30 Ind. 250 | Ind. | 1868
Hockett sued the American Express Company to recover the value of a package containing one hundred dollars in currency, received by the company at Chillicothe, Missouri, to be carried and delivered to Hockett at Andersontown, Indiana, which the company failed to do.
An answer was filed, to which a demurrer was sustained, and the company excepted. On a refusal -of the company to answer further, judgment was rendered for Hockett. The company appeals. The ruling of the court on the demurrer to the answer presents the only question in the case.
The answer alleges “that the package of money mentioned in the complaint was duly received at the office of the defendant, in Anderson, Madison county, Indiana. The
Express companies, in this State, arc declared by statute (1 G. & H. 827) to be “common carriers, and subject to all the liabilities to which common carriers arc subject according to law.” As a general rule common carriers by land arc bound to deliver the goods to the consignee at his residence, or place of business, where, from the nature of the parcels, this is the more appropriate place for their delivery. Nor is it sufficient that they are loft at the public office of the carrier, unless by express permission, or a usage so established and well known as to be equivalent to such permission. 1 Par. Con. 660 (3d ed.). Goods carried by railroad companies form such an exception. Bansemer v. Toledo, &c. R. R. Co., 25 Ind. 434. But if.the consignee Í3 absent, and the carrier after diligent inquiry cannot find him, or ascei’
' The- answer in this case alleges that the defendant, “ upon inquiry” could not find the residence of the consignee to be in the town of Anderson, or in the vicinity,, and being ignorant of his real place of residence or post-office address, &e. The inference from the answer is, that the inquiry, whatever it was, was made of some one at defendant’s off fice, for it seems that immediately after the arrival of the package the inquiry was made, the package deposited in the safe, and the notice prepared to be dropped in the post-office. But if not made there, where and of whom was it made? Bid the agent of the company who made it content himself with asking the first person he met, whether resident or stranger, or did he make the inquiry of several, or, in other words, did he make diligent and careful inquiry to ascertain the residence of the consignee? The law required this to be done, but the answer does not aver that it was done. Again, the answer does not aver that the plaintiff, or his place of business, if any, could not easily have been found. For aught that appeal’s in the answer, the consignee may have had an office or place of business in Anderson, where he could readily have been found.
Nor does the answer show that reasonable care was taken of the package. It alleges that it was deposited in a safe in the company’s office, in which other money packages received by the company were deposited, and the safe securely locked, where it remained until the office and safe were broken open by burglars and the package stolen, without the knowledge of the company. What ivas the character of the office building? Was it so constructed and guarded as to make it a reasonably safe place in which to
The judgment is affirmed, with costs.