Larimore v. Chicago & Alton Railroad

65 Mo. App. 167, 1896 Mo. App. LEXIS 168
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 4, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 65 Mo. App. 167 (Larimore v. Chicago & Alton Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Larimore v. Chicago & Alton Railroad, 65 Mo. App. 167, 1896 Mo. App. LEXIS 168 (Mo. Ct. App. 1896).

Opinion

Bond, J.

The first cause of action alleged in the petition is that defendant received from plaintiff on the twenty-eighth of November, 1894, a shipment of [168]*168ninety-two head of hogs to be transported from Mexico, Missouri, to Peoria, Illinois; that by reason of the negligence of defendant in unloading said hogs in the course of transportation at Jacksonville, Illinois, and placing them in infected pens, they took a contagious disease, whereby plaintiff was damaged $518.45. The second cause of action, in addition to the statements contained in the first, alleges that defendant negligently delayed the transportation of the hogs, whereby plaintiff was damaged $7.50 for extra feed and $35.25 for treatment and care of said hogs.

The answer was a denial of any undertaking to carry the hogs from Mexico to Peoria. It set up that they were received by defendant under a live-stock contract between it and plaintiff, executed in consideration of reduced charges and the furnishing of a pass to plaintiff to accompany the shipment, whereby the hogs were to be carried, under the conditions of said contract, from Mexico, Missouri, to Jacksonville, Illinois. The answer concludes to wit: “And other than the contract above set out defendant did not, on the twenty-eighth day of November, 1894, enter into any contract with plaintiff for the transportation of any hogs, nor did it undertake on said day to carry any hogs for plaintiff as a common carrier.

“Under the contract aforesaid it became and was plaintiff’s duty to accompany said hogs and to load, unload, feed, water, and care for them at his own expense, and, if he expended any amount for food and care of said hogs, he did so under said contract and defendant is not liable therefor.

“Defendant says that under said contract and agreement, and not otherwise, it received of plaintiff eighty-five head of hogs on the twenty-eighth day of November, 1894, and safely, promptly and within a reasonable time, transported them from Mexico, Missouri, [169]*169to Jacksonville, Illinois, and there at plaintiff’s request offered and tendered them to the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railroad Company for transportation to Peoria, and, upon the refusal of the said Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railroad Company to receive said hogs, defendant delivered them to plaintiff, by whom they were taken in charge.

“Defendant denies that said hogs were unloaded by it or into pens owned by it, but avers the fact to be that the pens into which said hogs were put belonged to and were owned and controlled by certain persons not in any way connected with defendant, to wit: S. S. T. S. and P. Knowles; and defendant had no interest in or control over said pens, and, if they were infected with a contagious disease peculiar to hogs, defendant had no knowledge or information thereof.

“Defendant denies that any loss or damage was occasioned plaintiff by reason of the carelessness, negligence or wrongful act of defendant, and, if there were, defendant was and is not liable therefor for the reason that plaintiff agreed that, if any loss or damage were suffered by him, he would within five days after the same occurred notify defendant in writing of the same, and he has failed and neglected so to do.

“Further, defendant says that it carefully and faithfully complied with the terms of its contract and performed all the duties incumbent upon it thereunder, and,, therefore, prays to be discharged with its costs.”

The reply was a general denial. On the trial plaintiff recovered judgment for $425, from which this appeal is prosecuted.

It appeared on the trial that the defendant safely carried the hogs to the end of its line at-Jacksonville, Illinois, and tendered them to a connecting carrier between that point and Peoria, Illinois; that, upon the refusal of the latter to accept the hogs, they were [170]*170placed in hog pens, which defendant had the right to nse, and kept there for about one day, when they were received by the connecting carrier and transported to Peoria, Illinois, their place of destination. It further appeared that the contract of shipment set up in defendant’s answer was executed by the parties.

Upon this evidence the court properly instructed the jury that defendant’s liability as carrier ended, under the clause in the shipping contract limiting its liability to losses occurring on its own line, when the hogs had been placed in the pens at Jacksonville after the refusal of the connecting carrier to receive them when they were first tendered. Hance v. Railroad, 56 Mo. App. 483; Dimmitt v. Railroad, 103 Mo. 433; Nines v. Railroad, 107 Mo. 475. The issue as to the liability of the defendant under the foregoing facts was restricted to the circumstances under which the hogs were unloaded by defendant at the end of "its line. By placing them, upon the refusal of the connecting carrier to accept, in pens, the defendant shifted its liability as carrier to that of custodian of the property, or forwarding agent. Holtzclaw v. Duff, 27 Mo. 392; Bennitt v. Railroad, 46 Mo. App. 656; Stanard Milling Company v. Transit Company, 122 Mo. 274, 275. In the leading ease, Holtsclaw v. Duff, supra, it is held that the freight paid the initial carrier for the transportation of goods over its line covers not only the service of carriage, but also that of forwarding to a connecting carrier; that such a contract imposes distinct duties, i. e., that of carriage and that of warehouseman or forwarding agent, and that the only liability incurred in the latter capacity is for a reasonable care of the property while it is held for delivery to the connecting carrier.

The instructions of the court, which told the-jury in effect that defendant’s liability as to the injury [171]*171caused by storing-the hogs in infected pens depended upon the exercise of ordinary care or reasonable diligence, was well warranted by the doctrine of the case quoted. Henee, there is no merit in the objection made by appellánt to all the instructions giren by. the court, in that they prescribed this degree of care.

The next objection made by appellant is that instructions 1 and 2, given by the court at plaintiff’s instance, do not predicate the right of plaintiff to recover upon a finding that the hogs contracted cholera from being put in the pens. These instructions told the jury that plaintiff could only recover upon showing that he was damaged by reason of his hogs having been confined in pens infected with a. contagious disease. The court, however, of its own motion gave the jury the following instruction:

“The court instructs the jury that the burden is upon the plaintiff to show by preponderance, that is, the greater weight of the evidence in the case:
“1. That his hogs died of a contagious disease;
“2. That the stock pens at Jacksonville, Illinois, were infected with said disease;
“3. That the hogs contracted said disease-in said pens;
“4 That defendant knew said disease was contagious ;
“5. That defendant knew said pens were so infected at the time the hogs were unloaded into them, or by exercise of reasonable diligence might have known such fact;
“6.

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6 S.W.2d 659 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1928)
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69 Mo. App. 541 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1897)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
65 Mo. App. 167, 1896 Mo. App. LEXIS 168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/larimore-v-chicago-alton-railroad-moctapp-1896.