Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. v. Davis

114 S.W.2d 830, 114 S.W.2d 831, 21 Tenn. App. 663, 1937 Tenn. App. LEXIS 67
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedNovember 27, 1937
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 114 S.W.2d 830 (Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. v. Davis, 114 S.W.2d 830, 114 S.W.2d 831, 21 Tenn. App. 663, 1937 Tenn. App. LEXIS 67 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

CROWNOYER, J.

This is an action against a common carrier for damages for unreasonable delay in transportation of a car of cattle; and for damages for the death of one cow.

The plaintiff, T. Lynn Davis, shipped a carload of 25 cows' and 19 calves from Wartraee, Tenn., to Jacksonville, Fla., by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. The cattle were 57 hours en route; 36 hours would have been a reasonable time. He sued for damages from shrinkage in the weight of the cattle and from the fall in their market value during the delay in arriving.

The suit originated in a justice of the peace court, where judgment was rendered for the plaintiff for $350.

On appeal to the circuit court the case was tried by the judge without a jury and he rendered judgment for the plaintiff for $275,

Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were overruled, and the defendant appealed in error to this court and has. assigned errors, which are, in substance, as follows:

(1) There ys no evidence to support the. judgment.

(2) The judgment is excessive.

(3) The damages are speculative and conjectural.

(4) The trial judge erred in rendering judgment for the plaintiff for the total amount of the damages, when it developed at.the hearing that the plaintiff only owned a half interest in the livestock. . . . '

The facts necessary to be stated are as follows:

T. Lynn Davis, of Wartraee, Tenn., the plaintiff, was a dealer iu cattle. For several years before this suit he had made shipments of cattle from Wartraee to other points by truck. An agent .of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway urged him to make-shipments over that railroad. He consulted the local freight agent, Tidwell, in May, 1935, about shipping a carload of milch cows to-Jacksonville, Fla. The agent estimated that the ear would reach Jacksonville within 32 to 36 hours.

This time was satisfactory to Davis, as he wished the cattle to-reach Jacksonville within 36 hours. Some of the cows were giv *666 ing milk and some were due to have calves, and it was essential that the shipment be moved with reasonable dispatch.

The bill of lading provided that said livestock should be transported “with reasonable dispatch.”

By federal statute railroads engaged in transporting cattle, etc., from one state to another are prohibited from confining the same in their cars for a longer period of time than 28 hours without unloading them for rest, water and feeding for a period of 5 hours; but it is provided that on the shipper’s signing a written request the railroad may keep the cattle confined for as long as 86 hours without unloading for rest, water and feeding. Act June 29, 1906, 34 U. S. St. at L. 607, chapter 3594, 45 U. S. C. A., sections 71-74.

Davis signed a written request, or 36-hour release, as he did not want the cattle unloaded en route for fear they would be treated Toughly by the stockyard employees.

The car was loaded at Wartrace on the night of May 14, 1935, with 25 Jersey cows and 19 Jersey calves, and was moved at 8:15 p. m. by the railroad’s stock pick-up train.

The route was from Wartrace, Tenn., to Atlanta, Ga., over the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway; from Atlanta, via Macon, to Albany, Ga., over the Central of Georgia Railway; and from Albany, Ga., to Jacksonville, Fla., over the Atlantic Coast Line.

On the arrival of the car of-cattle at Macon Ga., at 11:25 a. m. May 15, 1935, it was discovered that one cow was dead. The freight train for Albany was due to leave within 35 minutes (at 12:00). The car was taken from the train and sent to the stockyards in order that the dead cow might be removed. This caused the car to miss going out with that 12:00 train.

The Central of Georgia Railway operated only one regular daily train between Macon and Albany, but operated extra trains as the business demanded.

The cattle were unloaded at the stockyards, fed 8 pounds each <of hay, watered, and left in the stock pens for 19 hours.

There are stock pens all along the line at every station. There .-are stockyards in Albany, not far from the switchyards.

The cattle were reloaded and the car carried from Macon on a •special train at 6:30 a. m., on May 16, 1935. It arrived at Albany at 11:30 a. m., and was left there 7 hours and 20 minutes.

It reached Jacksonville at 4:45 a. m. on May 17, and was unloaded at 5:30 a. m.

The cattle had been en route 57 hours and 15 minutes, and had been fed only one time.

The cows were weak, some of them could hardly stand up. Two were down in the car. They were all skinned up. They looked as if they had been starved. They had depreciated in weight and in *667 appearance on account of going without food and water for such; a long period.

They could not be placed on the market on the day they should' have been, and were sold for less as the result.

One witness testified that when cattle get weak from lack of food and water they can’t stand the vibration of railroad cars and get thrown about and bruised and skinned.

The trial judge found that the death of the one cow before the train reached Macon was not caused by the railroad’s negligence, and his finding is not appealed from, hence that proposition has been eliminated.

If the 24 cows had been delivered in Jacksonville within about 36 hours, according to the schedule, and in the condition they would normally have been after 36 hours of transportation, without feed, their market value would have been $85 to $90 each. At $85 eách they would have sold for $2,040. They actually brought $1,775,

This action was based upon the Carmack and Cummins Amendments to the Interstate Commerce Act of Congress, as amended, 49 U. S. C. A. section 20(11), imposing liability upon the inital carrier for loss, damage, or injury to goods while on the line of a connecting carrier (4 R. C. L. 907; Fourth National Bank v. N., C. & St. L. Ry., 128 Tenn., 530, 161 S. W., 1144; Drake v. Railroad, 125 Tenn., 627, 148 S. W., 214) and for delay (New York, P. & N. R. Co. v. Peninsula Produce Exch., 240 U S., 34, 36 S. Ct. 230, 60 L. Ed., 511, L. R. A. 1917A. 193).

1. The principal question for determination is whether there was an unusual delay, and, if so, was it excusable or due to negligence.

“In cases of delayed shipments there is no presumption of negligence unless the delay be so prolonged as to indicate negligence. The shipper in the absence of a time limit in shipment, must prove and the Court must find as a fact that the delay was unreasonable and occasioned by the negligence of the carrier.” Louisville & N. Railroad Co. v. Brown, 1 Tenn. Civ. App., 269, 281; 10 C. J. 283, section 404.

It is the carrier’s duty to forward freight without delay and as speedily as practicable; and if it be unnecessarily and negligently detained by him, he is liable for the loss. Lamont v. Railroad, 56 Tenn., 58, 9 Heisk. 58; 9 Am. Jur. 727, section 505.

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Related

Ferrell v. Elrod
469 S.W.2d 678 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1971)
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153 S.W.2d 133 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1941)

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Bluebook (online)
114 S.W.2d 830, 114 S.W.2d 831, 21 Tenn. App. 663, 1937 Tenn. App. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nashville-c-st-l-ry-v-davis-tennctapp-1937.