Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Foster

4 N.E. 20, 104 Ind. 293, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 439
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 29, 1885
DocketNo. 11,529
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 4 N.E. 20 (Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Foster) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Foster, 4 N.E. 20, 104 Ind. 293, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 439 (Ind. 1885).

Opinion

Zollars, J.

Appellee brought this -action to recover the value of a trunk and its contents. Her counsel concede that the evidence in the case is correctly set out in appellant’s brief. As there set out it is as follows, except some immaterial omissions :■

Mary Foster, the plaintiff, testified :

On the 17th day of November, 1882,1 was going to Chicago on a visit, and on the evening before tried to find a man to take my trunk to the depot. I met Mel Quimby, and he said he would send a man. Will Spicer came to take my trunk. I told him to take it to the depot and tell the baggageman that I was going off on No. 5 the next morning. He is expressman for Mr. McGowan. I delivered the trunk to Will Spicer, the expressman, about half-past 9 o’clock on the evening of the 16th of November, 1882. I was to go off at 4: 25 the next morning. The next morning when I got my ticket I went to the baggageman in the baggage-room and asked for my trunk. He said ‘ which one of these trunks is yours?’ I said ‘none of them.’ I.asked Mr. Quimby the evening before to get the trunk checked. Mr. Wilcox said he did not know where my trunk was, that he had not seen it since immediately after the departure of No. 6 the night before, and that there had been baggage stolen there before from the platform. He said, we do not take in baggage unless if is checked. I had sent my trunk down once before when I went east, and found it was all right. I had my wearing apparel in the trunk — an overskirt and dress worth $40; a green dress worth $5; a dress skirt worth $1; a hat $7.50; oil paintings $9; gold cross $5; jewelry $12; shawl $3.50; [295]*295table spread and napkins $3.15; handkerchiefs and ties $2; ¡a small gold watch $15; and other articles I did not remember when I gave Mr. Dodge the list, but have missed since. When I did not find my trunk I went back home, and did not go to see anybody, until about 7 o’clock I called at Colonel Tucker’s office to see about it. Mr. Tucker said, he would see that it was all made right, and would hunt it up for me. After ¡buying the ticket I called for my trunk, but did not get it. I got it the next afternoon, with two articles in it, and they were spoiled. Marshal Miller brought it to me. I have never been paid for .those goods. The total value is $125.”

William Spicer, being called on behalf of the plaintiff, testified as follows:

“ I live at Elkhart. Mr. Quimby saw me at the depot and asked if I would go and get a trunk up at Hayden’s barber shop, and I went. Miss Foster gave me the trunk and told me to take it to the depot, and I did. I put it where Quimby told me. He said ‘put it down there under the eaves, in the ■dry.’ It was raining. I did so and went off. I put it down under the eaves of the depot building, near the baggage-room door. The baggageman was not there. I have not hauled baggage long — only about a month. I deliver baggage to and from every train from the hotels. Sometimes we put it ■on the platform and under the eavés. I was-not acquainted with Mr. Wilcox. I knew the baggageman when I saw him. •He would take baggage when the owners came to get it checked. He would not take it until owners came to get it checked.”

Mel Quimby, being called in behalf of the plaintiff, testified as follows:

“On the evening of November 16th,'1882, it was raining. I was going to Chicago on No. 5 the next morning. I met Miss. Foster and walked up street with her. I said to her, ‘ I am going to Chicago in the morning,’ and said I must go and get my trunk checked. She said she was going, too, and asked me to get hers checked, too. I employed Spicer to get her [296]*296trunk and bring it to the depot. He went after the trunk with a truck. I was there when he came with it. I said to Spicer, Dump it right down here near the baggage-room door, under the eaves, in the dry.’ I went to reach for the door and Mr. Wilcox stepped out. He is the baggageman. I had started to open the baggage-room door. I said to Wilcox, Here is a trunk for No. 5, put it in the baggage-room.’ He said No, leave it out there, it will be all right.’ This was. about half-past 9 o’clock. It was Miss Foster’s trunk.”

Henry Wilcox, being called on behalf of the plaiiitiff, testified as follows:

“1 live in Elkhart. On November 16th I was employed in checking baggage. I was the night baggageman. I receive baggage for the company when a ticket is presented, and then give a check for it, but not without. Quimby called my attention to the matter of the trunk the next morning, but not that night. He asked me the next morning whether I saw the trunk. I did not see Quimby at all the night before, and he did not call my attention to any trunk the night before. I did not tell him to leave it there. I did not know he left a trunk on the platform.”

On cross-examination:

My duty was to receive baggage of passengers when they had tickets. I received baggage when persons had tickets, but not otherwise. I received trunks at the baggage-room door, if persons were going away at once on the train; otherwise in the room only — when they got tickets and their trunks checked, and not otherwise. When baggage is put in the room unchecked, it is at their own responsibility, and persons are told so. Quimby never called my attention to any trunk that night. I did not see him that night. Saw him in the' morning when he was going off on No. 5. He came to get his trunk checked. He and Miss Foster asked about her trunk. I told them I didn’t know anything about her trunk. Mr. Quimby did not claim that he called my attention to the trunk the night before, and never said anything about the [297]*297trunk being there the night before.- I never saw the trunk. It never was delivered to me, nor my attention called to it.”

On re-direct examination: -

“ I said to Quimby and Miss Foster the next morning that I saw a trunk the night before, after No. 6 left, sitting about eight feet from the baggage-room door, under the eaves, but that I did not know whose it was. I locked up the baggage-room when I left. I saw a trunk sitting there, but I did not know whose it was.”

Re-cross examination.

Trunks are often left sitting there on the platform soon after trains arrive or just before they depart, but I pay no at-1 tention to them until they are pointed out to me by some one' who wants them checked. The principal baggageman is Mr. Barbour. His assistant is Mr. Hockman. I am night baggageman. No one called my attention to the trunk the night before when it was left there.”

Re-direct-:

“I was discharged by the company soon after the loss of the trunk. I did not understand why. Heard it was something about the police duty. I was re-employed again.”

C. W. Green testified on behalf of the plaintiff as follows:

“ I am the station agent of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company at Elkhart, and have charge of the company’s business there. Mr. Wilcox was the night baggageman for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company at Elkhart, Indiana, on November 16th, 1882. The baggage-room in which Mr. Wilcox worked was the baggage-room of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company. He had authority to receive and check the baggage of passengers.

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Bluebook (online)
4 N.E. 20, 104 Ind. 293, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 439, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lake-shore-michigan-southern-railway-co-v-foster-ind-1885.