasler v. Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad

203 Ill. App. 61, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 1038
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 13, 1916
StatusPublished

This text of 203 Ill. App. 61 (Keasler v. Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keasler v. Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad, 203 Ill. App. 61, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 1038 (Ill. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Boggs

delivered the opinion of the court.

Suit was brought by appellee before a justice of the peace of G-allatin county against appellant for the loss of certain hogs in a shipment made by appellee over appellant’s railroad. Judgment was rendered in favor of appellee before a justice of the peace. An appeal was taken to the Circuit Court of said county, where a jury was waived and on a' trial .before the court, judgment was rendered in favor of appellee' for $135, from which judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

The evidence discloses that on July 25, 1914, appellee loaded for shipment on appellant’s railroad at Omaha, Illinois, a car of hogs billed to Cincinnati, Ohio. The hogs were loaded about 11:35 a. m. on July 25, 1914, and reached their destination at the stockyards at Cincinnati, Ohio, at about 9:35 p. m. on July 26th, and were unloaded at about 10:30 p. m. of said evening, when it was found eleven of said hogs were dead. Appellee insists that the cause of the death of the hogs was the failure of appellant to water them at proper times when requested so to do by Mr. Harrell, the man in charge of said shipment. At the close of the evidence, appellant requested the court to hold as a matter of law the following proposition: “That the plaintiff failed to file his claim with the defendant within five days, as required by the live stock contract in evidence, and that therefore plaintiff cannot recover in this case,” which proposition of law was refused by the court and judgment was rendered in favor of appellee as above set forth.

The shipment in question was made under the provisions of what is known as the Uniform Limited Liability Live Stock contract, which contract provides among other things: ‘ ‘ That said shipper is at his own risk and expense to load and take care of and feed and water said stock while it is being transported, whether delayed in transit or otherwise, and to unload the same; and neither said carrier nor any connecting carrier is to be under any liability or duty with reference thereto, except in the actual transportation of the same.”

It is further provided in said contract: “That no claim for damages which may accrue to the said shipper under this contract shall be allowed or paid by the said carrier, or sued for in any court by the said shipper, unless a claim for such loss or damages shall be made in writing, verified by the affidavit of the said shipper or his agent, and delivered to the general freight agent of the said carrier, at his office in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, within five days from the time said stock is removed from said car or cars; and that if any loss or damage occurs upon the line of a connecting carrier, then such carrier shall not be liable unless a claim shall be made in like manner, and delivered in like time, to some proper officer or agent of the carrier on whose line the loss or.injury occurs.” Said contract contains this further provision: “And S. E. Keasler does hereby acknowledge that he had the option of shipping the above described live stock at a higher rate of freight according to the official tariffs, classifications and rules of the said carrier and connecting carriers, and thereby receiving the security of the liability of the said carrier and connecting railroad and transportation companies as common carriers of the said live stock upon their respective roads and lines, but has voluntarily decided- to ship same under this contract at the reduced rate of freight above mentioned.”

On the trial of said cause the following stipulation was entered into between appellee and appellant:

“It is hereby agreed by and between the plaintiff and defendant in the above suit that a jury be waived in this court, and the case be tried by the court upon the following facts:

“That the plaintiff, on July 25, 1914, offered to the defendant at Omaha, Ill., 59 hogs for shipment to Talbert & McDonald & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, and that the defendant accepted said shipment at 11:35 a. m. on said day as per contract, duly executed between the parties hereto attached hereto, and made a part of this stipulation; that said hogs arrived at destination July 26, 1914, at 9:35 p. m., and were unloaded at 10:03 p. m. same day; that when said hogs arrived it was found that 11 hogs were dead; that on August 3, 1914, plaintiff wrote a letter to Mr. O. V. Lewis, freight claim agent of the defendant at Baltimore, Md., as per letter attached hereto and made a part of this stipulation.

“Either party hereto may introduce such further competent and material evidence in this case not inconsistent to the above facts.”

The question, therefore, which is presented by this appeal and which is raised by the proposition of law submitted by appellant and. which was refused by the trial court is whether or not appellee was bound by the provisions in said contract requiring him within five days to file his claim for damages, verified by his affidavit, or that of Ms agent, with the general freight agent of appellant at his office in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio. If appellee is to be bound by sMd provision in said contract, then the judgment of the trial court will have to be reversed without reference to any other question presented in this record.

Appellee makes no contention whatever that he complied with this provision of the contract of shipment entered into on his behalf by his agent, Harrell. In other words, he does not contend that the letter which he wrote to C. Y. Lewis, freight claim agent of appellant at Baltimore, Maryland, on August 3, 1914, some eight days after said shipment was made, is a complianee with the provision of said contract of shipment above referred to, but the insistence of appellee is that the provisions of said contract are unreasonable and therefore are not binding upon him in this case.

This being an interstate shipment, the only question for us to determine is whether or not the courts of this State are bound by the provision of the Interstate Commerce Act with its amendments, and by the cor struction placed upon the same by the Federal courts as well as the courts of this State. In our view of the law, this is not now an open question as it has been definitely determined, not only by the Federal courts, but also by" our Supreme Court, that interstate shipments are governed by the provision of the Interstate Commerce Act.

In the case of Michelson v. Judson Freight Forwarding Co., 268 Ill. 546, at page 556, the court referring to the Carmack amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act says: “This statute has been held by the Supreme Court of the United States to be constitutional. (Atlantic Coast Line Railway Co. v. Riverside Mills, 219 U. S. 186.)” It has also been held in construing the act that almost every detail of the subject is covered, and there can be no doubt but that Congress intended by the act to take full possession of the subject of interstate shipments, and that the effect of the act was to supersede all State laws and regulations on the subject. Adams Exp. Co. v. Croninger, 226 U. S. 491; Gamble-Robinson Commission Co. v. Union Pac. R. Co., 262 Ill. 400.

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Atlantic Coast Line Railroad v. Riverside Mills
219 U.S. 186 (Supreme Court, 1911)
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Bluebook (online)
203 Ill. App. 61, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 1038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keasler-v-baltimore-ohio-southwestern-railroad-illappct-1916.