Treadway v. Terminal Railroad Ass'n of St. Louis

84 S.W.2d 143, 231 Mo. App. 1028, 1935 Mo. App. LEXIS 119
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 2, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 84 S.W.2d 143 (Treadway v. Terminal Railroad Ass'n of St. Louis) 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
Treadway v. Terminal Railroad Ass'n of St. Louis, 84 S.W.2d 143, 231 Mo. App. 1028, 1935 Mo. App. LEXIS 119 (Mo. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

*1031 BECKEB, J.

Plaintiff recovered judgment against defendant in his action for the value of certain baggage which had been transported by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company from Houston, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri, and upon arrival delivered by said railroad company to. the defendant Terminal Bailroad Association of St. Louis, at Union Station in St. Louis, Missouri, for safe keeping and delivery to plaintiff, and which baggage was never delivered though due demand was made by plaintiff.

On March 27, 1931, plaintiff and his wife were at the Bice Hotel in Houston, Texas. Plaintiff had purchased two tickets for transportation by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Bailroad Company from Houston, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri. Plaintiff called the porter of the hotel to get his baggage and have the same checked to St. Louis. The hotel porter, upon checking the same for transportation as baggage for the plaintiff, signed a declaration and stipulation, in. plaintiff’s name, that the value of the baggage did not exceed, one hundred dollars,- and that in case of loss or damage to such property “claim will not be made for a greater amount.’'’ Later, when plaintiff left the hotel, he received from the head porter his railroad ticket and the baggage check of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company.

Plaintiff’s baggage was carried by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Bailroad Company to St. Louis, Missouri, and arrived at the Union Station at about ten o’colek on the evening of March, 28, 1931. The baggage was there turned over by the bagg’age man of the train to a representative of the defendant Terminal Bailroad Association of *1032 St. Louis, who gave the baggage man a receipt for the same in the name of Dennis O’Toole, railroad baggage agent of the Terminal Railroad Association. Plaintiff went to claim his baggage at Union Station on March 29, 1931, at about nine o’clock A. M. Defendant was not able to locate the baggage and it was never delivered to plaintiff.

Defendant’s answer in the case alleges that the transportation of plaintiff’s baggage was interstate and was controlled by the Act of the Congress of the United States regarding interstate commerce,' and by the rates and tariffs filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission ; that the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company, prior to March 27, 1931, had filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission its local and joint tariffs relative to baggage rules, regulations, rates and charges applying in connection with the transportation of baggage and other articles and property as classified at and between stations on the lines of the issuing, initial and participating carriers, and from stations on such lines to other destinations in the United States and foreign countries, and which tariffs were in full force on March 27, 1931, and prior thereto and ^thereafter; that said tariffs or schedule of rates referred to, filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission as aforesaid, contains among its provisions as to the transportation of baggage and the liability of defendant therefor, that baggage not • exceeding one hundred and fifty pounds in weight and not exceeding one hundred dollars in value, may be cheeked without additional charge for each adult passenger; and that unless a greater sum is declared by the passenger and charges paid for the excess baggage at the time of delivery to carrier, the value of baggage or property checked for a passenger shall be deemed and agreed to be not in excess of the amount of one hundred dollars, and that the carrier issuing and participating in this tariff shall not assume liability for a greater sum in case of loss or damage.

Plaintiff’s reply was a general denial.

At the trial of the ease, upon objection by plaintiff, defendant was not permitted to introduce the tariffs pleaded in defendant’s answer as having been filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the court further excluded testimony offered by defendant on the question of agency of the defendant in handling plaintiff’s baggage for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company.

The uncontroverted value of the baggage and its contents at the time of the loss was the sum of $849, for which amount, with interest and costs, the trial court, a jury having been waived, entered judgment for the plaintiff.

The only issue raised here on appeal is one of law, namely, whether plaintiff’s recovery is limited in amount to the one hundred dollars set out in the declaration of value, signed by the hotel porter in *1033 Houston at tbe request of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company, or by the tariffs published by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company under which the baggage was transported from Houston, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri, • which tariffs, as indicated above, the defendant sought to introduce in evidence but which, upon objection by plaintiff, were excluded by the trial court.

Appellant Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis insists here on appeal, as set out in its answer in the trial court below, that the recovery of plaintiff should be limited to the sum of one hundred dollars in value in that at the time of plaintiff’s alleged loss of the baggage the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad company had published and filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission certain schedules giving the rates, fares and charges for transportation, etc., including all terminals, storage and other charges, under which schedules the liability of the defendant railroad association under the facts in the instant case was limited to one hundred dollars; and that the action of the trial court in refusing to permit such schedules to be introduced in evidence was error prejudicial to the rights of the said, defendant railroad association. In our view the point is well taken.

It is no longer open to question but that the limitation of liability of carriers for passengers’ baggage is covered by the Interstate Commerce Act and the Carmack Amendment to the Hepburn Act, June 29, 1906, c. 3591, 34 Stat. 584, 586. Under sec. 6 of the Interstate Commerce Act carriers must include in the schedules of rates filed, regulations affecting* passengers’ baggage, and the limitations of liability as well as a provision in the tariff schedules that a passenger must declare the value of his baggage and pay the stated excess charges for excess liability over the stated value to be carried free, is a regulation within the meaning of secs. 6 and 22 of the Interstate Commerce Act, and as such is sufficient to give the passenger notice of such limitation. [Boston & Maine Ry. Co. v. Hooker, 233 U. S. 97, 34 S. Ct. 526, L. Ed. 868.] Under the pleadings in the case the said tariff schedules were admissible in evidence and the court erred in excluding them. [N. Y. Ry. Co. v. Beham, 242 U. S. 148, 37 S. Ct. 43, 63 L. Ed. 210; Southern Express Co. v. Byers, 240 U. S. 612, 36 S. Ct. 410, 60 L. Ed. 825.]

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Related

McKaig v. Kansas City Terminal Railway Co.
355 S.W.2d 409 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1962)
Brown v. Terminal Railroad Ass'n of St. Louis
298 S.W.2d 471 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1957)
Pickett v. Union Terminal Co.
33 F. Supp. 244 (N.D. Texas, 1940)
Treadway v. Term. Railroad Assn. of St. Louis
136 S.W.2d 401 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
84 S.W.2d 143, 231 Mo. App. 1028, 1935 Mo. App. LEXIS 119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/treadway-v-terminal-railroad-assn-of-st-louis-moctapp-1935.