49 So. 433 | Ala. | 1909
This is • an action by a shipper against a common carrier for failure to deliver freight —one trunk .and contents — which was received by the carrier at Valley Head, to be delivered by it at Bessemer, Ala., for a reward. By agreement the case was tried by the court without a jury on an agreed statement of facts, under the general issues, either party to have any advantage to which he might be entitled had such matter been properly and specially pleaded. The agreed
But one insistence is urged by the appellant. It insists that this contract of shipment was made under the recent act of the legislature known as the “Commodity Act” (Gen. Acts 1907, p. 209), and under and by the subsequent act passed at the special session relating to the same subject (Gen. Acts Sp. Sess. 1907, p. 125), and that the object as well as the effect of these acts was to validate contracts as to shipments made thereunder, which would not otherwise be valid; that their effect was to fix rates of shipment, and to validate provisions in contracts of shipment limiting and fixing the liability of the carrier in the case of loss. We cannot agree with counsel for appellant that the object or effect of either or both of the statutes was to validate these provisions in contracts of shipment. In other words, the defendant claims that the contract of shipment as shown by the bill of lading was that the shipper paid $9.60 to the carrier to deliver this freight to him at Bessemer; that a part of this contract limited the liability of the carrier in case of loss to $7.50; that this rate was fixed by the statute, and that, therefore, all the other parts
It is unnecessary for us to discuss these authorities, or the acts of Congress upon which they are based, to compare or to contrast those statutes or contracts of shipment under consideration with our statutes referred to and the contract in this case, for the reason that we would neither be bound thereby, nor be willing to follow them if in point; this shipment being wholly within the state and made within the state.
We are of the opinion, however, that the statutes referred to did not have the effect, as insisted by appellant, to validate the provisions of bills of lading exempting the carrier from liability for loss, except as to the amount stipulated in the bill of lading. The law as to these provisions in contracts of shipment remains now as it was before, and it is conceded by counsel for the appellant that the carrier would be liable under the law as it existed before these statutes were enacted.
There being no error in the record, the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.