Westerfield v. Fargo

80 Misc. 40, 141 N.Y.S. 544
CourtNew York County Courts
DecidedMarch 15, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 80 Misc. 40 (Westerfield v. Fargo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York County Courts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Westerfield v. Fargo, 80 Misc. 40, 141 N.Y.S. 544 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1913).

Opinion

McCauley, J.

The defendant has appealed to this court from a judgment which the plaintiff recovered against it in a justice’s court for damages for the loss or nondelivery of an express package. The trial was without a jury. The package was delivered to the defendant, which is a common carrier of goods for hire, at West Nyack, in this county, on the 25th day of September, 1911, for transportation to Pittsfield, Mass. It contained paper shakers which the plaintiff had purchased at Boston for the purpose of sale at retail at a county fair held at Great Barrington. The defendant, at the hands of its agent, delivered to the plaintiff, at the time of the shipment, a receipt for the package which, as it claims, embodied the terms and conditions of the contract under which it received and engaged to transport the package, and to which terms and conditions the plaintiff assented. The package did not arrive at its destination and was not delivered to the plaintiff and, presumably, was lost in transit.

The action was defended, and a reversal of the judgment is now asked for upon the ground that the defendant had been relieved of responsibility for the loss or nondelivery of the package by reason of [42]*42the plaintiff’s failure to observe one of the provisions of the shipping receipt. The receipt was prepared by using a printed form and, when completed by filling in the written portions, was signed by the defendant’s agent and delivered to the plaintiff, who accepted it without objection.

It is stated in the receipt that the defendant undertook to forward the package “ subject to the terms and conditions printed below, and which terms and conditions are agreed to by shipper and owner in accepting this receipt.” One of the terms and conditions mentioned in the receipt, with which the plaintiff failed to comply, and by reason of which the defendant asserts that it is absolved from any liability for the loss or nondelivery of the package, is the following: “In no event shall this company be liable for any loss, damage or delay, unless the claim therefor shall be presented to it in writing at this office within ninety days after date of shipment, in a statement to which this receipt shall be annexed.”

We are therefore asked to determine, as the more important question presented by the appeal, the legal effect of the shipping receipt upon the rights and responsibilities of the parties.

The giving of a receipt or bill of lading by a common ■carrier to a shipper, upon the delivery of goods for transportation, containing the terms and conditions upon which they are to be carried, is in the usual course of business. It is not claimed that the defendant’s agent practiced any fraud or deceit; nor indeed that he did or said anything that was calculated to mislead the plaintiff, or put him off his guard.

The plaintiff admitted the delivery of the receipt to him at the time of shipment; but he does not testify that he read it, or that he failed to acquaint himself with its provisions. Nor does it appear that he was [43]*43interrogated concerning his knowledge of its provisions. It was manifestly his duty to read the receipts, so that he might know what the defendant undertook to do in respect of his package; in other words what its duties and responsibilities were. In any event the plaintiff is chargeable with knowledge of its provisions; for the defendant had the right to infer from his acceptance of the receipt without dissent that he assented to its terms.

We think it may justly be assumed that the plaintiff did read the receipt and was familiar with its provisions, for it remained in his possession, and was produced by him upon the trial; and also because the amended complaint contains an averment that on or about September 29, 1911, he caused to be sent to the defendant’s agent at Pittsfield a written statement setting forth his claim and the loss thereby sustained. It should be remarked, however, that there was no evidence to support this averment. The plaintiff testified that, having shipped the package, he went to Pitts-field, and that upon his arrival there, or shortly thereafter, he on two occasions made inquiry of the defendant’s agent concerning the package, and on each occasion was informed that it had not yet arrived. He returned to West Nyack a few days later, and thereupon addressed a letter to the agent at Pittsfield which, as he testified, read about as follows: ‘ ‘ Regarding those paper shakers. If you receive the package kindly forward it to West Nyack, and if not will hold company responsible.”

This was the only written statement which the plaintiff presented or caused to be presented to the agent at Pittsfield; and it is conceded that he presented no written claim for loss of the package either to the defendant or its agent at West Nyack.

It will thus be seen that the plaintiff did not comply [44]*44or attempt to comply with the provision of the receipt above quoted.

Shipping receipts of the general nature of the one in question have been the subject of frequent consideration by the courts, and the principle is now well established that where a shipper of property takes from the carrier without objection a receipt, bill of lading or other voucher expressing the terms and conditions upon which the property is to be transported, the writing, in the absence of proof of fraud, misrepresentation or concealment, must be taken as the evidence, and the sole evidence, of the final agreement of the parties, and by it their duties and responsibilities must be regulated; and that the shipper cannot overcome its legal effect by failing to read it, or acquaint himself with its contents. Knapp v. Wells, Fargo & Co., 134 App. Div. 712; Hoffman v. Metropolitan Express Co., 111 id. 407; Hinckley v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co., 56 N. Y. 429; Belger v. Dinsmore, 51 id. 166; Kirkland v. Dinsmore, 62 id. 179; Germania Fire Ins. Co. v. Memphis & C. R. R. Co., 72 id. 90; Hill v. Syracuse, B. & N. Y. R. R. Co., 73 id. 351; Mills v. Weir, 82 App. Div. 396.

Where, therefore, a shipper of property by express accepts from the carrier, without objection, a shipping receipt which embodies the terms and conditions upon which the property is to be carried and which, by operation of law, constitutes the contract between the parties, he is not entitled, in the event of loss or delay in transit, to recover against the carrier unless he allege and prove that he has himself complied with all its provisions and requirements. Todd v. Union Casualty & Surety Co., 70 App. Div. 55. Such compliance on the part of the shipper is a condition precedent to his right of recovery against the carrier.

The learned counsel for the respondent argues, however, that if the shipping receipt is held to be the [45]*45repository of the agreement between the parties, nevertheless the judgment should be upheld upon the ground that the defendant waived a strict compliance with its provisions on the part of the plaintiff.

It is a sufficient answer to this argument to say that there is no allegation of waiver in the complaint. The rule is well settled that, if .the plaintiff desires to plead a waiver by the defendant of any condition with which he has not complied, he must allege the condition claimed to have been waived, and the facts and circumstances constituting such waiver. Frey v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co., 114 App. Div. 747; Pope Manfg. Co. v. Rubber Goods Manfg. Co., 110 id. 341; Todd v. Union Casualty & Surety Co., supra; Glazer v. Home Ins. Co., 48 Misc. Rep. 515.

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Bluebook (online)
80 Misc. 40, 141 N.Y.S. 544, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/westerfield-v-fargo-nycountyct-1913.