80 Mo. App. 8 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1899
The plaintiff sues the defendant for $1,200, the alleged value of baggage contained in two trunks. . In February, 1898, the plaintiff was in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She held a pass over' the Eitchburg Railroad from Greenfield to Rotterdam Junction in the state of New York. The West Shore Railroad Company owned and operated a railroad from Rotterdam Junction to the city of Buffalo, New York. The defendant operated a railroad from Buffalo to the city of St. Louis. At the time mentioned the husband of the plaintiff applied at the office of the defendant in St. Louis for the purchase of a ticket for her from Rotterdam Junction to St. Louis. The matter was referred to the New York office of the West Shore Company. That company issued the ticket with coupons attached. The ticket provided for through passage from Rotterdam Junction to St. Louis. The coupon from Buffalo to East St. Louis read, “on account of the Wabash Railroad Co.” The coupon from East St. Louis to St. Louis was issued “on account of Terminal R. R.
1. “The plaintiff claims in this action the sum of $1,200, the value of certain baggage belonging to her and in her two trunks, on the 4th day of February, 1898, while she was traveling as a passenger on defendant’s railroad, as hereinafter mentioned, part of which baggage consisted of wearing apparel, worth in excess of one hundred dollars.
- 3. “That plaintiff traveled in a through sleeper from Greenfield, Massachusetts, to Rotterdam Junction, in the state of New York, and from thence to Buffalo, New York, over the "West Shore Railroad, and from thence to St. Louis over the defendant’s line of railroad.
4. “That plaintiff traveled on a free pass from Greenfield, Massachusetts, to Rotterdam Junction, New York, and from'Rotterdam Junction to her said destination she traveled on a ticket, a true copy of which is attached to and made a part of this stipulation, and marked Exhibit “A.”
5. “That plaintiff’s trunks were checked through from Greenfield, Massachusetts, to St. Louis, Missouri, over the West Shore Railroad and the railroad of the defendant.
6. “That plaintiff purchased said ticket through -her husband W. F. Aiken, through the St. Louis office of the
7. “That plaintiff accepted and used said ticket, presenting it a number of times to the various conductors on the West Shore Railroad and the railroad of the defendant, between Rotterdam Junction, New York, and St. Louis, Missouri, and had then and there full and ample opportunity to acquaint herself with the contents thereof, as well as the first, second, third, fourth and fifth clauses of said ticket, as shown by said Exhibit “A,” but as a matter of fact she did not read the said ticket, and had no knowledge of the contents thereof or conditions contained thereon.
8. “That the West Shore Railroad had on the 4th day of February, 1898, on file in its office at said Rotterdam Junction station, as required by the laws of congress then in force; a schedule of rates printed, published, and subject •to public inspection, as required by the laws of the United States then in force, a true copy of which schedule is hereto attached and marked Exhibit “BY
9. “That at said Rotterdam Junction at said time, said West Shore Railroad then had two rates for passengers on its passenger trains between said Rotterdam Junction and St. Louis, Missouri, as follows, to wit:
“A. That it then and there had on sale for the price and sum of $26.09, between said points, which was known as its unlimited ticket, containing no conditions, a true copy of which is hereto attached and marked Exhibit “0.”
“B. That it also had at said time and place tickets or special contracts on sale, such as were purchased by plaintiff’s husband, as hereinbefore stated, a true copy of which is hereto attached and marked Exhibit “A,” as before stated, which was then and there advertised and sold at a reduced rate, to wit, the sum of $20.75, conditioned upon the
10. “That when plaintiff caused to be presented her trunks to the baggage master at Greenfield, Mass., she also caused to be presented to him at said time and place said ticket hereto attached, and marked Exhibit “A,” as evidence of her right to ride upon said railroad and its connecting lines, and that after presentation of said ticket plaintiff’s, trunks were checked through from Greenfield, Mass., to St. Louis, as aforesaid. >
11. “That while said trunks, containing the property hereinbefore described, were en route over the railroad of the defendant, in the Dominion of Canada, between Buffalo, N. Y., and Detroit, in the state of Michigan, the baggage car, in which the said trunks were located, was destroyed by fire, and the said trunks and their contents were then and there destroyed.
12. “That said car was then and there in first-class condition, and properly protected from fire and sparks alighting upon said car from the outside by all the best known appliances then in use on railroads in the United States and in Canada, and that defendant’s engines were then and there equipped with the best known appliances for the preservation of the escape of sparks from said engine; that said engine and appliances were then and there in good order and manned by competent, careful and skillful engineers.
14. “That said trunks belonging to other passengers, so containing said explosive materials as aforesaid, had been
15. “That the defendant would not have transported the said trunk or trunks containing said explosive material as aforesaid under any circumstances or upon any conditions in its baggage can or otherwise, as baggage or freight on its trains as aforesaid, had it known of the presence of said explosive materials.”
•The circuit court rendered a judgment against the defendant for $100. The plaintiff has appealed and urges that under the law as applicable to the agreed facts she was entitled to a judgment for the value of her property.
The ticket in question purports on its face to limit the liability of the West Shore Railroad Company to one hundred dollars in case the baggage of the plaintiff should be damaged, destroyed or lost in transit over its line of road. The legal questions involved as we conceive them are (1) as to the conditions upon which a carrier of baggage may limit its common law liability; (2) the conditions necessary to bind the passenger by such a limitation; and (3) when the contract is made by the initial carrier under what circumstances may a connecting carrier avail itself of the limitation when the loss occurs on its line.
We have disposed of two of the propositions stated, that is that the printed conditions on the face of the ticket were part of the contract, that thereby the liability of the West Shore Railroad Company for loss of baggage was limited to $100, and that this special contract was founded on a valuable consideration. Is the limitation in the contract available to the respondent as a connecting carrier? Under the authority of Halliday v. Railroad, 71 Mo. 159, this question must likewise be decided adversely to the appellant. In that case the receiver of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company entered into a through contract of shipment over its own line, in connection with the defendant’s road, from Madison Station to the city of St. Louis. The contract contained limitations in favor of the initial carrier. The defendant (the connecting carrier) was sued for damage to the stock, and it sought to take advantage of the limitation. On this point the supreme court said: “By simply accepting the stock from the receiver to be transported to St. Louis the defendant became entitled to claim all the benefits of all valid exceptions he made with the shipper.”1 So in the case of McCann v. Eddy, 133 Mo. 59, the contract- was from Stoutsville, Missouri, to Chicago, Illinois, and the initial carrier limited the liability to his own line. The loss occurred on the line of a connecting carrier. In a suit against the defendant (the initial carrier) he pleaded h-is contract in bar of the action. The defense was rejected upon the theory that in completing the shipment the connecting carrier acted as the agent of the defendant. Applying the rule to this case we must hold that in receiving the plaintiff’s baggage at Buffalo for further transportation the defendant acted as the agent of the West Shore Railroad Company,
Our conclusion is that the judgment of the circuit court on the agreed statement of facts is right and it will be affirmed.