Kent v. Hudson River Rail Road

22 Barb. 278, 1856 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 47
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 1, 1856
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 22 Barb. 278 (Kent v. Hudson River Rail Road) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kent v. Hudson River Rail Road, 22 Barb. 278, 1856 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 47 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1856).

Opinion

By the Court, E. Darwin Smith, J.

Two questions are presented for the decision of the court, on the motion for a new trial in this case. 1st. Is the judgment recovered before the justice of the peace in the city of Hew York, a bar to the plaintiff’s recovery in this action 1 2d. Was the decline in the market price of the sheep, between the time they should have arrived in Hew York and the time when they did arrive, a proper measure of damages. On the first point, the judge advised the jury that the judgment recovered in the justice’s court in the city of .Hew York, by the defendants, in the suit commenced by the plaintiff’s agent, for the same cause of action for which [286]*286.this suit was brought, was a bar to the plaintiff’s claim, unless it was commenced and prosecuted without the plaintiff’s authority. And he also instructed the jury that if the suit was commenced without authority, and the plaintiff had since ratified Taylor’s (the agent’s) authority, it was still a bar. I can see no error in this part of the charge. It was as distinctly in favor of the defendant as the judge could reasonably be expected to make it, on submitting the question, under the evidence to. the jury. It was a question for the jury whether the suit in question had been brought or ratified by the plaintiff, and they have passed upon it conclusively. The other point, respecting the fall in the market price of the sheep between the -time when they should have been delivered and the time of their actual delivery, is one of more difficulty. On this point the judge charged the jury, that if they found that the plaintiff was entitled to recover^any loss sustained by him by a fall in the market between the times when the sheep should have arrived and when they did arrive, was a proper element of damage." This view of the question of damages was more fully amplified and explained; but the judge, in substance and effect, allowed and directed the jury to take the fall in the market value of the sheep into account, in making up their verdict, as a fit and proper basis or element of damages, in connection with other facts and circumstances. That the charge of my brother Strong was entirely correct in substance on this point I should have had no doubt, but for the very able and elaborate opinion of Judge Marvin, in the case of Wibert v. The New York and Erie Rail Road Company, (19 Barb. 36.) Ordinarily we should feel ourselves bound to follow an opinion so carefully pronounced at general term ; but the decision at the circuit being in conflict with this opinion, we are called upon to decide the point presented for ourselves ; and considering the importance of the question, and the likelihood that our decision of it as an open question will tend to hasten its settlement in the court of dernier resort, I will proceed to present such views as have led me, with much diffidence, to dissent from the conclusions of the learned and experienced judge who gives the opinion of the general term of [287]*287the 8th district. The complaint in this action states that the plaintiff, on some Monday in the month of March, 1853, delivered to the defendants, as common carriers, 80 fat sheep, which the defendants then and there accepted and received of and from the plaintiff, to be safely and securely carried and conveyed over the route of their said road from Albany to New York city, and to be delivered on the next day, Tuesday, to the plaintiff, in New York. Under the evidence, the jury would have been warranted in finding that the sheep were to be delivered on Tuesday morning. The agent of the defendants said, when they were received by him, that they would be in New York the next morning at 4 o’clock, and they did not arrive till Thursday morning. Whether the defendants were bound as upon an express contract to deliver the sheep on Tuesday morning or to deliver them without unnecessary delay, can make no difference; for the carrier’s duty rests upon contract implied in law. (Edwards on Bailments, 466.) He is bound to transport and deliver the goods within a reasonable time. (Id. 521, 4, 5.) But here there was a time specified when the goods were to be delivered, and that time corresponds with the time when they should be deliver! in the ordinary course of the business of the defendants. It is apparent upon the facts of this case, and the jury have so found, that the. plaintiff actually sustained a loss from the non-delivery of the sheep according to thezcontract, or according to the custom in respect to the time required or employed in- the transportation of such articles, to the amount claimed, $125. This damage, in the aspect in which the point is presented, resulted from a fall in the market value of the sheep, between Tuesday morning and Thursday. The damages to be recovered, Judge Marvin Says, must always be the “ natural and proximate consequences of the act complained of,” and cites 2 Qreenl. Ev. 253, 254, 256; 5 Wend. 538; 6 Hill, 648, and Sedg. on Damages, ch. 3; and he argues that the fall of price in the market was not a proximate consequence of the delay of the carrier in making the delivery. He says, “ the damages flowed from the decline in price, and they are not. the result of the delay.” Again, the learned judge says, “The question is, [288]*288what connection or relation was there between the act complained of and the decline in the market in the price of butterand again, “ But how it can be argued that a decline in price is a consequence of the non-arrival of the article, I am not able to comprehend.” Also, There was no natural connection between the breach of duty by the defendant and the decline in the price of the butter in the market.” The theory of damages as suggested and involved in these extracts from the opinion of the learned judge is, that the damages properly recoverable in an action must be the direct and immediate consequence of the injury or breach of duty complained of. The rule of damages thus enunciated belongs to the large class of injuries, direct and immediate, for which, under the old nomenclature, the action of trespass was the appropriate remedy, and practically ignores the large class of consequential injuries for which trespass on the case or assumpsit wras the proper form and name of the action. The first case which the learned judge cites upon this theory of damages is Davis v. Garret, (6 Bing. 716; 19 Eng. Com. L. 321.) In that case the action was for the loss of 114 tons of lime, received by the defendant on board of his barge or vessel, to be carried and conveyed on board said vessel from Blinby Cliff, in Kent county, to the Regent’s canal, in Middle-sex. It appeared, on the trial, that the defendant deviated from the usual and customary way and course of the voyage, without justifiable cause, and that, in consequence, the vessel became exposed to a great storm at sea, in which the lime was heated and the barge caught fire and was lost. A verdict was found for the plaintiff, and a rule obtained, nisi, for a new trial. The argument of the learned sergeant, Taddy, for the defendant was, “ That the deviation by the master of the barge was not a cause of the loss of the lime sufficiently proximate to entitle the plaintiff to recover, inasmuch as the loss might have been occasioned by the tempest if the barge had proceeded in her direct courseprecisely as Judge Marvin holds that the delay in delivering the butter did not cause the decline in the market. The deviation of the master "from the course did not produce the storm, and the storm caused the loss of the barge [289]*289and the lime.

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

Related

Austin, Nichols & Co. v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co.
119 Misc. 565 (New York Supreme Court, 1922)
Wilson & Aull v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.
66 Mo. App. 388 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1896)
Kirkland v. Leary
2 Sweeny 677 (The Superior Court of New York City, 1871)
Ward v. New York Central Railroad
47 N.Y. 29 (New York Court of Appeals, 1871)
Stauff v. Maher
2 Daly 142 (New York Court of Common Pleas, 1867)
Cutting v. Grand Trunk Railway Co.
95 Mass. 381 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1866)
Peet v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.
20 Wis. 594 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1866)
Rowe v. The City of Dublin
20 F. Cas. 1285 (E.D. New York, 1866)
Bridgman v. The Steamboat Emily
18 Iowa 509 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1865)
Jones v. New York & Erie Rail Road
29 Barb. 633 (New York Supreme Court, 1859)
Briggs v. New York Central Rail Road
28 Barb. 515 (New York Supreme Court, 1858)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
22 Barb. 278, 1856 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kent-v-hudson-river-rail-road-nysupct-1856.